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Where Should Administrators Spend Their Time?

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A student’s ability to read and comprehend, communicate, and reflect that information to real world situations is one of the primary goals of education. There is a lot of research to support how educators can best accomplish this goal. The two prevailing schools of thought among educators and the general public about how schools should accomplish this task are: Some educators believe, we should teach all students on grade-level and lower the standards to the ability level of the students. Understanding that students are tested on grade-level, how will they get to grade-level if educators continue to lower the standards. This research contends that educators do a disservice to students not to introduce them to the material and hold them accountable for learning it. When students are taught below grade-level and tested on grade-level, the test information and questions are foreign to them. If educators teach them using grade-level material, the students have some prior kn...
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What Should You Focus Your Attention On Between October - December

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What should school administrator’s focus on between October and December to impact the classroom-learning environment in a positive manner? Complete multiple 3-5 minute focus walks in classrooms. These walks are designed to target specific areas of teaching and give teachers immediate feedback. The following should be among the things administrators should assess during these walks. Time on task and transition – teachers should have all materials laid out and ready to go before class begins. There should be little time spent getting settled and ready for the days lesson. Class procedures – students should know the procedure of the classroom and should walk in understanding what they should do to get prepared for learning. Few to no questions on procedures should be asked at this time. Check the lesson plan – teachers should be teaching from a planned, organized set of standards, with activities and assessments outlined. Lesson – if administrators come in at the beginning of...
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Phase One of Instructional Leadership

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Phase One of Instructional Leadership The Instructional Leader is on who is very capable of setting goals for student learning; goals that are achievable and realistic. Leaders can do this by understanding their curriculum, providing the appropriate resources to support that curriculum, and understanding the historical data for the community they serve.   The Instructional Leader knows how to employee staff that supports the goals they are trying to accomplish. They employee teachers who are dedicated to teaching students, who are willing to work tirelessly for the cause, who understand the psychology of teaching and learning, teachers who believe in second chances for students, who understand how to differentiate the instruction, and teachers who work hard but smart. The Instructional Leader sets the foundation for the school by: creating procedures and processes for every situation that might arise. Procedures serve as the foundation for any organization. A good scho...
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Summer Leadership – What principals should do during the summer? Part 2

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What is the work for next year? Before beginning the planning process for the next year, principals should spend time reviewing what happened during the year that ended. They should begin with registration of the previous year and go through school closing at the end of the year.  Take a minute to write down each activity, each program, each strategy that was implemented and review how to make those processes better, what you might want to add for the next year, and who will be responsible for each of those areas. After completing this written activity, take each activity; strategy, and program develop a short-term plan as to how it can be better and more effective for the upcoming school year. Review the materials, textbooks, supplies, and equipment and place orders as needed to replace broken items, order additional for possible new students,, and make sure teachers have the supplies they need to begin the year. Remember to review your operational processes: fire and tornado dr...
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Summer Leadership – What principals should do during the summer? Part 1

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So many people wonder what school and district educational leaders do during the summer.  Most people don’t understand the amount of work it takes to begin a school year with little to no incident. Effective school principals spend the first week after the staff and students go home for the summer, working on a summer schedule for their twelve month staff: secretaries, bookkeepers, custodians, counselors, and any other twelve month staff. The principal should work with the custodians to develop a summer schedule for cleaning the building, repairing equipment, painting, moving furniture around if applicable, opening and disbursing new furniture, maintaining the lawn, washing tables and chairs, cleaning carpets if applicable, washing windows, and any other building needs. They should also discuss the custodian’s summer vacation. Principals should have someone on the maintenance team available everyday during the summer.   If there is more than one front of...
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Lessons For Leaders To Live By: Effective Leaders Must Do These Well.

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Empathy – empathy is sympathy with a little more effort.  Effective leaders exhibit great empathy for the people they work with.   These are the leaders who are in the trenches with their people.. When problems arise, effective leaders take responsibility for the final decision and the outcome. After all leaders make the decision to do or not do something. If the leader is not making the decision overtly, they are making it covertly.  I have often heard leaders say, “I didn’t know that was going on in my school or organization. The problem with that statement is, “it is your job to know what is going on”. Not knowing does not absorb the leader from their responsibility to know. It is the leaders job to know what is going on in his/her school/organization.  Understanding empathy, helps the leader better protect their people from unforeseen issues that might rise. Empathetic leaders understand that when things go well, the leader gets credit; and when thin...
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Dealing With Setbacks

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We would all love to have all of our ideas garner the results we want, but that simply does not happen. So, when things go wrong, how do you deal with the setback, the disappointment, and the adversity? One thing effective leaders do is give him/herself permission to fail. Be ready for the fall because you know it is coming, you just don’t know when.  Any person who has accomplished anything in life has failed multiple times. Dr. Seuss failed twenty seven times before his hit book; “The Cat in the Hat” was accepted. What would have happened if he had stopped at the tenth, twentieth, or twenty- fifth failures? It is always those things that we cannot anticipate that knock us down the hardest.  When leaders fall, the greatest mistake they make is to hurry and try to get up again, to try to get back on top, to get back to where hey were. When you fall down, stay there a minute, catch your breath, and think.  Ask yourself some important questions: What could I have...
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