As we near the end of the school year, I can honestly say that this has been the most challenging year as an educator. Our school has been in person since August, with additional precautions. Like most other schools, we spent a great deal of last summer preparing and planning for a year that had […]
Category: Building Culture
Student Professional Learning Day: Future-Ready
Equity in Action: Four Steps for School Leaders
“What would you consider to be the most pressing concerns for leaders in education right now? What are the things that keep you up at night?” These were questions posed by my leadership coach in a recent meeting. Like most leaders, I started to run through all the items on my to-do list and the […]
Peer Mentoring to Build A Culture of Caring
As school leaders, we often ask ourselves: How can I be sure that I am meeting the needs of every one of my students? How can I ensure no one is forgotten? The kids who are naturally part of a group such as band, sports teams, Student Government Association, or clubs generally have found their […]
Are You the Next NASSP Board Member?
For the first time ever, the NASSP Board of Directors is opening nominations to all active members in good standing who are currently serving as principals or assistant principals. This unique opportunity is your chance to step forward as a board of directors candidate and be a national advocate for middle level and high school […]
What Have We Learned?
We thought spring of 2020 was going to be our return to normalcy. We spent the fall and winter of the 2019–20 school year in complete crisis. Our school was supposed to be moving into a renovated co-located school building in fall of 2019, and when that project went into turmoil, so did our school. We […]
Building a Restorative Justice Program
There are many types of restorative justice programs in schools, meaning that one size doesn’t fit all. Our motto here at Payson High School is “One Team, Making Today Count.” As a part of “Making Today County,” we encourage our students and staff to take advantage of all positive opportunities, no matter how small or […]
Quarantine Routines: An Educator’s Guide to Surviving a Quarantine
You will have to quarantine. For many educators, these are the words we have lost sleep over, worried about hearing, and struggled to plan for when it does happen. While we are preparing lessons for our students who are at home learning and supporting our colleagues’ classes while they are at home, we are hoping […]
Developing Awareness, Adaptability, and Flexibility as School Leaders
How did you start off this semester? Was it a reset, relaunch, reboot, or redux from the fall? Whatever structures were in place during the first semester as our schools offered in-person learning on campus at reduced capacity, remote or distance learning, or a hybrid of those approaches, we already know more than we did […]
These Principals Are Getting Into Good Trouble
Mauri Friestleben and Yusuf Abdullah have been getting into trouble. Good Trouble, to be specific. During 2020, while leading their schools through distance learning, COVID-19, and racial injustice, they took it upon themselves to inspire and empower others to join together to challenge inequity in schools. Their movement has inspired many other principals, now bound together […]
NAESP and NASSP Presidents Talk About Diversity
A conversation with Kimbrelle Barbosa Lewis and Robert Motley We recently sat down with two eminent school leaders to discuss the importance of diversity in school leadership. Kimbrelle Barbosa Lewis is the principal of Cordova Elementary in Cordova, TN, as well as the president of the National Association of Elementary Principals (NAESP). Robert Motley is […]