The research is very clear on teacher collaboration: it works. A recent study by Ronfeldt, M., Farmer, S., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J. (2015), surveyed over 9000 teachers on the subject of teacher collaboration. Over 90% of the teachers surveyed indicated that collaboration was beneficial to both teachers and their students. However, there are teachers … More 5 Ways to Work With a Reluctant Teacher Collaborator
Becoming a principal for the first time, or moving to a new school, is an exciting venture for any educator. Principals must do everything in their power to set themselves up for success. According to the 2012-13 principal staffing survey from the US Department of Education, over 20 percent of principals left their schools and over 70 … More 5 Things New Principals (and principals that are new to their school) Should Never Do Their First Year On The Job
Teacher Pay I believe that the biggest elephant in the room is the lack of adequate pay for our nation’s teachers. This past year, teachers from Oklahoma, Arizona, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Colorado, walked out of the classroom to protest low wages. It is growing increasing difficult for teachers to be able to afford to … More The 5 Elephants of Education
A school’s vision statement is often overlooked, hidden, or inexplicitly non-existent. It can be found on most school’s websites, hidden among bells schedules, lunch options, teacher websites, and PTA pages. Teachers, administrators often don’t know what is written in their school’s vision statement. Parents don’t either. Students … well, you get the picture. However, shouldn’t … More 5 Ways to Reimagine Your School’s Vision Statement
The bedrock of a great school is shared leadership. All stakeholders must have a seat at the decision-making table. This ensures that the vision and direction of the school is decided upon collectively and in the best interest of all parties. Teachers are key players in the process and need to be encouraged to step … More 5 Ways to Foster Teacher Leadership
One of the most important books that I have read in my career is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. In his book, Lencioni outlines the elements needed to build strong, cohesive teams. Here is a link to the book: Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Trust is the foundation in which productive teams are … More 5 Ways Principals Can Build Trust
It has been a year since I published the article, “5 Educational Concepts We Need to Eliminate in 2017”. It has been read and shared over 40,000 times since its publication. The feedback received from this article has given me much to write about over the past year, with many other articles from The Principal’s … More 5 Educational Concepts We Need To Eliminate In 2018
The role of the teacher has changed greatly over the past few decades. Teachers have to take on more and more responsibilities with fewer and fewer resources. Gone are the days where teachers only had to focus on content delivery. In today’s educational landscape, teachers take on a wide variety of roles and wear many … More 5 Jobs That Teachers Do Other Than Teach
Winter is coming! With the return of Game of Thrones to the airwaves, I was inspired to write an article based on this tremendous series. As I prepared for the new season, I thought about the history of the series and began to draw some parallels to the world of education, specifically working in the … More 5 Ways Education is Like Game of Thrones
This post was written in conjunction with ParentSquare. Based in Santa Barbara, ParentSquare is an award winning company focused on connecting schools with families to improve student outcomes and school success. ParentSquare simplifies communication by bringing together all communication solutions and features under one platform. You can learn more about ParentSquare by visiting their website here: https://www.parentsquare.com/ I … More 5 Ways Today’s Parents Are Different Than Our Parent’s Generation
