Category Leadership

Learning To Predict School Climate

The other day my elbow was aching. I have a scar there from when I broke it falling from a horse almost twenty years ago. When it aches, I can usually be certain the weather will turn stormy. And it…

5 Essential Ingredients For Learning (SPLAT)

I was listening to a fascinating show by Pat Flynn, blogger and podcaster who was interviewing Bryan Kelly from What The Speak on the neuroscience behind great presentations. As I thought about the research Kelly had done on what makes…

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 responsiblity areas in our office…

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…

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…

Interview With Justin Baeder

The following is a Q & A between Justin Baeder and me. A few months ago, I was introduced to Justin first via a Twitter exchange. Soon afterwards, I discovered his free 21-Day Instructional Leadership Challenge. Although I was not…

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.…

6 Quick Leadership Takeaways From A Flight Through The Fog

Two weeks ago I attended the NASSP Ignite Conference in Dallas, Texas. On my flight home, the pilot informed us that we would encounter heavy fog at the Tulsa airport. As we began descending, we were shrouded in it. I…

Dealing With Media Pressure During A Crisis

We recently mourned the heartbreaking death of a second student this school year. She was murdered in an evening domestic dispute that resulted in a double-homocide. Her great-grandmother was also a victim. The day after her death, we had counselors…

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…

Interview with Steven Parker

The following is a Q & A between Steven Parker and me. Steven Parker is the principal of Cedar Lee Middle School in Bealton, Virginia. He was also named the 2013 Virginia Middle School Principal of the Year. My goal…

Why You Should Set Specific Goals This Year

I know. I know. Not another post on new year resolutions, right? Talking about goals can be both discouraging and irritating at times. Speaking from my own experience this past year, however, I must say that setting goals was one…

One Day in the Life of a Principal

Sometimes people ask me what a “typical day” looks like for me. Instead of creating a list of my responsibilities, perhaps an example of one day from last semester may serve as a better illustration:

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…

Interview with Doug Stafford

The following is a Q & A between Doug Stafford and me. Doug Stafford is principal of Emerson Middle School in Enid, Oklahoma. He was named 2013 Oklahoma Middle School Principal of the Year. My goal in posting interviews with…

8 Ways to Help Your School Manage Grief

This topic may be a little too recent to discuss with some perspective, but we recently lost a senior student in a car accident. She was one of our dream students: cheerleader, great student, fun-loving, and loved by all. You…

Interview with Mark Mambretti

The following is a Q & A between Mark Mambretti and me. Mark Mambretti is principal of East Aurora Middle School, located just outside of Buffalo, New York; a 5-8 school of 600 students and 100 faculty This year, he…

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…

10 Ways to Communicate About Your School

Recently, on a Twitter feed, I saw the quote: Communication is 100% of what a principal does. Although this may seem like an exaggeration, I believe it is true of almost all educators, especially school leaders. This past weekend, I…

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…

Part 2: Lessons From The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

Last week, I posted Part 1 of Lessons in Leadership from Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. I shared four lessons from this exhaustive biography: 1. Never underestimate the power of early education. 2. Never underestimate the influence of…

Part 1: Lessons From The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

This summer a couple of long road trips afforded me the opportunity to listen to and finish the unabridged audio version of Edmund Morris’s, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. This biography of “Teddy” chronicles his life from birth to the…

Why Vacation Is Important

Some summers, my family and I enjoy vacation right here at home. But this summer we had the privilege to go west. Regardless of whether someone is an educator or not, or whether your vacation time is long or short,…

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.…

5 Ways To Maintain Sanity During Stressful Times

This past spring, as I transitioned from assistant principal to principal, I began to wonder if I had made the right decision. As the school year closed, and my former principal departed, I found myself wrapping up many of my…

Interview with Daniel Kerr

The following is a Q & A exchange between Daniel Kerr and me. A few years ago, my school offered a Chinese language class through a cooperative effort between the University of Oklahoma and a Chinese education agency. Through that…

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 John Dumas

The following is a Q & A exchange between John Lee Dumas and me. A few months ago, I changed my morning commute routine from listening to daily news on the radio to listening to podcasts instead. Most of the…

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…