Posts by Hendy Avenue

This year is hard. Really, really hard. It’s been hard on you and it’s been hard on your team. And yet, because of the young lives at stake in our work, we must carry on. How we approach our commitment to our students will determine whether we are successful now and whether we can continue over the long haul. That’s why last month our Chief Talent Officer cohort reflected on our own self-care and on how we care for our teams. We’re sharing a few of the ideas that came from that session in the hopes that others will lead with self-care and team-care. 

1. Defining Stress vs Burnout:. Stress is the brain and body’s response to challenges requiring an emotional, physical or mental response. Burnout is the feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. Too much stress can lead to burnout. We can’t eliminate stress from our lives, but we can work on how we respond to stress so we can avoid burnout.
   
2. Self-Care: Self-care drives well-being which drives engagement. Self-care means really different things to different people, but is ultimately about prioritizing your individual needs.. The old saying of putting on your own oxygen mask first continues to ring true. First ensuring you have the necessary rest, healthy food, exercise, laughter, and emotional fulfillment will enable you to lead your team to do the same.
   
3. Team Leadership Around Self-Care: A leader who models self-care in their own life and encourages it in others will have a healthier and happier team. While self-care truly is about the self, there are key actions a leader can take to improve the lives of their team and to reduce burnout. So what is it that a leader can control? Below are a few examples our cohort members are putting into action: 

• What they model
  • Giving themselves time off from work with activities that fuel them to do the tough work AND explicitly sharing why they are taking time off
  • Planning ahead for something to look forward to and sharing plans with the team as a model to others (for example: a trip, an event, a home renovation, a competitive race, etc.) 
    
• What they expect 
  • Creating and maintaining a clear culture of not working on the weekends 
  • Asking the team to share when their vacation days are planned to ensure team members are taking the time off they need and deserve
  • Identifying what can be dialed back, what work is truly essential work and what is not, or “what balls are glass and which are plastic?”
  • Identifying who can take on more to free up time for folks directly serving students; for example, ensuring the central office is taking as much work as possible off the plates of principals, school leaders are taking as much work as possible off the plates of teachers, etc.
  • Scheduling a weekly asynchronous day for students so the team can focus on planning and working with their teammates
  • Explicitly asking the team about their childcare situation and what they will need to be successful, and providing accommodations as are feasible
    
• What norms/culture they create 
  • Celebrating effectiveness, even when the work is difficult. This is not about expecting perfection, or holding one staff person up at the expense of another – but about ensuring that staff feel effective in their jobs, especially when the work is more complex or demanding than in pre-pandemic times
  • Starting meetings with a “mood meter” to allow people to share feelings (and then asking if they want to shift or stay where they are) 
  • Implementing a sunshine committee to celebrate life events 
  • Hosting remote games nights and other social events with the team (and sometimes with their families) 
  • Creating optional Monday community space on Zoom to provide staff the opportunity to connect with others 
    
• What they provide 
  • Early end of day on Fridays
  • Financial literacy webinars for staff
  • Food, care packages, gift cards, pop-in massages (pre-Covid)
  • Access to meditation apps such as Headspace
  • Having a doctor come to school/office for flu shots

What have you done to support your own self-care and to support your team in their self-care? What impact have you seen? 

Today I’d like to introduce you to Hendy’s Jeremy Abarno. Jeremy is an exceptional teammate who joined us in 2019 and brings an incredible ability to really see people and help them meet their goals. He also truly loves to geek out on math instruction and loves a good number story! Jeremy is currently supporting both the Chicago Public Schools and Hebrew Public Schools. He is the leader of our Chief Talent Officer Cohort, bringing together transformational leaders from eight NYC charter school networks. I hope you enjoy learning a bit more about our awesome Jeremy Abarno.

Why did you choose to work in education? 
I actually decided that I wanted to teach in high school. At that time I lived in a small rural town in Oregon. My high school started a program called “cadet teaching” where I was able to observe and contribute to Ms. Blitzer’s kindergarten classroom by supporting individual students with phonics, counting and learning how to be friends. My attention quickly turned to Agustín, a bright and playful student who joined the class mid-year and spoke Spanish exclusively. There was no formal ESL program in the school and a volunteer translator would come in for a few hours once a week as there were no other bilingual staff in the school. As a result, Agustín and his siblings did not have meaningful access to the curriculum and it was on him to “figure it out”.  I worked with Agustín and his siblings occasionally and he made some important gains. I was appalled, it was unjust that a 17-year old was one of the only ways that Agustín and his family had meaningful access to the curriculum. Nobody had bad intentions but they had built a system that didn’t include kids like him. As I studied education and started my career in NYC public schools it became increasingly apparent that there were millions of kids across our country who didn’t have access and it was causing them harm. That sealed the deal and I have been in education for more than 20 years now. 

