Full Name: Angela Robinson

Campus: Frank Moates Elementary

How many years have you served as a DeSoto ISD principal? 4 years

What are you enjoying most as a leader of a DeSoto ISD campus?

As a leader of a DeSoto ISD campus, I enjoy seeing students learn and grow at their highest levels and teachers collaborating to plan highly effective lessons.

A principal wears many hats, what is the primary hat that you wear as you lead your campus community and why?

The primary hat that I wear to lead my campus is that of an Instructional Leader.

What does it mean to fly and how does this definition guide your daily practice?

The word fly means to move through the air with wings.

This definition guides my daily practice because as Eagles, we SOAR above. We instill in our students that they need to be their best self while also instilling that same value in every faculty and staff member.

Please share an impactful moment as a school administrator and how it fuels your daily actions.

An impactful moment for me was when I participated in a "Fish Bowl" activity and had my teachers to write on a card what was going well and also what were some areas of opportunity.

Once teachers wrote about the challenges they were facing, I had my team leaders, Instructional Leadership Team to work with me to brainstorm solutions to support our teachers. We were able to successfully generate support plans to help the teachers and staff.

This action let the teachers know that we were listening to them and had a positive impact on our campus culture and climate. It was great to collaborate with other team members as we take our campus to the next level.

As a principal, how does leadership impact student experience and achievement and in what way do you maintain a pulse on your campus to ensure student success?

Leadership impacts the student experience and achievement through culture and climate. I always say we have an academic culture and a behavior culture. Behavior impacts academics.

As we collaborate with students, parents, and community through our surveys, it is imperative that we celebrate our students for a job well done. FME students are rewarded with bi-weekly celebrations and activities for following our 3 R's - being respectful, responsible, and ready.

We have goal setting conferences with students, have them chart their data after assessments, and also have a little friendly competition amongst the grade level teams. This inspires students to do their best work as well.

We also invite our parents to campus events such as Coffee with the Counselor and Administration. This gives the campus a way to share information as well as an opportunity for parents to ask any questions they may have. We also have Parent Meetings via zoom for parents that are not able to join us for our in person meetings. We discuss supports in place for our students, campus needs, goals, and ways we can collaborate as well.

Please share a word of advice for aspiring campus leaders.

It is important to be an instructional leader at all times but you have to remember to take the pulse of the campus periodically. Culture and Climate impact achievement. Take care of your people and they will take care of the students and you.

Email Address: angela.robinson@desotoisd.org