Here's What Builders Say About BU

The biggest overall victory is finally having everyone on the same page for the same purpose and with the same intentions. I don't have to spend time explaining why because everything is centered and anchored in the vision, mission and core values....The narrative has indeed shifted and learning is no longer about the teacher or the parent, but the focus is 100% on our learners. 

One of the most important things I think I have learned from this is the importance of crafting a vision that includes all students and is something that everyone should know and be excited about. In my past experiences with vision and mission statements, people have leaned more toward crafting wordy visions that sound good but have no substance in order to accomplish a task or check off a box on list to say it's done.

Going through this process has given me the clarity to create a vision that I believe in and want to achieve. These past two years I have felt more like I was headed in no direction that I could bring people with me. I have been saying all of the important things, but without a framework in mind.

My key realization (last year was my first year as a principal) was that having a concrete, simple, impactful vision will make my life so much EASIER. When I think back on all the decision-making, fire-fighting, budgeting, and resource management--if I had a vision, it would have created an alignment tool for everything I did as a principal.

Getting the vision right is more important than getting it done in a time-frame that I want it to happen. I realize that I may not be able to control the timing of the work and to engage with the learning and trust the process as it needs to play out.

Previously the vision statements that I have been a part of writing have been just words on a page, not exciting to anyone but they sounded good. It is exciting to focus resources and plans and training on what it will take to achieve the vision.

I had no vision prior to this. There were so many thing undone at my school that I've been treading water. I knew we needed a focus but every book I read just felt like the wrong way to set this in motion. I'm so happy I found BU. This just makes sense, it feels right and I can see how creating a proper vision story will really help teachers grab ahold and move forward in alignment.

I have been in administration for 10 years, 6 as principal. I was starting to feel burned out, especially after the last few years. Being shown that I can still grow in the job and find new ways of improving myself and my school as a whole has really energized me.

I've learned that taking the risk of reframing this work will reduce the chance of wasting precious time and focusing on outdated practices that don't work. I also am gaining confidence as a leader armed with the right tools to move teaching and learning in my building.

I have been frustrated with the observation/evaluation process at our school for years but have never been able to figure out how to change it to be more productive. I am excited to finally have something that feels like it can help! Even though I am considered an evaluator, I want my work to help our teahers get better because I believe that as they grow their practice, our students will grow in their learning as well.

The combination of asynchronous materials that you can access on your own, on demand tools that are high quality and easy to use and that have, have companion videos to go
with it. So it's not just a random assembling of materials. It's organized in a really logical, progressive way. So you know exactly where you need to go based on your need. 

This process taught me that clarity is important. I also learned that you can't make your vision fit within the school you currently have (that's when you run into the yes, buts!) - you have to start with your vision and build outward. The lack of clarity in our past vision statements created moving targets that we had a hard time hitting, always searching for the next best thing, often settling for modest incremental gains. It was hard getting everyone on the same page, since we really didn't know what that was.