What’s your favorite part of your job? 
I believe deeply that intentional self development and growth leads to one being able to collaborate better. And those are, by far, my two favorite parts of the job. At Hendy Avenue, our job with educational partners is to collaborate, arm-in-arm, to help them solve problems, answer tough questions, build capacity and create systems and/or content. To be a good partner, I have to improve myself on a regular basis – I need to read, research, simplify complex things, improve facilitation and more. The cool thing about it is that the more I improve, the better I am at supporting our partners. It doesn’t stop there because our partners are school and systems leaders and the better they get, the more teachers and students benefit and thrive. Adopting this mindset of continuous improvement and collaborating with very talented leaders is just a virtuous cycle and it’s the kind of thing our schools need as they fight to end inequity. 

What’s the problem in education you most want to solve?
There is a vicious two-pronged problem that I think plagues education and while it’s not the only one, I think it is central. It is when pedagogy and professional development don’t match our beliefs about what kids are capable of. Too often, pedagogical approaches, often dictated by curricular resources we use or training resources we adopt, don’t actually match our beliefs about what kids need to thrive. For example, most schools, districts, and networks express that they believe that ALL kids have the potential to achieve at high levels with high expectations, the right support and effective teachers. These institutions often express that students should be problem solvers, critical thinkers and should have opportunities to apply 21st century skills in real ways. However, these same institutions select (or are mandated to use) curricula, pedagogical approaches and teacher training resources that are misaligned with their goals for kids. This is not only challenging for teachers because what we say we value isn’t mirrored in our actions but it is also damaging for kids because without this alignment they are less likely to develop those critical skills, competencies and mindsets. We need teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum that matches what KNOW our kids are capable of.

What’s a favorite book or quote?
That’s like picking a favorite child…I can’t do it but I do have one book, one article and one quote that have been really helpful in my thinking lately: 

• Colson Whitehead’s “Underground Railroad” is a blistering novel that forces you to consider the darkest part of America’s history of racism and how it is playing out today. 
• This quote from Stockdale has helped me be honest about the state of our country right now: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be”
• This article from Ronald Heifitz on Adaptive Leadership from HBR is proving mighty valuable right now when thinking about leading during what seems like a never-ending crisis. https://hbr.org/2009/07/leadership-in-a-permanent-crisis 

What do you like to do outside of work? 
I love family time. I have an amazing wife Eve, three amazing kids, Marlon, Lucia, and Vivian, and some amazing friends. We do a lot of things together: go to the beach, cook, break bread, cycle, feel feelings, cuddle, maraud (mainly my 6-year-old Vivian and with the best of intentions), and fight for racial equality and inclusion of people with disabilities. Whatever we are doing I get deep emotional fulfillment out of doing it together.

Today we’re highlighting our newest member of the Hendy team, Erica Murphy, who joined us from Ascend Public Schools. Erica is currently supporting our long-term partner, KIPP Texas Public Schools, to effectively integrate and implement their Teacher Career Pathway across their four regions and also to develop a plan to improve new teacher retention and development. Erica was an outstanding teacher, principal, and academic leader who knows curriculum and instruction inside and out. She loves solving problems and helping both kids and adults to meet their potential. We’re thrilled to have this incredible educator bring her many skills and talents to the Hendy team. She’s already making a huge impact! Enjoy this interview with Erica!

Why did you choose to work in education?

When I was a little girl I loved to play school. I would organize my stuffed animals to be my “class” and I would teach them – for hours. As I got older and continued to “play school” with friends, I realized I had an ability to explain things to people in a way they really understood. In middle and high school, I would watch my peers ask a question in class when they were confused by something taught. I’d watch the response from the teacher and sometimes see that my friend was still confused, though the conversation moved on. I’d always find the person after class to attempt to clarify whatever the confusion was and I was generally pretty good at it. 

