Preparing for the Season of What’s Next - Your Morning Boost

New on the forward Ed Network, your teens with headlines, a librarian guarding remotes like priceless artifacts, a teacher's secret loft in the ceiling, a. Snowstorm garbage drop off, and three hundred empty hand sanitizer dispensers installed with great enthusiasm and absolutely no follow through. If there's one thing this episode proves, it's that schools are not powered by policies or procedures. They are powered by people, and sometimes those people make choices that leave you staring into the middle distance asking yourself they did what? From the AWB Studios, this is your weekly Morning Boost, brought to you by AWB Education. We are proud to be featured on the forward Ed Network advancing voices shaping education. Join us as we ample find knowledge, widen reach, and broaden impact. Let's get ready to boost your week. Back to your Morning Boost. By now, that New Year's smell has probably started to fade just a little bit. The routines are back in place, the alarms are going off and on time again, and we've moved past that initial fog of the return for winter break. If you're listening on your way in this Tuesday morning, you've likely found your rhythm again. But with that rhythm comes a realization. We are officially in the long stretch. It's the second full week to January, and while the students are focused on the semester ahead, those of us behind the scenes are starting to look even further out. We are entering that bridge period where the next school year stops being a distant thought and starts becoming a series of very real conversations. Last week, we kicked off season three by talking about the shifts that happened this time of year, and honestly, we were blown away by the response we heard from so many of you, teachers, para educators, administrators, all of you who are kind of feeling that specific January tension. Because of that feedback, we decided to keep this conversation going today for episode two, and we love hearing from you, so please keep it coming. Reach out to us on our socials, drop a comment on the YouTube video, or use the contact info in the show notes, because your perspective really helps us know what's actually happening in your buildings, and we appreciate you reaching out. As we continue this third season together, we're settling into our new home at the AWB Education Studios as part of the forward Ed Network. If you haven't done so already, I'd love for you to take a quick moment right now to like, follow, and subscribe to our new channel, the forward Ed Channel on your favorite network. And while you're at it, check us out on YouTube as well. While you're there, if you have a second, give us a quick rating or review. It sounds like a small thing, but honestly, it truly helps us reach even more people in this awesome profession that we are all in together. But for now, let's settle into this Tuesday. There's this quiet energy starting to stir in the hallways right now. It's the season of what's next, and today we're going to dive back into the hiring season, not as a set of HR tasks, but as a deeply human process of transition. We'll look at what it means to prepare a building for a new faces, the internal work of updating a resume when you aren't quite sure what the future holds, and how we support the people sitting in the desks next to us as they start looking towards a different horizon. So take a breath, let the coffee settle. We are glad you are here. When we talk about hiring in schools, we often jump straight to the mechanics. We talk about posting, We talk about pipelines and interviews. We look at spreadsheets and we count sections. But if you've been in the building long enough, you know that hiring is actually about the architecture of a community. It's about the gaps we feel when someone leaves and the hope we carry when someone new walks through that front door. Right now, as a leader or a department head, you might be looking at your roster. You are looking at the names. You are thinking about the retirement that's been whispered about for three years. You're thinking about the teacher who is clearly struggling and might need a change of scenery. There's a weight to that, and it's a responsibility that goes beyond just a vacancy. It's about asking what kind of home in my building for the person who hasn't arrived yet. Think about a support staff member, maybe somebody who has been in the front office for a decade. They see the candidates come in, They see the nervous hands and the over iron suits. They know, perhaps better than anyone, that a new hire changes the temperature of the whole office. If you're in a position to hire, I want you to think about the invisible parts of the interview, the way a candidate is greeted at the door, the way the panel speaks to one another when the candidate is out of the room. We are entering a time where the labor market and education is changing. People aren't just looking for a job anymore. They're looking for a culture that won't break them. When we prepare for hiring season, we aren't just looking for skills. We are looking for a fit for the soul of the building. But often we are so rushed that we forget to prepare the building itself. If the culture is fractured, or if the staff is exhausted, bringing in a new person is like planning a seed in frozen ground. January is the time we start to thaw that ground. It's the time we ask ourselves, are we a place where a new teacher can actually survive their first October. Your preparation for hiring season isn't just about updating the job description. It's about making sure your current staff feels seen. Because because the best recruitment tool you have is a happy teacher in the hallway a Canada can smell a toxic culture from the parking lot. They can see the weariness in the eyes of the person giving the building tour. If you want to hire well this spring, start by taking care of the people who are there right now. Clear the obstacles, listen to the concerns. Make the building a place where you would want to apply if you were twenty two again. This segment of Your Morning Boost is sponsored by Grunmeier Leader Services. Since twenty thirteen. GLS has been a trusted partner for school districts across the