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…
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Read More5 Lessons I Learned As a Student
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…
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…
A Conversation About K-12 Schools
A couple of years ago, I had the privilege to participate in a ten day tour of four cities in China. On one leg of the trip, I sat by a woman who was fluent in English and on her…
3 End-of-the-School-Year Reminders
Last Saturday I drove my daughter to the local lake dam spillway to meet her teammates for a weekend track workout. After twenty minutes of warm-up running on the grassy path to the spillway and back, they lined up for…
Interview with Mitchell Curry
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of hearing Mitchell Curry and his school leadership team present a workshop on how their school became recognized by the National Association of Secondary Principals as a “Breakthrough School”. Mitchell Curry is Principal…
7 Tips For Dealing With Challenging Students
A few years ago, I was talking to a teacher about a student she had volunteered to mentor. The young lady had had a difficult past, and the teacher had confided in me that some of their meetings had been…
Interview with Annette Breaux
This past February, I had the pleasure of hearing Annette Breaux present at the NASSP Ignite Conference. She is by far one of the most engaging, entertaining, and practical education speakers I have heard. She is also an avid writer…
And All That Without A Gun
I was talking to an assistant principal friend from a neighboring district who was telling me some funny stories from her middle school experience. She said her own mom and dad like to ask her to tell stories from school.…
The Common Core Debate
Lately, a lot of controversy has arisen over the implementation of Common Core standards in public schools. A recent op-ed by George Will, and a resolution by the Oklahoma Republican Party calling for the end of Common Core demonstrate what…
5 Ways to Cultivate a Culture of Acceptance
The other day, I sat in a conversation with a student and a DHS worker who had come to take her into custody. She was no longer able to stay at her host home and would be moving back to…
5 Ways To Respond To Resistance
One of my favorite college education professors would often start class with a provoking question. As we would grapple with how to answer and/or support our positions, he would stand there with his large hands lifted in the air, his…
7 Mid-School Year Reminders on Finishing Strong
Recently, I was inspired by the story of Diana Nyad, who made it a personal goal to swim from Cuba to Florida and did so at the age of 64. Her 100-mile feat came with many unsuccessful previous attempts, the…
7 Hats Principals Must Be Prepared To Wear
Recently, I was asked to speak to a group of teachers who are interested in becoming school principals. My task was to summarize some of the principal’s roles and responsibilities. If you are a principal, I am sure you could…
4 Lessons in Teamwork from my Son’s Hospital Stay
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my son’s battle and recovery from an infectious disease known as Kawasaki. I am happy to report he is back in school and is happy and energetic. He has made a great…
Interview with Carol Dweck
The following is a Q & A between Carol Dweck and me. Carol is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. For many years, she has been doing research on how…
Interview with Daniel Wong
The following is a Q & A between Daniel Wong and me. Daniel Wong is the author of The Happy Student: 5 Steps to Academic Fulfillment and Success. He works with students, educators and parents in the areas of coaching,…
5 Simple Lessons From a 10-year-old
Tobias, a 10 year-old Oklahoma boy, wrote a letter to a local TV station because he had a dream for his 11 year old brother who has Cerebral Palsy. He asked if they could spread the word that he wanted…
Interview with James Johnston
The following is a Q & A between James Johnston and me. James Johnston is the Principal of Alice Ott Middle School and the 2013 Oregon Middle School Principal of the Year. My goal in posting interviews with successful leaders…
A Lesson From A Cross-Walk Guard
This year, my two youngest children started walking to and from school. On the first day, they were excited to tell us about their favorite crossing guard: Mr. Charlie, a grandfatherly man who stops each child to introduce himself. He…
Interview with Sandra Clement
The following is a Q & A between Sandra Clement and me. Dr. Sandra Clement is the 2013 Texas Middle School Principal of the Year. I am thrilled she agreed to share her insights on school leadership with us. My…
Planting, Growing, and Flourishing
I heard a great interview with motivational speaker/author Jon Gordon recently where he was asked: What should you do if you find yourself unmotivated to face a day’s work? He responded by saying: You should plant yourself right where you…
Interview with James Holifield
The following is a Q & A exchange between James Holifield and me. James “Jim” Holifield is the principal at New Prairie Middle School in New Carlisle, Indiana. As the Indiana Middle School Principal of the Year, he represented his…
Using “KRA’s” To Increase Effectiveness