The “aha” moment my friends would have after I supported them was the most gratifying experience. It was like a puzzle to me – I loved being able to identify the specific point of confusion, and then help people make sense of what we were all struggling to learn.  As an educator now, I believe great teaching is doing just that – observing students to better understand what they know and what they don’t yet know and then designing tasks and questions to help get them get to understanding. I get a thrill out of that kind of student observation and creative problem solving.

What was your first year of teaching like?

My first year of teaching was – by far – the hardest professional year of my life. Before entering the classroom, I had dreams of fostering a strong classroom culture, connecting deeply with my students and their families, and bringing learning alive in the classroom in a rigorous and relatable way. Instead, I struggled. I struggled to establish a classroom focused on learning. I struggled to connect with my students. I struggled to make learning relevant and interesting to my students. It felt like I was sinking. 

My school didn’t have a robust coaching program, strong professional development opportunities, or a central curriculum and so, like many first year teachers, I was left to figure things out on my own. Every day, I felt like I couldn’t go back. I was exhausted – both emotionally and physically – but knew that I had to show up to try and do the best I could with my students. I was lucky to have another first year teacher next door who was struggling as much as I was. After school, she and I would (honestly) cry and then talk about what we could do differently the next day. We’d invent new routines, new morning meeting protocols, we’d change seating arrangements, revamp lessons to make them more engaging – anything to try and be better than the day before. 

Eventually, not through any great turning point or event, just by sheer hard work, will, slowly building relationships with my kids, and by constantly testing out and refining my practices I got better. I slowly learned to be clearer, more planned, more purposeful and more engaging. By February break of that first year I finally felt like I had some sense of what I should be doing. I started to swim. 

My advice to first year teachers – don’t give up, find a mentor or friend or colleague to work with, and be willing to iterate, iterate, iterate until you figure out a style and a set of practices that works for you. 

What’s your favorite part of your job?

Probably not surprisingly given my experience, my favorite part of my job is supporting and developing teachers! I don’t think everyone’s first year of teaching needs to be so hard and so lonely. With thoughtful, purposeful training, coaching and development, we can create practices that prepare our teachers for the classroom faster and more effectively.

As a principal, I devoted most of my time and my leadership team’s time to observing, coaching and supporting our newest teachers. We created opportunities for newer teachers to be observed more, coached more, and to teach less in their first months in the classroom. They had the opportunity to observe excellent teachers within our building and learn from the best. These teachers had the support of the school behind them while learning, and they and their students fared better for it.

In my role now, I get to work with districts to develop network-wide strategies to better develop and retain teachers. I am so excited at the prospect of creating systems and practices that allow every single teacher to be intentionally developed and eased into the profession in a way that is healthy for them and their students. 

What’s a favorite book or quote?

During my first year as a principal, I posted this quote on the white board above my desk. It helped me keep things in perspective and get ready for each new day. 

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Outside of work, I love to read, run, and spend time with my two daughters.

Even when I’m exhausted, I’ll read at least one page before bed. I love to read anything – fiction, non-fiction, biographies, you name it! Some of my recent favorites include The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, and Moonglow by Michael Chabon. 

I run almost every day – it helps me clear my mind and decompress. I ran my first marathon during my first year of teaching – I think it was the only way I was able to make it through that incredibly demanding year. I love to run in Prospect Park and my oldest daughter sometimes runs with me these days!

I love doing just about anything with my two daughters – Hadley and Tessa. We paint, read, go to the park, play with brain flakes, go out for french fries, and make jewelry. Their energy and enthusiasm for things never ceases to make me smile.

Classrooms have gone virtual and teachers are quickly learning how to make the most of this new learning environment. Through their efforts, best practices are emerging that lead to both stronger student
engagement and deeper learning. 

Please join as we explore three key strategies for remote learning: effectively engaging students, and differentiating based on student needs. This interactive session is ideal for teacher coaches, school leaders,
and school leader managers.

Due to high demand this session will be held twice.

Please Join Us
Wednesday, October 14th or Thursday, October 15th
4:00 – 5:30pm EST

This session will be facilitated by Hendy Avenue Consulting’s Jeremy Abarno and Erica Murphy, both of whom have been teachers, school leaders, curriculum developers, teacher coaches and  leader coaches. You can expect a high energy, engaging session with clear takeaways and resources to implement in your schools immediately.

Save the Date! Part 2 of this session will be held on November 18th and 19th and will focus on effectively coaching teachers remotely.