Midwest, specializing in executive recruitment and leadership support. They believe that great schools start with great leaders and they are here to help you find a perfect fit for your district. Transform your school's future with the right leader at the help. Visit Grunmeyer leader dot com to learn more. Grun Meyer Leader Services Transforming education one leader at a time. Now, before we dive into this next part, I just know there are lots of people out there to help with what I'm about to talk about. One of our sponsors and the sponsor of this segment, Grunmeyer Leader Services, is one of those. They are experts at helping you prepare for what's next in your education career. If you want to find out more about them, hit the link in the show notes to check out their web page. So let's talk about the resume. There is something deeply strange about trying to fit ten or twenty years of teaching into two pages of bullet points. How do you write down the way you de escalated a crisis in the cafeteria last Tuesday. How do you quantify the look on a student's face when they finally understand fractions? How do you put patience or empathy into a font that looks professional. When you sit down to update your materials, you are confronted with the gap between who who you are in the classroom and who you are on paper. It is a vulnerable, often frustrating process. I think about the mid career educator, someone who's been the rock of their grade level for years. Maybe you've decided that this is the year you're going to apply for that assistant principal role or that district coordinator position. You open that document, the one you haven't touched in years, and the first thing you feel is probably a bit of imposter syndrome. You look at the headers and you think, I don't know if I've done enough. But then you start to type. You remember the committee you led, You remember the curriculum you helped rewrite. You remember the parents you navigated through difficult IEP meetings. This act of reflecting on your own work is actually more important than the job search itself. It's an audit of your growth. It's a moment to say I'm not the same person I was when I took this job. However, there is some gray area here. The gray area is the secrecy, the way we hide our laptops when a colleague walks by, the way we feel like we have to live a double life until that contract is signed. Why why is that? Why is it so hard to tell a friend at work, you know, I love being here, but I think I'm ready for a new challenge. It's because schools are emotional ecosystems. When when one person looks to leave, it forces everyone else to ask should should I be looking to It creates this ripple of uncertainty. If you're a teacher, you might be feeling the january itch. It's that quiet voice that wonders if there's a different way to do this work, maybe a different district or maybe a different role. There's a specific kind of guilt that comes with that, isn't there. I mean, you feel like you're betraying your current team by even thinking about it. You feel like you're looking at the exit sign while the students are still right there in front of you. But growth isn't a betrayal, It's an necessity. We often talk about retention like it's a game of keep away, but real retention is about building people up so much that they could go anywhere, and then giving them a reason to stay. And if their journey takes them elsewhere, the best thing we can do is be the wind at their back. When we support our colleagues and their search, we are validating their craft. We are saying the work you do is so good that other people deserve to experience it too. So how does this actually live in our buildings over the next few months. For those of you who are supporting a friend in their search, be the person who asks the deep questions. Don't just look at the formatting of their resume. Ask them what they are most proud of that isn't on the page. Help them find the words for the magic they do every day. We often think of professional development as a workshop or a seminar, but helping a colleague prepare for their next step is professional development. It's the highest form of mentorship. As we move through this week, try to notice the shifts. Notice the person who seems a bit distracted, maybe a bit more reflective than usual, and don't be afraid of that. The hiring season is just another way of saying the season of growth, and growth, by its very nature, requires a bit of discomfort. It requires things to change. We prepare the building, we prepare ourselves, and we hold the door open for each other. This week, as you walk your hallways, I hope you can look at the people around you with a bit of that January perspective. Everyone is carrying a version of their future. Some are content exactly where they are, some are quietly packing their bags, and some are wondering if they have what it takes to lead. Whatever your role is, the one hiring, the one searching, or the one supporting, just remember that the building is just a shell. The school is the people, and the people are always in motion. If you're updating that resume tonight, know that your work matters, even the parts you can't find the right words for, especially those parts. If you're looking at a stack of applications, remember the human on the other side of the PDF. We're all just trying to find the place where our light shines the brightest. Thank you again for joining us today on your Morning Boost. If you haven't done so already, check out some of the other shows that are already on the ford to de Ed network, and keep an eye out because we got more coming here in the very near future. There's a lot of really cool stuff going on around here, and I promise you you're going to want to be part of it again. Thank you for being part of the work and for spending your time with us today. We really appreciate everything you do for your students and your community. We'll talk with you again next week. That concludes another episode of Your Morning Boost, an AWB Education production. To find more incredible content, be sure to check out other amazing education shows on the forward Ed nowe work where they are truly advancing voices and shaping education. Join us again next week. Until then, keep boosting your impact