Category Archives: Professional Development

5 Ways Principals Can Lead In A Virtual Environment

Many school districts across the country are either choosing or being mandated to begin the 2020-2021 school year with distance learning. While this is disappointing to so many of us, we must also recognize our new reality and put measures in place to ensure that students experience a robust and comprehensive online learning environment.

School principals will be critical in supporting this robust environment. Teachers and parents will be looking for leadership during these uncertain and ever-changing times. Principals must rise to this challenge and bring together communities.

Here are 5 ways for principals to lead remote schools:

Facing the Unknown

This guest article was written by Jesse Greaves-Smith of Teachers Starting Fires. He is an experiential educator and eLearning instructional designer focused on helping teachers free their potential and light their spark. The secret to growth as human beings is that we must boldly face the unknown. We must find one small piece of itContinue reading “Facing the Unknown”

5 Ways to Foster Teacher Leadership

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 stepContinue reading “5 Ways to Foster Teacher Leadership”

5 Educational Concepts We Need To Eliminate In 2018

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’sContinue reading “5 Educational Concepts We Need To Eliminate In 2018”

5 Ways Education is Like Game of Thrones

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 theContinue reading “5 Ways Education is Like Game of Thrones”

5 Things Teachers Need To Do This Summer

As we come to the end of another school year, it is time for all educators to take some time to breathe, relax, and reflect. There are not many professions that have defined beginnings and endings every year. Educators need to take advantage of this opportunity in order to better themselves by paying attention toContinue reading “5 Things Teachers Need To Do This Summer”

5 Ways To Use Technology at Open House

It is Open House season! Every year at this time, teachers invite parents into classrooms to view student work, projects, and to share successes from the year. This year, spice it up a bit. By the time that parents get to the upper elementary grades, they have seen it all. All Open Houses will blend togetherContinue reading “5 Ways To Use Technology at Open House”

5 Pieces of Data Your Leadership Team Should Be Analyzing

Leadership teams spend hours and hours each school year looking at assessment data. Data will help teachers and administrators target individual students and standards for intervention. However, assessment data is only part of the picture. There is a wide variety of data out there that needs to be analyzed in order to truly transform schoolsContinue reading “5 Pieces of Data Your Leadership Team Should Be Analyzing”

5 Ways to Decrease Disciplinary Issues in the Classroom

Many educators indicate that mastering classroom management is one of the most difficult parts of the profession. Teachers who struggle with poor classroom management skills will never get their students to learn at their highest potential. Their students are seen off task, talking to their friends, defiant, and disrespectful. These students are often assigned consequencesContinue reading “5 Ways to Decrease Disciplinary Issues in the Classroom”

5 Ways to Make Classroom Walk-Throughs More Powerful

Conducting classroom walk-throughs (CWTs) is not a new concept. Educators have been walking through classrooms, gauging instructional practices for years. Unfortunately, CWTs are often conducted due to mandates from downtown and not from the internal desire to improve educational practices. Administrators go through the motions of walking through without the school getting the benefits ofContinue reading “5 Ways to Make Classroom Walk-Throughs More Powerful”