“If you want to bust a culture…Celebrate Mondays.”-Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker from School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It ASCD, 2015

Monday is celebrated for the wrong reasons. It is used as an excuse to reiterate excuses for negativity, grouchiness and isolation. I have often participated in the Monday Morning revelry. Occasionally, I would cue up the melodic Pop Music Gem by The Mamas and Papas, “Monday, Monday” and play on the way into school.

Then, I picked up a copy of School Culture Rewired by Todd Whitaker and Steve Gruenert and experienced an epiphany. As a lead learner and educator, I am immersed in the value of fostering a positive culture. When I visit a school community partner or walk around a Target or Starbucks, I am tuned into how the organizational culture makes people tick. I want to know why certain organizations value particular things. I try to take what I learn from these visits and connect to our school.

Reading School Culture Rewired provided me with much inspiration for the #CelebrateMonday concept. Page 13 of this instructional leadership masterpiece fueled my inspiration to take back Mondays. Highlighted on this particular page was this simple sentence: “If you want to bust a culture…Celebrate Mondays.”

I thought that this simple idea of greeting Monday with a positive mindset can make a difference on our teachers and students. We can uplift each other by promoting the positive things occurring in our schools.

A blog post on my Weekly Memo ensued. I asked our teachers to post the positive if they have a Twitter Account. I encouraged them to contact me to do it on their behalf if they didn’t have access to Twitter. First , I got the dull echo of crickets and a few blank stares, but I kept at it every week by modeling what I expected. I saw that a few teachers were beginning to post the positive with the #CelebrateMonday hashtag. The momentum began.

I found that simply walking into a classroom with the agenda of only posting and highlighting the positive helped to uplift me as a lead learner. It was great to connect with kids and become reignited to connect with the positive. As a school administrator, I have often made the mistake or anchoring myself to the mundane and clinical rat race of deadlines as a default. It was refreshing to put those tasks on pause to re-awaken myself to warmth of celebrating the positives of our kids and teachers.

Using the power of my PLN, I began to Tweet out reminders for #CelebrateMonday. I created a poster on Canva.Com and dropped in various Voxer Groups in which I am connected. Pals from #leadupchat and #Read4Fun helped to spread the word on celebrating Monday. I was even a little starstruck when Todd Whitaker himself would favorite and re-tweet my #CelebrateMonday alerts.It was inspiring to see so many examples of #CelebrateMonday tweets in action from areas all over the globe. Seeing smiles, best practices and simple acts of kindness highlighted shows that our noble profession as educators resonates. As I poured over the #CelebrateMonday Tweets from other places, I found myself swimming in the marrow of positivity of complete strangers. What bonded us was the shared vision of celebrating the good transpiring in our schools.

Last week, we trended with #CelebrateMonday for almost 24 hours. It shows that a positive tweet can make a difference. This trending also shows that people are hungry to focus on a growth mindset in our respective schoolhouses. Most importantly, #CelebrateMonday shows the necessity to highlight the good in others. Sincerity goes a long way with others. When we foster a space for empathy and celebration good things are ignited.

#CelebrateMonday is a mindset rooted in uplifting our schoolhouses to a positive culture. Our kids, teachers and families deserve to dwell in schools where the positive is the first instinct for decisions, actions and moods. #CelebrateMonday is way to bring the good in a school culture seven days a week.

(“Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles must serve as a background music while reading this blog.)

It can be quite hard to turn off my “Principal Brain.” It is a potential pitfall of which I am prone to stumbling. Being passionate about the sense of urgency and the leadership it demands causes my “Principal Brain” to be constantly burning mainframe of ideas, questions and actions. I do enjoy re-arranging the pieces of the school improvement puzzle. My sense of urgency is to serve, support and give as much as I can to the schoolhouse.

“This job can consume you.” is a recurring echo that shimmers from the supportive gaze of mentors and thought partners. I nod in gratitude and hear the words of wisdom, but I often allow myself to fall prey to that ever-growing to-do list.

Then, the opening notes of “Here Comes the Sun” and a ride home with my daughter bring the essential perspective back from the ether.

My oldest daughter had to be picked up from soccer practice and I there was a hesitant, but willing compliance from me. I had that million item list to accomplish of this and that to conquer.

“Abbey Road” by The Beatles is an album I have been playing non-stop in my car as reminder to have a strong finish for the school year. I have written about this strong “Abbey Road” finish in a previous blog post here. I even did a “mini-Ted Talk” about it at last week’s faculty meeting.

“Dad, I really like this song.” My daughter said it in kind of random, yet sincere way as “Octopus’ Garden” was playing. I had just picked her up from soccer practice and we were heading home.

My daughter is beginning to forge her musical identity and like her father is beginning to establish her fierce protection of the musicians she admires.

“Dad, this album is so good. It’s perfect.” A musical endorsement from my fifteen-year old is worth a breaking news story. I want all of my daughters to have what I consider to be the musical canon of The Beatles and other so-called dinosaurs of music to be embedded on their respective playlists.

The ride home went from the ritual, mundane conversation to one that was rooted in a sincere moment of exchange between a person I love very much. The “Principal Brain” was justifiably obliterated for the real purpose of who I am as a father. We connected on the beautiful vocal harmonies of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison on “Because.” We marveled at Ringo’s intricate drumming patterns on “Here Comes the Sun.” We both agreed that Billy Joel’s piano playing was greatly influenced by “You Never Give Me Your Money.”

