The Catholic School Leaders Podcast

Welcome to the Catholic
School Leaders Podcast.

My name is John Mahalio,
the President and Founder of

Elementary Advancement Solutions.

The goal of this podcast is to connect
Catholic school leaders from across the

world to help it grow Catholic education.

Visit us at elementaryadvancement.

com to see how we can help
you make advancement seem

elementary at your school.

Well, how are you today?

I'm guessing that, uh, Summer months
are here, getting ready for that

school year ahead, getting ready
for, everything that comes with that

excitement of a new school year.

And, uh, with that comes
professional development.

Meaningful, professional development
at your school is something that makes

your school not only a better place for
your teachers, but for your students.

Now it doesn't have to happen
in one day and then go away.

It can be something that is ongoing,
something that is Uh, helps your teachers

grow and something that, really provides
them with a, a, boost of vitamin C

to take back to their classrooms and
make them better and more efficient

and more effective in their jobs.

So why don't more schools
make this a priority?

Well, we're going to talk about that a
little bit today, but before I get into

that, just a quick favor, if I can ask
you, if you're liking this podcast, if

you're enjoying this podcast, if you're
gaining something from this podcast,

Please be sure to like, subscribe, leave a
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to do that, share it with others.

Uh, that's a, that's an amazing thing
that you could do too if you feel that

you know another Catholic school leader
who could benefit from this podcast.

share it with them and say, hey, you found
this podcast, I thought it was really good

and thought you could benefit from it.

When you do this, it helps us to
reach other Catholic school leaders

just like you, and that helps us to
grow Catholic education together,

which is the name of the game.

And so I can't say thank
you enough for doing this.

if you're a new listener, I hope
you enjoyed today's episode.

There's a lot of other previous
episodes with great guests.

I encourage you to go back
and, and check those out too.

Um, give them a like and if you
find something that you feel would

be beneficial to someone else,
be sure to share it with them.

So, let's talk about
professional development.

And, and when I hear professional
development, um, usually the

things that I hear from schools
are why they can't do it.

So let's start right there.

with the things that I hear most or
that I have heard in my time as a school

administrator, 20 years, 15 years in
a Catholic school of why schools don't

do professional development, okay?

Tell me if any of these sound familiar.

Number one, we can't afford to do it.

Number two, we just don't
have the time to do it.

Uh, number three, I've just got too
many subject areas, there's nothing

out there that's a one size fits all,
so We're just not going to do it.

Number four, teachers just
want to be left alone to teach.

They don't want any more
professional development.

It's wasting their time.

And number five, well you have to
actually leave campus for professional

development to be any good.

You know, so we, we can't really do that.

And that goes back to usually number
one, if we can't afford it, and the

cycle continues and your teachers are
thirsting for professional development

and, and we need to give that to them,
but we keep hearing these reasons

for why we can't give it to them.

So.

As a school, I don't care what your
financial situation is, your location

is, your enrollment is, You can
provide your faculty with professional

development on an ongoing basis.

And we can dispel a lot of these
myths right away, one at a time.

So, let's break them down here.

Number one, we can't afford to do it.

And now I'm going to ask you to look
at this another way, and I'm going

to state it to you a different way.

And that is that you can't
afford not to do it as a school.

There's an old story by Stephen
Covey that goes something like this.

The executive said to Uh, him.

What if we provide our team with
this growth opportunity and this

development and they leave and
go work for another company?

And Stephen Covey's reply to them was,
Well, what if we don't and they stay here?

By making your team better,
you can improve your school.

You're going to enhance your school,
which improves your brand as a school.

It's going to lead to more growth.

It's going to lead to more
substantial student achievement.

It's going to lead to a happier faculty
that you're going to have because they're

experiencing growth as individuals.

So how do you afford it?

Well, a couple of things you can do.

Number one, Your school
can claim Title II funds.

They're something that your school is
entitled to, even as a Catholic school.

These funds are yours.

You're entitled to them.

Public school, private
school, doesn't matter.

Contact your local county
offices if you're not taking

advantage of these right now.

And you can usually find the person
that's in charge of federal programming.

Sometimes it's got to jump
through some hoops to do them.

Some counties are more willing
to work with you than others.

But these are your funds.

If you need help with these, we'd be
happy to speak with you about it, and see

if we can help you obtain these funds.

But these funds are yours.

There's a dollar amount that's assigned,
usually based upon enrollment from the

previous year, and an allotted amount.

