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What priorities must you keep in mind as you start a new school year? In this week’s episode, Will Parker and Jen Schwanke draw on years of experience to provide ideas and takeaways – especially with new principals in mind.
Relying on lessons from her book You’re the Principal! Now What?: Strategies and Solutions for New School Leaders, Jen shares how to tackle the most common yet most daunting challenges of the principalship. Will shares ideas from his book, Principal Matters: The Motivation, Action, Courage and Teamwork Needed for School Leaders.
Jen’s book includes several areas, including:
- Establishing productive professional relationships
- Building and maintaining a positive school culture
- Resolving conflict among staff and parents
- Providing effective instructional leadership
- Supporting students’ social-emotional needs
- Conducting staff evaluations and delivering feedback
- Keeping up with district, state, and federal mandates
- Managing the facility and the budget
- Providing focused and effective professional development
- Prioritizing responsibilities
- Learning from student and schoolwide data
- Planning for growth and change
- Working through behavior and discipline issues
- Hiring high-quality teachers and supporting new ones
- Leading effective meetings
- Maintaining balance
Will reminds principals of the many hats you wear, including:
- Coach
- Manager
- Counselor
- Accountability
- Servant Leader
- Cheerleader
- Team Player
- Individual
Now It’s Your Turn
Listen-in for even more takeaways. What ideas would you add to the ‘first things’ list of a new principal? What other hats would you add to the principal list? Marketer/Branding Specialist, Security Expert…