Our ride home was one of the best experiences I had with my daughter due to our shared love of music and The Beatles. It is crucial to let the essentials of our lives dominate. Those essentials for me are being the best husband and father I am called to be. One essential I savored on that ride home was harmonizing with my daughter on “Here Comes the Sun.” That is a sacred moment that cannot be taken away or trumped by a classroom walkthrough or evaluation deadline. “The Principal Brain” is important but “Dad” has to always triumph when it comes to having essential moments with his children.

Music allows one to value the essential of what is in the heart. In gratitude for the connections of the essential, I strive to tune in to the music of my fatherhood.

Time to pull the needle off the record for I have not blogged everyday. There has been a swarm of guilt because I was exhilarated by the #AprilBlogADay Challenge. It has been inspiring to peer into the cool world of Twitter Pals and New Friends accepting the Blog Challenge. It was like I had found fellow knights on the same quest I was stumbling along in the darkness. A inner light had been cast when the switch was flipped in the #AprilBlogADay Challenge.

I have fallen off the trail for the last few days. Technically, I still blog everyday with the Wiley Morning Memo Blog. This particular blog of “Principal Liner Notes” is special. This is an oasis for my reflections, musings and dreams. My #Read4Fun Pal and Teammate, Connie Rockow, wrote about this dilemma a few days ago. She also provided a very eloquent Vox in our #Read4Fun Team Group. Her inspiration is something for which I am grateful and helps with my perspective on the matter.

It is important as a school leader to be in the moment. Too often, I am distracted and appear listless because I am too much in tune with my surroundings. It is a pitfall for striving to be a 360 Leader. Deadlines and other priorities overshadow the important ones. In this case, my little reflective blog went to the wayside.

The good thing with #AprilBlogADay is that there is not a score being kept. The inspiration is still burning brightly and I am still up for the challenge.

“I think before the Abbey Road sessions it was like we should put down the boxing gloves and try and just get it together and really make a very special album.”- Paul McCartney

Every Monday for Middle Schools in our district is unofficially designated as “Sacred Mondays.” This is where we may have a Faculty Meeting, School Improvement Team Meeting or Staff Development Meeting. One may notice a recurring trend with “meeting” as a regular occurrence during these Mondays. I am driven to stand even more positive in a very overt way at these meetings. There is a Monday Malaise that permeates the atmosphere and I totally get it. For some educators and other professionals, negativity is the prevailing mindset. Recently, I have embraced the mindset of Monday being a celebration. I was inspired by School Culture Rewired by Todd Whitaker and Steve Gruenert and how the very notion of Celebrating Mondays can shift a culture. (That’s a Blog Post for another time.)

Yesterday’s Monday Afterschool Meeting was devoted to a Staff Development Meeting on Verbal De-Escalation. Prior to each meeting, I have the best of intentions to model, connect and facilitate the perfect meeting. This particular meeting was the Monday after our Spring Break. I noticed a few understandable blank stares and fatigued gazes. It had been a long day for everyone.

Sometimes as a leader one must dig deeply to the core of the situation. This is not always easy. As I was going through updates and shoutouts, I was internally tapping the beat of Ringo Starr’s drum solo on “The End” off the “Abbey Road” album. I was thinking about a reflection on strong finishes that I had written in the Wiley Weekly Blog.

“Abbey Road” was the final studio album by The Beatles. The album was recorded during a time when the band was coming to terms of their collective demise. I won’t digress into Beatle History. Simply stated, the band put aside their respective personal differences and recorded what many consider to be the greatest musical work of their career. It’s worth listening to sometime. An album full of classics such as “Come Together,” “Something,” and “Here Comes the Sun” stands the test of time. With the pure pop symphonic majesty of the Side 2 Medley, it is astounding to think that four individuals could craft such amazing music.

In short, “Abbey Road” was a strong finish for The Beatles.

Back to that faculty meeting…

I decided to go off script a little bit and share with our faculty the story behind “Abbey Road”  and how it’s important to have a strong finish for the school year. I believe that it’s important for us to support each other to greater heights in our noble profession. Too often, we default to limitations. Our kids and colleagues deserve an uplifting conclusion to a hard-fought year of planning lessons, building relationships, late night grading sessions and meeting every deadline known to humanity. We must lock arms and make great things happen in our respective schoolhouses.

What is your “Abbey Road” strong finish going to be for the school year?

The title of this blog is “Principal Liner Notes.” In order to clarify, I wanted to explain a little of the origin of the title.

My current role is Middle School Principal. That takes care of the first word.

The next two words may show my age, but they connect to my passion for music. I am most at home in a used record store rifling through tattered gems by The Beatles, John Coltrane or the vastly underrated, Baja Marimba Band. Being in a record store is like visiting a lost city or being on a Knights of the Round Table Quest.

Liner Notes refer to those blurbs on a record album usually located on the back cover. They were particularly popular in the 1950s’s and 1960’s. The Liner Notes may provide some kind of razzle-dazzle PR hype about the musicians or they could be more abstract in nature. For example, Bob Dylan was known for including some of his Beat-inspired poetry as his form of Liner Notes. Some of  Frank Sinatra’s albums have very articulate Liner Notes about the mood or setting of the album. John Coltrane provided an accompanying prayer for his landmark “A Love Supreme” album.

Regardless, I am music geek and I devour anything vinyl. Albums can be artistic and conceptual statements which take a listener on journey. Sometimes Liner Notes can enhance the listening experience on that audio journey.

My fantasy job is to write Liner Notes for albums someday. May this blog serve as a sampling of the journey I am taking as an educator and administrator. Sometimes these Principal Liner Notes may hit the mark or leave one with a quizzical glance. I am honored to share my reflections along the way and connect with you during the #AprilBlogADay Challenge.