Leadership – The Principal's Desk

5 Ways to Reimagine Your School’s Vision Statement

February 28, 2018

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

5 Ways to Increase The Wellness of Teachers

February 22, 2018

Wellness is a hot topic these days. Educators are under more stress than ever before. It seems like every time we turn around, schools are in the news for all the wrong reasons: abuse, poor performance, scandals, violence, and crime. This list goes on and on. Working under these conditions can be very stressful on … More 5 Ways to Increase The Wellness of Teachers

5 Ways to Foster Teacher Leadership

January 19, 2018

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

5 Reasons to End Grade Retention

December 30, 2017

“Give them the gift of time”. “They just aren’t ready”. “They’ll do so much better with me again next year”. Sound familiar? Students have been being held back a grade for decades in the attempt to reteach them skills that they did not master during the current year. The American Educational Research Association puts grade … More 5 Reasons to End Grade Retention

5 Ways Principals Can Build Trust

December 4, 2017

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

5 Educational Concepts We Need To Eliminate In 2018

November 24, 2017

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

5 Ways Education is Like Game of Thrones

August 21, 2017

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

5 Ways Leadership is Like Building a Sandcastle

June 30, 2017

Being a leader is not easy. Leaders must be steadfast during the storm and be able to remain standing through thick and thin. I was lucky enough to spend some time this summer on a beach building sandcastles with my children. As we built our castle, I was reflected upon my own work as an … More 5 Ways Leadership is Like Building a Sandcastle

5 Pieces of Data Your Leadership Team Should Be Analyzing

March 14, 2017

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

5 Ways To Smartly Purchase Educational Technology

February 21, 2017

Edtech is a multi-billion dollar business. Edtech purchases have increased 5 times over the past five years. However, are these purchases actually doing students any good where it counts? Are they actually benefitting students in the classroom? As a technology in schools advocate, I urge all educators to carefully research and purchase devices and programs … More 5 Ways To Smartly Purchase Educational Technology