Standard 2 for Administrators:
The school administrator fosters the success of all students by advocating, developing, nurturing, and sustaining a safe, positive, and academically engaging school climate.
I recently finished reading the book Fostering Grit, which is an ASCD Arias book (it is short enough to read in a 1 hour sitting) written by Thomas R. Hoerr. Every great educator knows that we can not only teach students content; that we must also teach character traits such as respect, responsibility, kindness, etc. Hoerr … [Read more…]
I knew while hearing Freeman Hrabowski speak at #ASCD13 that his speech would be the one I include in my next Monday Musings post for my staff. He had such a powerful message that I had to share with them. Here is a cross-posting from my staff memo blog: ————————————————————————– This weekend I got to … [Read more…]
Our school is fortunate to have so many amazing educators, but I recently shared with one of my teachers that I wanted to nominate her for a teaching award in our state. To complete this nomination process, a teacher must be nominated, but then needs to turn in recommendation letters and write an essay. Because … [Read more…]
I’m ready for the first day of school tomorrow and excited to kick off our Bucket Fillers theme for the year. Here’s my blog post in pictures for you (because I’m short on time)… As students come to the doors they will see… Our main hallway bulletin board: This explains the bulletin board: Here’s another … [Read more…]
I’ve read a number of books by Jon Gordon and have never been disappointed. His books are quick reads, but always inspirational with powerful, positive messages. I recently read The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work. Who doesn’t encounter issues of complaining, whether it’s your spouse, a colleague or even … [Read more…]
In my last post I shared some tips to get started with informal walkthroughs. After posting it, I received this question on twitter: So, here are the books I read in classrooms during the first week of school… During my first year as Principal, I read: This was my favorite First Day book as a … [Read more…]
*This is blog post #3 in the 2012 Summer Blog Challenge* In my last post, I shared what I learned from Willard Daggett speaking about Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. Readers’ comments on that post pointed out that I didn’t speak to the 3rd R, however, Relationships are essential in schools in order to get to … [Read more…]
Over the past 6 months I have read numerous tweets and blog posts from other principals and teachers regarding doing away with Honor Roll and school assemblies recognizing students for Honor Roll. I appreciated how this discussion challenged my thinking, but I never joined in the discussion, because I am the one that started the … [Read more…]
Day 5 of blogging each day in June for the “Spilling Ink” Challenge Last year was the first year that my staff voted on a school-wide theme for this year. We started out the year with the theme and decorations around the building, but that’s really as far as it went. This year I took … [Read more…]
Day 4 of blogging each day in June for the “Spilling Ink” Challenge I remember working in a previous district where my principal joked about us all getting to gether to hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” to build unity. I thought he was nuts. Well, now I’m starting to reconsider…just not with singing “Kumbaya.” Before … [Read more…]