Tips For Principals

What a time to be a principal! What were you thinking? You are the valiant leaders whose insight and emotional intelligence, as well as your understanding of the process of change will serve you well. Teachers are the ones on the front lines. You must take care of them! I always told my teachers, I am your greatest advocate—after the children. They came to share my passion for this, and it helped to create a culture focused on learning and kids.

I found that even for myself, feeling valued and appreciated goes a long way if you want teachers to go above and beyond to meet the needs of the school and students. If you haven’t done so already, put something in place that facilitates a culture of caring and teacher appreciation. Buy a dozen roses each week for staff to award to one another (only one at a time, you know). Meet with each faculty member once a month to acknowledge their work and allow them to share successes—or plan for this time in faculty meetings. Even if they share at tables, they feel validated and excited about their stories of success.

Create a culture that builds on strengths. It is easy to focus on the deficits in students and staff with so many pressures from NCLB. We would do well to build on the strengths of the children as well. Reflect on what makes you respond and do better. It will generally include feeling encouraged and that teachers believed you could do it. That’s when you tried harder and you believed in yourself.

Hopefully, your district is providing you with valuable professional development concerning research that will raise student achievement. As you’ve noticed, we don’t have time to waste on teaching practices that don’t lead to the results we want. Leadership has been found to make a huge difference in student achievement. If you need ideas on how and where to focus your attention, I’m here to help. Just let me know your situation, and we can brain storm together.

Often, principals feel isolated and alone, unlike those you lead. That is why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m happy to be your reflective partner! You’ll find many areas of school leadership on the website, including the latest research on leadership that works; raising student achievement for all kids, especially low SES students; RTI implementation that is quick and easy; current issues in education; and others, as my white paper list grows. Hopefully, you will find them helpful.