Maybe it might be, you know,
twenty, twenty or twenty five

dollars, whatever the case might be.

But you can spend this money on any
sort of professional development

as long as it's been approved.

And so, work with your county, get
to know your, um, person that does

the, the, the federal funding and
the federal programs in your county.

and, and take advantage of those funds.

So, that's number one.

And that's, that's free money.

It's free money that you're entitled to.

other sources, they can come
from line items in your budget.

certain donors will be willing to
give gifts for a specific program.

But if you tell them, hey We've
got this opportunity, but it

costs X amount of dollars.

would you be willing to sponsor
us to make our school better?

I guarantee you there's people out there.

that are just willing to do that.

And if you just have those conversations
and then they know that they're

making your school a better place.

So even if you can't afford to pay big
bucks for professional development,

you can still have it happen at
your school, but don't be afraid to

invest in your school and invest in
your people and invest in yourself.

Such an important thing.

So, myth number one, debunked.

Myth number two, we just
don't have the time to do it.

Well, here's what I'm
going to say to that.

If you don't have the time, make the time.

You have faculty meetings,
it's a great opportunity.

I'm going to guess most schools have
faculty meetings at least once a month.

This is a great opportunity to provide
meaningful professional development

to your faculty in smaller chunks.

Perfect opportunity to flip the
script on your meetings to make

them impactful to your team.

Now, as you walk your school, there's
no bigger compliment that you can

give to one of your teachers than
asking them to say, hey, I really

like the way you're doing this.

Would you consider presenting
this to our faculty?

Now, some will be like,
absolutely, let's do it right now.

And I have this 42 page
PowerPoint already put together.

Others may be a little more reluctant
and may need some convincing, but

every one of our schools has talented
faculty members right now, right

now that are on our current teams.

Let them learn from each other
and help them to grow together.

And we all know that there's some
teachers that are eager to understand

the buzz of what's going on in Mr.

Jones's classroom or Mrs.

Smith's classroom or
whatever the case might be.

Uh, you know, I hear all
the kids talking about this.

What, what, what is this person doing?

And how can I learn from them?

Uh, too many principals, I think,
think faculty meetings just need

to revolve around the principal
being the center of attention.

And they give their teachers a
lot of information that could be

read and could be in an email.

You don't have to be the star of the show
and the star of every faculty meeting.

Trust your people to help each
other become better teachers.

Now, beyond faculty meetings, If
one thing COVID gave us was to

learn that online trainings are
something you can participate in

without even leaving your school.

And there's a lot of opportunities
out there for teachers to

participate in workshops.

Uh, they might be a few hours a day, they
might be a day or two, and they require

just minimal disruption to the school day.

Now, you're, you're paying for
a substitute teachers each year.

You probably put that in your line item.

Can you allot some of those funds
that are for your substitutes to cover

professional development needs for
teachers to grow and to hone their skills?

Now, for our leaders, for you
to say, well, I don't have the

time to do these things either.

Uh, we're going to dispel that myth too.

There's things out there.

There's.

professional groups that you can
belong to probably within your

own diocese, within your own area.

We offer our mastermind groups for our
principals and assistant principals

and development directors and
recruitment and marketing directors.

It's an opportunity that for you to come
together, very little time each month to

come together with other professionals
who are looking to grow and looking to

sharpen the saw and iron sharpens iron.

It's a great way to get connected
with other leaders who have

that same interest in improving.

It takes up very minimal time each month,
and it's something that's really going to

be that, like I said, that shot of vitamin
C for you to take forth into your school.

I guarantee you, when you are putting
yourself first, and you are making

yourself a priority to get better,
it's going to make your teachers around

you more eager to take on professional
development opportunities as well.

So, That's something you want to
explore, elementaryadvancement.

com, you can schedule a time for us,
check out the tab there about our

mastermind groups and, try to keep those
affordable, and again, something you

could potentially use title funding for.

So, myth number three, I have
too many teachers teaching

too many different things.

There's really no one size
fits all, so why even bother?

Now, no arguments here that certain
topics are for certain subjects or certain

grade levels, but that doesn't mean
that you shouldn't find a way to make

it happen to make those people better.

It's okay to provide training for
a subgroup of teachers or a smaller

group and not require everybody to
be present, because it makes those

that are included feel valued, but
those not included feel valued as

well because their time wasn't wasted.

Now I get it that some skills are
essential to have at all grade

levels, as well as skills that build
on each other from year to year.