Dear colleagues and friends,

We’re sending all of you our very best today, knowing this time has been challenging in so many ways. We hope you and your families are healthy, safe, and energized to make change. Please know we’re right here with you and are happy to help however we can. And for all the parents and educators heading back to school this week, we’ve got this!

To kick off our annual update, we have big news to share: The Hendy Avenue Consulting has added another awesome member to our team! Please join us in welcoming Erica Murphy, former Chief Curriculum and Instruction Officer at Ascend Public Charter Schools. Erica’s experience as an excellent school leader and fearless academic leader allows us to provide even more comprehensive support to our partners. Please see Erica’s full bio below and on our About page and reach out to discuss how we can help – particularly as school systems are rewriting the playbook for both instruction and talent. We’d love to work with you!

We also want to share our deep appreciation for our colleague and dear friend, Grant Newman. Grant was the first person hired by Sarah to join the Hendy team and over the past 5.5 years, he has been an invaluable partner in building Hendy and has deeply impacted many, many clients. This summer, Grant transitioned to New Leaders as the Senior Executive Director of Program Strategy and Operations. We wish Grant the very best of luck and know he’ll always be a part of the Hendy family! 

This has truly been an extraordinary and unpredictable year. As both parents and educators, we’ve struggled to navigate these unchartered waters. But we’ve found strength in our team and sought to support school systems in new and important ways. Looking back on the past year, our proudest moments include: 

• Renewed Partnerships: 100% of our current client partners are returning partners. We build strong relationships, do great work, build leader capacity, and make an impact. As a result, we’re proud to say that all of our current partners are those that we have worked with before and have chosen to continue with us into a new phase of a project, or to partner on a completely new project. We truly value those opportunities to have a meaningful and long-term impact and are so grateful for the incredible leaders who have chosen to work with us. Please read below to learn more about our current work with the Delaware Department of Education, KIPP Texas Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, Hebrew Public Schools, Breakthrough Public Schools, and The Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.
• Covid Response: In the early months of the pandemic, we supported our clients to adjust course and rethink their priorities. Now we are continuing those partnerships with a new focus on revising talent practices to ensure that teachers and leaders feel safe, valued, and supported through this challenging year. It has become abundantly clear that school systems who achieve that goal will be successful and those who fail to respond to the needs of their educators will not be able to serve their students effectively. From revising teacher evaluation systems to articulating reopening talent policies to training school leaders to manage in this new environment, we have responded to the needs of our partners and continued to walk hand-in-hand with them. We’ve also practiced what we’ve preached. As a team, we’ve been flexible to each other’s needs, jumped in to help each other out, and shown appreciation for the commitment and perseverance of the Hendy team.
  
• CTO Cohort: Established in 2018 by Hendy Avenue Consulting, the NYC Chief Talent Officer braintrust functions as a collaborative cohort for senior talent leaders of high-impact school management organizations to share best practices, problem-solve and leverage community to improve outcomes for students. Since inception, the braintrust has met monthly, establishing a valued space to collaborate with others wrestling with similar challenges. In the face of crisis and uncertainty this spring, the group began meeting weekly, maximizing the value of what has become a tight-knit community and trusted soundboard. As a result, 100% of our cohort members would recommend the cohort to other talents leaders.
  • We are thrilled to announce our 2020-2021 cohort with CTOs from Achievement First, Brooklyn Prospect, Coney Island Prep, Democracy Prep, DREAM, Explore, Hebrew Public, and Public Prep and can’t wait to kick off the year with these incredible leaders! Given both the success of the cohort and the need for collaboration during times of uncertainty, we are also actively looking to expand the program. If you’re interested in learning more, please check out our new Cohorts website page.
    
• Anti-Racist Work: We have taken a close look at ourselves, our support to others, and the tools and policies we create to identify racist and white dominant actions and beliefs and shift toward become an overtly anti-racist organization. We recognize that the talent systems we create have a profound impact on real people and are reviewing them through a critical lens. We’ve added new measures of success for our work, identified more proactive ways to address racial inequities with our clients, are actively looking for ways to elevate the voices of black and brown leaders, and are identifying more opportunities to partner with organizations led by people of color. We’d love to hear about resources you’ve found helpful on your own journey to be an anti-racist organization.
  
