Key Responsibility Areas Part Two
This has been a busy summer of hiring new teammates and preparing for the school year to come. In one of our recent interviews, I was asked to give some feedback on some of the responsibility areas in our office…
Principal Matters
with William D. Parker and Friends
William D. Parker
Lights From An Airplane Window
I’m sitting on a airplane above Dallas. It’s sunset and below in the misty sea of landscape, I can see patches of brown fields and green swaths of trees. Occasionally, I catch the glint of lights from buildings. In the…
Remembering Grace: Advocacy In Education
Another hat a principal must sometimes wear is that of the advocate. I am currently visiting Washington D.C. on the part of the National Association of Secondary Principals as the state coordinator for Oklahoma. But really I am here for…
5 Lessons I Learned As a Student
Sometimes I look back at my days in school, and I am amazed that I ended up becoming a teacher and principal. During eighth grade, my Language Arts teacher, Ms. Owen, told me she wanted to make a deal with…
7 Reasons Why Documentation Is Still A Good Leadership Tool
This week I have spent a lot of time with to-do lists as well as pulling together with my team members to coordinate important end-of-school-year activities. If you are leading a school, organization, or a team, you know the challenges…
5 Lessons From My First Year As Site Principal
: Play in new window | DownloadJust a few days ago, we celebrated graduation. The next day we wrapped up with professional development and teacher check-out. When I arrived home that night, I felt both exhausted and exhilarated. It was…
Interview With Rachel Skerritt
The following is an interview between Rachel Skerritt and me. Rachel is the Principal of Eastern Senior High School, a D.C. Public School. She was also the Principal Ambassador Fellow for the U.S. Department of Education. My goal in posting…
Caring For Grandma–A Mother’s Day Tribute
This week I am taking a break from posting about school to reflect on some events affecting my family. As we just celebrated Mother’s Day, I am so thankful for my mom. But today I wanted to take some time…
Encouraging Positive Attitudes About Testing
Our teachers have been preparing our students all year for the testing window we are now in. Many of those strategies included best practices like bench-mark testing, curriculum mapping, or introducing literacy standards across all subject areas–to name a few.…
Guest Post: Pivotal Leadership
This is a guest post by Justin Baeder, Director of The Principal Center. He writes about productivity for school leaders at Eduleadership.org. We all want to improve student learning in our schools. We want to achieve better results, create better…