Whether for you are leading a team of individuals, or you are a team member who wants to more effective, it is important for everyone to know his or her role. Sometimes our greatest loss of time happens when we…
7 ‘First Days Of School’ Questions
One of my favorite books to recommend to new teachers is Harry Wong’s First Days of School. In it, he outlines the essentials for establishing, organizing, and implementing good routines and procedures for students. I call it “teaching with both…
4 Ways to Learn From Other People’s Expertise
A few months ago I was planning to attend a principal’s meeting near the state capital. Since I was going alone, I asked a principal friend from a neighboring district if we could ride together. Little did I know how…
10 Lessons on Leadership from Seabiscuit
I recently finished listening to the unabridged audio-version of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit. A biography about a famous racehorse, the story also centers on the lives of three men whom Seabiscuit involves in a network of drama, suspense, defeat, and triumph.…
And Then I Met A Teacher
He met a teacher, and it changed everything. Jim Wingo was fresh out of high school when he started working at the local butcher shop. But his high school agriculture teacher, John Krivokapish, had other plans for him. When he…
8 Ways to Discipline with Dignity
School discipline is often a hotly debated topic of discussion. If viewed simply as punishment, it is often ineffective in changing behavior. But if viewed as a way to measure, check, and coach, the results are often more positive. Toward…
10 Tips On Interviewing For An Education Position
We just finished filling a tenth teaching position at my school for next year. As hard as it is to work through the hiring process, nothing is more important to the success of school than finding quality educators. Although I…
Interview with Ruby Payne
The following is a Q & A between Ruby Payne and me. Ruby Payne is the best-selling author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Her book and other resources have significantly affected the way teachers reach at-risk students. Her work…
7 Ways to Show Appreciation for Teachers
A friend once told me, “One good deed is worth more than a thousand good intentions.” Sometimes I am guilty of good intentions without good actions. But when it comes to appreciating others, my good intentions won’t ever let others…
Interview with Tim Elmore
The following is a Q & A exchange between Dr. Tim Elmore and me. I had the privilege of connecting with Tim when a mutual friend introduced us after seeing I had recommended his book, Generation iY, and I am…
Tips for Dealing with Difficult People
If you are like me, you want school leadership to be about inspiring or encouraging others to reach shared goals. So often, motivational leadership also requires managing complicated situations or people. Over the years, I have begun to learn practical…
Interview with Jon Gordon
The following is a Q & A exchange between Jon Gordon and me. The first time I heard Jon Gordon speak was at a principal’s conference in Oklahoma City. A year later, he came and addressed our school district’s opening…
Interview with Mona Smith
The following is a Q & A exchange between Mona Smith and me. Mona Smith is the 2013 Oklahoma Assistant Principal of the Year. When I first met her, I was struck by her insight into school improvement and her…
Interview with Mark Scharenbroich
The following is a Q & A exchange between Mark Scharenbroich and me. Mark Scharenbroich is a fabulous resource of ideas for educators, leaders, and anyone interested in personal growth. I first heard Mark speak when he was a keynote…
3 Tips for Making Each Day Count
Recently I heard a great interview with Robert D. Smith, author of 20,000 Days and Counting. He explained the epiphany he had at 55 years of age when he calculated his years and realized he had lived 20,000 days. In…
Motivation by Wonder and Purpose
A good friend and fellow principal, Lydia Wilson, from Bixby Central Elementary, wrote me recently after reading my last blog post. Her response is a good reminder of the deep satisfaction that comes when we have the right motives for…
Staying Focused During Difficult Times
The other day, I had someone tell me, “I would never want your job.” On the one hand, that may be true. Sometimes the negatives can be overwhelming. When it comes to the part of my job involving student discipline,…
4 Caution Lights On Your Leadership Journey
Zig Ziglar’s “wheel of life” is often referred to by leadership coaches, like Chris Locurto, because it represents a good visual of the competing interests in each of our lives. The thought goes, when the areas of life are held…
Tips on Better Managing Requests
My first year as a school administrator, I was convinced I would not repeat some of the frustrating habits of my former leaders. Specifically, I wanted to be a leader who consistently followed through on requests from teachers. What I…
Welcome to Principal Matters
Thanks for taking time to visit Principal Matters, where you can find resources, insights, and inspiration for school leadership! William D. Parker Bio Will is currently the principal of Skiatook High School, near Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A. He grew up a…