• Teacher Evaluation in 20-21: In searching for talent tools for the coming year, we identified a lack of information about how to approach teacher evaluation in a remote or hybrid environment. We decided to publish recommendations and planning tools and shared them during a recent webinar. Most importantly, we brought leaders together to share their ideas and as a result, a group formed to continue the collaboration on an on-going basis. Looking ahead, we’re planning a new session on Wednesday, October 14^th on Effective Coaching in a Remote Learning Environment. Follow us on LinkedIn for more information soon!
  
• Academic Supports: Through our many partners, we see the power of academics and talent working together. As a result, we’ve recently begun work to help bridge that gap, focusing on talent development through academic program strategy, professional development on curriculum and instruction, and the building of academic tools to support excellence in teaching. Through our partnership with Hebrew Public Schools, we are reviewing their current mathematics program and supporting them to create and execute a new strategic direction. Both Jeremy and Erica bring strong academic as well as talent backgrounds to our team, and we are excited to integrate both the academic and talent lenses for stronger support to schools. 

Please let us know how we can help you meet your goals.We are proud that over the past six years, 100% of our clients have indicated on our annual survey that they would refer us to others; and we would love to discuss partnering with you.Please also check out our blog, follow us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter. 

Thank you for your continued support. Please reach out if we can help.

Sarah

Current Projects: 

• Delaware Department of Education: Having partnered with the Delaware Dept of Education in various capacities since 2013, we’re currently leading the multi-year, statewide initiative to improve Delaware’s teacher observation and evaluation rubric and process. Our team is working closely with teachers, school leaders and other stakeholders to design, pilot and implement a new rubric and evaluation process that will support fair and accurate evaluations of teacher practice and will guide ongoing teacher development.
• KIPP Texas Public Schools: We began working with KIPP Austin in 2015, then KIPP Houston beginning in 2017, and we’re now supporting the integration of the KIPP Texas Public Schools’ aligned talent development strategy across the Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas-Ft. Worth regions. We’re also leading a new project to identify effective development and retention strategies for new teachers.
• Chicago Public Schools: Our team is partnering with Chicago Public Schools to strengthen school administrators as talent leaders in their buildings through the development of training modules on key talent practices. We’re working across multiple departments to ensure alignment of vision for practices such as recruitment, selection, induction, leadership development and retention. Our project has been renewed for a second year for a total of 12 learning modules and continued cross-department alignment and collaboration. 
• Hebrew Public Schools: We’re currently supporting Hebrew Public’s Chief Schools Officer and network team in determining priorities and methods for improving math teaching and learning across their four schools. In addition, we are facilitating professional development sessions for mathematics teachers and their coaches. Looking ahead, we plan to continue to support the successful implementation of the mathematics program in the new school year.
• Breakthrough Public Schools: We’re supporting the Cleveland charter network to prepare for school reopening by providing human capital expertise and capacity and articulating talent policies and practices for different learning environments. We recently also supported Breakthrough Public Schools Chief Academic Officer to strategically plan for the network’s reorganization and supported the network to identify a Chief Community Officer. 
• The Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy: The team is supporting The Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy through partnering directly with the executive director to engage all levels of stakeholders in the collaborative generation of a 5-year strategic plan to deepen The Academy’s impact. 

Erica Murphy joined Hendy Avenue Consulting because she believes that effective teacher development programs and high quality observation and feedback cycles are essential to supporting and growing our nation’s teachers. Before joining Hendy, Erica served as the Chief Curriculum and Instruction Officer at Ascend Public Charter Schools. In that role, Erica managed the design and implementation of Ascend’s unique liberal arts curriculum and supervised the professional development of all instructional leaders, principals and principal managers. Prior to assuming this role, Erica served as school director of Brownsville Ascend Lower School for five years. During that time, her school’s proficiency rates increased 30 percentage points in English language arts and 34 percentage points in mathematics. In school year 2016-17, Erica’s school achieved the second-highest score improvement among New York City charter schools. Erica joined the Ascend network as a second-grade teacher, team leader, and instructional coach at Brooklyn Ascend Lower School where she consistently posted the highest math results in the network. Before joining Ascend, she was a research associate at the New York City Department of Education’s Research and Policy Support Group, and she spent several years as an elementary school teacher in a NYC Department of Education school in the South Bronx. She holds a master’s of public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; a master’s in elementary education from Lehman College; and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Washington University in Saint Louis.