So how well your third grade team
does to know what your fourth grade

team is doing can be very valuable.

Just the same as how your second
grade team knows what your third

grade team doing is very valuable.

So, Trying to make those efforts to
create a day where each team would

get to spend some time with the grade
level below and above them or content

area together, is so important.

Now, I think this is great because
it helps them to know what the

students in the classrooms above or
below are retaining, but also what

areas could use some more attention.

That's a great way for these teachers
to share strategies that may have worked

for students in the previous year.

And I guarantee you, when you give
teachers these days or half days just to

come together and talk and learn from each
other, it helps them because they feel

truly like professionals and collaborating
together is something that's so important.

So, it's a simple, yet an effective
way to provide your faculty with

informal growth opportunities.

Don't be afraid to take
advantage of these things.

Myth number four is that
teachers just want to teach.

They don't want to be
bothered by these things.

And, and I think back to that old, um,
Farside cartoon where the student, uh,

raises his hand and he says, Hey, can
I be excused because my brain is full?

everyone gets a chuckle at this
because we know that's not possible.

Now, we all know that our brains might
seem to be full some days, uh, but no

matter how much it may seem like on a
hectic day, we all want to learn more.

And here's a little secret, even those
teachers who are going to fight you tooth

and nail on attending a professional
development opportunity, they're going

to enjoy it, and they're going to want to
improve their craft as a teacher if it's

meaningful and something they can use.

The key to this, provide your faculty
with some professional development

that has some substance to it.

So tell everybody, put your phones away
for an hour, put your, uh, computers

away, those papers that you need to
grade, or those lesson plans that you

need to do, or the copies that you
need to make, they're gonna be there.

Just put them away for a little
bit and be here and be present.

Now, You can bring your faculty together
and allow them to grow together.

Almost all of them are going
to enjoy and benefit from it.

When they know they can count on it
being ongoing during the school year,

they're going to embrace this, and
they're going to begin to look forward

to it, and your stronger teachers who are
embracing this are going to bring those

along who may be a little reluctant.

So, don't buy into that myth
that your teachers don't

want to be bothered with it.

They want to get better, but
they just want to make sure that

it's meaningful and something
they can use in their classrooms.

Last myth, you have to leave campus for
professional development to be any good.

Now, I don't disagree.

There's a lot of value in traveling off
campus to a professional development

or a conference or anything like that.

No argument at all for me on that one.

Let's look at the good part of that first.

The time you spend with colleagues
at the event, maybe over a

meal or socializing, that's a
tremendous upside in your building.

Helps your team, helps them grow
together, maybe in a less formal setting.

I think that's awesome.

But the bad is this.

These events can cost a lot of money.

Maybe you don't have that in your budget.

Additionally, conference is a great
thing to attend, but maybe it lasts two

or three days, and then you come back
to the school and you're trying to catch

up on things, and apply maybe something
that you learned immediately in your

classroom, but this phone call needs to
take place, and this email needs to be

returned, and these things need to be
graded, or whatever the case might be.

in addition to your
responsibilities out of school.

And so people with families may not
be able to take that time to get

away to a conference that requires a
great deal of traveling or to being

away from home for a couple of days.

But here's the good news.

With some creativity, maximizing the
resources that you have in your building,

you can help your teachers grow in their
craft as Catholic school educators.

So let's look at the things you can
do here over the first 30, 60, 90

days all throughout the school year.

to grow your school's culture in the
areas of professional development.

So, look at the times when your
teams are going to be together.

If you don't already have a calendar
of when your faculty meetings are going

to be for the rest of the year, for
the upcoming year, I would put this

together to tell your teachers at the
beginning of the year, when they come

back, hey, Here's every faculty meeting
that we're going to have this year.

If you're going to have a day where
committees are going to meet, if

you're going to have a day where you're
going to allow subject matters to come

together, but put those dates on the
calendar now for people to know when

your faculty meetings are going to be.

Uh, include any time commitments,
uh, the trainings are going to be.

If you say something's going to be 60
minutes, make sure it's 60 minutes.

There's nothing that's going to
frustrate somebody more than when

you tell somebody it's only going to
last 60 minutes and it lasts for 90.

Even if it lasts for 65 minutes,
people will give you the stink eye.

So, if you tell someone they're gonna
have three hours to, to complete

something, don't want to cut them off.

You want to make sure that,
you know, Hey, you're gonna

have three hours to do this.

