with William D. Parker and Friends
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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.…
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…
He met a teacher, and it changed everything. Jim Wengo 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…
The following is a Q & A between Jeet Banerjee and me. Some people have the gifts, talents, drive, and open doors to accomplish more in a few short years than others do in a lifetime. Jeet Banerjee is an…
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…