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 it … More Facing the Unknown
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
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
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
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 to … More 5 Things Teachers Need To Do This Summer
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 together … More 5 Ways To Use Technology at Open House
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 schools … More 5 Pieces of Data Your Leadership Team Should Be Analyzing
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 consequences … More 5 Ways to Decrease Disciplinary Issues in the Classroom
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 of … More 5 Ways to Make Classroom Walk-Throughs More Powerful
Social media has changed the way that we approach communication and networking. Educators around the world are learning and sharing together. While many educators have taken to social media like a fish to water, there is still some resistance and anxiety. Most of this anxiety comes from not knowing what to post or how to connect. … More 5 Ways for Educators to Use Social Media