We're gonna give you this
three hours to do this.

Maybe we'll get you
subbed throughout the day.

just make sure that you're adhering
and you're respecting those time

constraints that you've given them.

You want to identify the
spaces that you might need to

provide any sort of training.

Now, you may have a small conference room,
you might have a big cafeteria, you might

have a big library, but you're going to
want to make sure that if you're going

to do something of this nature, that you
have those things, uh, booked and reserved

to make sure that you don't have double
booking or you don't have, uh, maybe a

parish meeting that's taking place in that
same area Because you didn't decide to,

tell somebody that this was happening.

So, um, looking at opportunities
and looking at where you can have

those meetings or those professional
development opportunities is a big thing.

Now, I mentioned before about
making everybody come to

something or just certain people.

Decide who needs to be in what
pieces of training ahead of time.

If it's a full faculty
workshop, that's great.

If it's only going to be
certain teachers, let them know.

And that might sound obvious, but when
you tell them why they need to be there

and who needs to be there, and you want to
make sure that you're providing those same

opportunities for everybody, if you just
pick the same small group of people every

time, you're going to create resentment
from others, and the group always having

to attend is feeling like they're either
not doing a good job, or they're being

picked on, or whatever the case might be.

Finding those opportunities to decide who
needs to be there, but also balancing it

out so that everybody gets to participate
in something is, is really important.

Now, deciding the focus or the theme that
you want your development to be on in

the trainings is, is important as well.

what does that success look like?

Where do you need them to be
at the end of the training?

What are you hoping for?

What's going to be the, the, the
case if they're successful with that?

Um, what's it going to look
like at the halfway mark of that

if, if success is happening?

Who's the key players that are going
to help you achieve these goals and,

and how are they going to contribute?

But just looking at these things
with intentionality is so important.

We went back and started
the things with, with cost.

you do need to look at what costs are
associated with any sort of development

opportunities you're going to provide.

always providing snacks or
drinks or bottled water or

whatever the case might be.

Sometimes you can get, Parents to donate
something, cookies, or whatever the case

might be in advance is always a winner.

Uh, food goes a long way, especially
if it's a day that's maybe gonna

be a longer training or retreat
kind of day or things like that.

Communicating the why!

behind what you're doing is really,
really important with your team.

I know it's going to sound really
overly simplified, but if your group

knows the benefits and how it's going
to help them in the classrooms, they're

a lot more likely to get behind it.

So making sure that you're telling them
why we're doing something and what it

is that you're hoping to accomplish and
why it's so important to them is really

going to be a big feather in your cap.

Give your teachers that you plan
to provide the training to, or

the workshop time to, as much
time to prepare as possible.

Checking in with them, making
sure that they're on track to

meet your expectations, give them
that confidence that they need.

Uh, but letting them know, nobody
likes surprises and surprising them

five minutes before training to tell
them that they've got to spend the

next three hours doing something not
going to be well received by anybody.

Uh, so make sure that you're,
you're giving them a heads up.

And last thing I would say when it
comes to professional development,

oftentimes we do professional development
and we don't tell anybody about it.

Let your parents and your community
members know what it is you're doing.

When you bring your groups together,
let them know that, you know, Mr.

Jones or Mrs.

Smith provided training on topic
ABC for your entire faculty at

the meeting after school today.

Put that on social media and
watch how much attention you get.

Communication of this promotes your
teachers, it emphasizes growth, and it

lets parents know what's happening at
your faculty meetings, or maybe when a

teacher is out of the classroom for a day.

So communicate those things and convey
those, that information to your parents.

It's going to give your parents
a lot more confidence in what's

happening at your school as well.

Now, there was once a quote by Abraham
Lincoln who said, Give me six hours to

chop down a tree, and I'm going to spend
the first four hours sharpening that axe.

No matter who we are or what we
do in life, we can continually

improve things and get better.

So look for ways, I hope we've
dispelled some of the myths that

may be associated with professional
development in our world of education.

if we can be of help to you and
we can support your school in your

professional development, like I
said, through our masterminds, through

our coaches, executive coaching,
uh, whatever the case might be.

I'd love to sit down with you and
hear more about what your goals are

at the school and ways to help you
provide professional development to

your faculty in a meaningful way.

Um, reach out to us at
elementaryadvancement.

com.

Schedule a time with us.

Let's do a virtual cup of coffee, hear
more about what's happening at your

school and how we can help advance
Catholic education forward at your school.