Use an entry form to check in with your students
april 07, 2020
Thanks to Mrs. Hacker for showing us a quick and easy way to check in on your students’ SEL needs. This quick video (see left) demonstrates an active Google Form that was created to survey students each morning about a variety of questions that really help determine how students are feeling and doing. Mrs. Hacker can then follow-up with students and families based on the information she collect.
Adjusting to New Realities When Schools Are Closed: 5 Tips for Parents
March 20, 2020
Twenty years from now, we will remember the moment the Earth stopped moving. This once-in-100-years pandemic has touched nearly every facet of our day-to-day living—from where we shop to where we eat to where our kids go to school. Take a moment to breathe. Really. Do it now.
3 Steps School and District Leaders Can Take to Combat the Coronavirus
March 09, 2020
The phone rings. An angry parent is on the line demanding to know what you are going to do about the high school student who just returned from a family wedding in Italy, where there were more than 3,000 coronavirus (COVID-19) cases as of late last week. Before you can respond, the parent demands you remove the child, who has not shown any symptoms, for the next two weeks. What do you do?
How to Create a Positive School Culture Plan as an Administrator
Published February 18, 2020 with
HMH Shaped
I recently checked off a huge bucket list item that had been staring back at me for years: publishing an educational leadership book. It had been in the back of my mind since 2010, and I finally accomplished that goal in 2019. It felt fantastic. What is an item on your bucket list?
The whole idea of a “bucket list” is to create a list of goals you hope to accomplish sometime in the future. When done well, a bucket list can create a roadmap of sorts in achieving your personal and professional goals. But what if we created a bucket list for our school or district?
Five Ways to Succeed As a Principal
Published February 14, 2020 with Leadered Connect
Conduct a listening tour. Within your first 3 months of the school year, conduct a listening tour in your school community by scheduling 30-minute meetings with each and every certified and classified staff member, community stakeholders, and a student group proportionate to the demographics of your school. In your listening tour, ask the same questions2 (Download “Listening Tour – The Past, Present, and Future”) to each person so that you can compare and contrast responses.
Self-Care for Teachers: Why and How to Make It a Priority
Published January 6, 2020
The final bus leaves the school. There is a collective sigh as another week finishes.
As you look at your colleagues, you see many shoulders hunched over, exhaustion written across their faces. You realize that if you had a mirror, you would probably look the same.
It’s no surprise that you see this in your school. In the 2019 Educator Confidence Report published by HMH and YouGov, three-quarters of teachers—along with 88 percent of administrators—agreed that stress from their educational environments made it more difficult to be their best in the classroom.
It’s Time to Say Goodbye
To Final Exams
Published December 18, 2019
As we embark as parents with a high school freshmen, we have had many adjustments. No adjustment has been more difficult than the preparation for finals. I’m going to be upfront - we need to get rid of this archaic practice of assessment. Now, before you stop reading or roll your eyes, I did some action research in talking with some educators across the country (and even some at my son’s school).
How to Lead a School Initiative and Build Olympic-Style Teaching
October 2, 2019
Think back to your time as a classroom teacher. You are sitting in your faculty meeting, and the principal or superintendent shares a new—wait for it—initiative. I can almost see eyes rolling, staff sighing, and arms crossed about another new initiative. Don’t worry; we have all been there. But what makes people view this scenario so negatively and not be excited about the dreaded “I” word?
There are many reasons why we feel "initiative fatigue" when our school or district embarks on a new plan, even if the new initiative is well intended. We are all laser-focused on finding the solution(s) that are going to boost student achievement and build collective teacher efficacy. But somewhere between theory and practice, we lose focus on the very ways that we can set up the new initiative for success.
How Instructional Leaders Can Empower Teachers to Boost Student Engagement
August 14, 2019
Each year in June, I see 5,000 educators celebrating the work we do every day at the annual Model Schools Conference. Attendees sit down with educational leaders to brainstorm and strategize how to build collective teacher efficacy and boost student achievement. It’s about creating, dreaming, and lifting the box open for ideas to maximize resources for all our students.
This year, I met with school leaders who are working to increase their own professional capacity. One administrator in particular admitted that her knowledge of secondary content beyond English/Language Arts was minimal. She felt her lack of content knowledge placed her in a deficit as an instructional leader. It’s quite the contrary!
Minute Meetings: Giving Students a Voice to Improve School Culture
June 10, 2019
This blog post is part of a series on how school leaders can become instructional change agents. In last week’s post, Adam Drummond offered insight into how education leaders can serve as instructional change agents.
When was the last time you intentionally talked to a student about his or her learning? How did that conversation go? What did you do as a result of the feedback you received? With whom did you share that information? How does the student voice impact your culture? Research tells us that when we include students in decisions, we save time, energy, and resources.
How School Leaders Can Become Instructional Change Agents
June 04, 2019
This blog post is part of a series on how school leaders can become instructional change agents. In next week’s post, Adam Drummond will offer advice on how to determine ways to improve school culture.
I glance at the clock, and it reads 6:30 p.m. on a Friday night. I sigh heavily and return my focus to the dual screens at my desk. The screens show a teacher evaluation I’m working on, as well as the upcoming round of NWEA testing for students. Email notifications continue to chirp in with messages from teachers, district folks, and parents. My fourth-grade son is hanging out somewhere in the school while I stare at the countless “to do’s” piling up before my eyes.
Support Students With In-School Therapy
May 2018
In this age of standardized testing, increased accountability for teachers and administrators, and the infinite flow of communication and information, it is no surprise that the stress of those issues, as well as many others, has trickled down to produce more stress for students. Schools are working with agencies outside the school setting to meet the behavioral, mental, psychological, and even physical needs of their students.