1. Over winter break, I read a book
called Fish! The book is about
improving morale and results as
the two go hand in hand. The
book follows the story of a busi-
ness executive who works with
a challenged department and
how she turns it around using
strategies that she learns from a
famous fish market. Sounds
strange, right? The book was
really eye-opening and I saw
many parallels to our school.
Here is a brief summary of what
is needed:
1. Choose Your Attitude:
“Without choose your attitude,
all the rest is a waste of time.”
Benefits of Choosing Your
Attitude:
-By accepting that you choose
your attitude, you demonstrate a
level of personal accountability
and proactivity, which will fill our
building with energy.
-Choosing your attitude and
acting like a victim are mutually
exclusive.
-”We may not be able to do
exactly what we love at the
present time, but any of us can
choose to love what we do. If
we can accomplish this one
thing, our building will become
an oasis of energy, flexibility,
and creativity in a tough profes-
sion.”
2. Play:
“The fish market is an adult
playground...if the fish guys can
have that much fun selling
fish….”
Benefits of Play:
-Happy people treat others well
-Fun leads to creativity
-The time passes quickly
-Having a good time is healthy
-Work becomes a reward and
not just a way to rewards
3. Make Someone’s Day:
“The atmosphere at the fish
market is one of inclusion.”
Benefits of Making
Someone’s Day:
-It is good for business (our
business is educating children)
-Serving our students will give
us the satisfaction that comes to
those who serve others. It fo-
cuses our attention away from
our problems onto how we can
make a positive difference to
others. This is healthy, will feel
good, and will unleash even
more energy.
4. Be Present:
“The fish guys were fully pre-
sent. They were not daydream-
ing or on the phone. They were
scanning the crowd and inter-
acting with customers. They
talked to me as if I was a long
lost friend.”
Benefits of Being Present:
-When you are present you
show consideration for the other
person
-When you are fully present you
communicate value to those
around you
Volume 1, Issue 2
What I Learned From a Fish Market
January 13, 2014
2013 ISAT Performance (ALL and Hispanic)
2013 ISAT Reading: 38% of students met/exceeded expectations
19% of Hispanic students met/exceeded
2013 ISAT Math: 48% of students met/exceeded expectations
37% of Hispanic students met/exceeded
GardenHillsPrincipalNewsletter
GARDENHILLSELEMENTARY
Reading, Innovation, and Technology
Currently in our building, there
are over 100 students who are
not receiving additional assis-
tance in reading, who have
demonstrated through their data
that they are in need of it. We
simply don’t have enough peo-
ple to provide intervention.
What we are working on to
address this problem:
Re-configuring how tech-
nology is distributed in our
building so that it is used in
classrooms more frequent-
ly and purposefully. Please
look for more information
regarding a meeting to be
scheduled later this month.
Purchasing a Lexia sub-
scription with magnet
funds. This intervention is
research-based and will
allow us to provide inter-
vention on laptops and
ipads
Drafting a proposal to use
title I money to fund a
“data manager” kind of
position. This person
would pick kids up from
“There is always a
choice about the way
you do your work,
even if there is not a
choice about the
work itself.”
— Fish! A Proven Way to
Boost Morale and Improve
Results
classrooms to take them to
the intervention lab spaces
(which will be housed in
kinder collab and 4th grade
collab areas), monitor the
students on the intervention,
print off progress reports for
classroom teachers, and
possibly progress monitor
using AIMSweb
This is all tentative, but we
have been working on mak-
ing this happen since first
semester. We will keep you
posted!
