5 Ways To Increase Attendance Rates

Every year, schools rewrite plans to address attendance concerns. These plans usually include different incentives like attendance awards such as different tangible prizes, recognition assemblies, and students’ names in the monthly newsletter. Every year, we re-word this same plan and attendance rates stay just about the same. Hours are spent on these plans that don’tContinue reading "5 Ways To Increase Attendance Rates"

5 Ways to Avoid Being Boring in the Classroom

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” I am willing to bet that many of the people that you share this quote with will agree with it. It seems to fit right in with the collective conscience ofContinue reading "5 Ways to Avoid Being Boring in the Classroom"

Rethinking Access To Technology In Schools and At Home

I have been very fortunate to work with educators around the country over the past ten years who work in a variety of geographical areas with varying socio-economic degrees. We all agree that advances in technology have greatly aided the educational process, helping us to differentiate instruction as well as bring content to life inContinue reading "Rethinking Access To Technology In Schools and At Home"

5 Ways to Increase Communication With Parents

We all know that great schools have strong communication protocols with parents. The research is quite clear that children benefit when educators and parents are in constant communication with one another. However, among secondary school parents, 66 percent do not agree that teachers keep them informed about classroom activities, events and requirements (National School PublicContinue reading "5 Ways to Increase Communication With Parents"

5 Reasons To Utilize Social Media in Schools

Over the past decade, social media has transformed communication. Pictures, videos, and comments can be easily posted and sent to followers instantly. For schools and educators, social media gives them another opportunity to share activities, programs, and student learning with the community. However, schools continue to lag behind the rest of industry in this area.Continue reading "5 Reasons To Utilize Social Media in Schools"

3 Ways Principals Can Promote Autonomy

Ask teachers what they would consider an optimal working condition and you will get a variety of different answers. However, one answer remains consistent: autonomy. In these days of high stakes testing, schools continue to micro manage instruction as well as the curriculum in hopes of achieving high test scores. However, this is counter-productive andContinue reading "3 Ways Principals Can Promote Autonomy"

Staffing Consistency is Vital for a School’s Success

Culture is king. Schools leap forward or jump back due to a positive or negative culture. This culture is built on creating positive, strong, long-lasting relationships. It is difficult to build these strong relationships when staff is moved around and in and out of the school every year. This is especially true in Special EducationContinue reading "Staffing Consistency is Vital for a School’s Success"

5 Ways to Build a Strong School Culture

Great schools / districts all have one thing in common: great organizational culture. Dedicated teachers and a researched-based curriculum isn’t enough to make a school great. Culture is everything. Management guru, Peter Drucker wrote, “Culture eats strategy for lunch”. He is right. A poor organizational culture will send these amazing teachers straight into the armsContinue reading "5 Ways to Build a Strong School Culture"

Please Upgrade your Teacher / Principal Meetings

The summer months are ideal for educators to reflect, recharge and to begin planning for the next school year. I always try select one new idea, concept, tool, or program to explore during the first few months back. I have an idea that I would like to throw out to all administrators out there: rethinkContinue reading "Please Upgrade your Teacher / Principal Meetings"

The Modern Classroom

I've said many times that educators need to stop referring to classrooms with rich technology use, project-based learning, collaborative groupings and an inquiry-based pedagogy as 21st Century Classrooms. We live in the 21st century. All classrooms should contain the previous elements. After all, it is 2020. We are in the 21st century, right? Fifty yearsContinue reading "The Modern Classroom"