Summer has either already begun for you, or is JUST around the corner. I am sure there are many things a principal can do in the summer, but use your time intentionally to get yourself ready! June is my “close it up month” that I spend wrapping a big red bow around our 16-17 school […]
What do you get when you have teacher appreciation and the week before your standardized test all rolled into one? Easy treats for teacher ideas that don’t stress out the principal! I am not the testing coordinator but I still like to add a lil’something to the testing buckets. This year I just bought Reese’s
Easy treats for teachers! Read More »
Advice. ədˈvīs/ noun guidance or recommendations concerning prudent future action, typically given by someone regarded as knowledgeable or authoritative. Everyone has advice to offer. Sometimes it’s solicited, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it is helpful, sometimes it’s not. I always get questions in the spring asking how to handle certain questions or how to prepare for
Looking for advice or its been given? You can go your own way! Read More »
At some point, as the adult in the room, we have to recognize that as long as students are reading and writing for a fabricated purpose, there is only so much energy and time that they will commit to the assignment. Churning out students who hate a subject but can perform in a standardized way
Why should reading and writing be authentic? #taketwo Read More »
This is the time of year I struggle more than any other. Spring in Texas is just hard. The weather is wonky. It’s testing season. My teachers are exhausted. My students are spring fever-ing. Spring break is past, and there’s much to do before we can call it summer. I can’t fix all the things.
It’s spring…how can you support teachers when they’re tired? Read More »
It’s easy to have great ideas, or energy, or a big grand vision. The hard part is remembering that it is your experiences that led you to a place where those ideas, or big changes you want to make, is your reality. Making changes is not inherently bad, unless it’s at the expense of damaging
All about changes? Remember this… #IMMOOC & an @ASCD giveaway Read More »
I started blogging in 2005. It was something new, something different to engage my 4th graders. I didn’t even contemplate the power that using it for reflection would do later in my career. Permission from my parents was the easy part. More difficult was convincing the technology powers that be that it was safe and
Reflection is personal power… & other people might grow too! #LeadLAP #IMMOOC, week 5 Read More »
For this week’s partner blog, I had the opportunity to work with the genius that is Matt Arend. Matt is a principal in a neighboring district and is accomplishing incredible things. While we don’t always agree on everything, we’ve both got a pretty good idea of how to respond to those who are critics on this innovative
Silencing the Critics as an Innovator #immooc Read More »
Life. Life, ya’ll. You never know what each week will bring. It’s easy to have a couple of days that can shake all that you’re doing or wanting to do in life. It reminds me this week of a stanza from a “Hamilton” song.. [HAMILTON] Hey What are you waiting for? What do you stall
Hamilton and the #IMMOOC…what are you waiting for? Read More »
While walking around the week before spring break, I had the opportunity to visit a 3rd grade teacher’s classroom. As I watched her model and talk through the writing of an expository composition with our Wolves, and saw the energy in which her students attacked it, I had to stop and ask what the secret
Sometimes leading means…get out of the way. #IMMOOC Read More »