A maximal learning environment cannot exist without students feeling safe and connected with their teacher in the classroom. But teachers quickly get caught up with the demands of covering curriculum and meeting mandates. Most times, it is easier to conform to the system instead of infusing our individual personalities into our school lives. (more…)
School of Thought Blog
Share Your Passion with Students: School-Wide Clubs
Making Connections: Lighting a Fire in Your Staff and Students
I am not a camper, so I am in no way an expert on building a fire, but I do know (thanks to my high school science classes) that in order for fire to ignite, it needs three elements: heat, fuel and oxygen. On the flip side, being a school leader is something I do know, and culture is something that is talked about all over leadership blogs, articles, books, and tweets. Culture is way more than just a buzzword. Culture is the heart of a school, and the difference-maker between success and failure. (more…)
It’s Not About You! Keeping Perspective During Difficult Conversations
A day in the life of a principal can be fraught with difficult discussions that require a careful approach. You have likely found yourself in a conversation which caused you to feel anxious, stressed, or even angry. Although these emotions are natural, they can limit your ability to see problems clearly and prevent your openness to different solutions. After experiencing numerous challenging interactions, I have realized that I need to find ways to focus on these conversations and remove any emotional response so that problems can be solved effectively. (more…)
Truancy Task Force: Don’t Fight Attendance Problems Alone
At Lakeland Union High School, our absenteeism rates used to be substantially higher than state averages. Year after year, someone—usually an assistant principal or dean of students—was always working hard on addressing our truancy cases. Despite our efforts, nothing we did dramatically affected the number of students habitually missing school. To break this cyclical pattern, our administrative team decided to take a different approach to curb attendance problems. (more…)
Become the School’s Head Coach by Fostering Teacher Leadership
As a former coach, the value of team and usage of each person’s strengths has always been etched in the forefront of my thinking and planning. Now as a school leader, this same concept has been a driving force in my thought process. My field is my school, and my team is my teachers. Instead of winning a game or a title, our victories are measured by student success. Though my title says principal, to me I am nothing more than the school’s head coach. (more…)
A Place to Belong: Why I Became an Adviser
Celebrating scholarship is just as important as any other school club, and NJHS provides that space.
Twenty-one years ago, my principal asked me to advise the current National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) chapter at my middle school. I had never done it before, and it was trial by fire—luckily I was able to attend a workshop and found great resources to get me started. (more…)
“Do You See Me?” The Power of Student Connections
Positive connections between students, teachers, administrators, and school community lead to academic success and a balanced education. To reach their potential, it is integral that children connect to at least one person in their school community. This connection needs to exist within a safe and stable environment, providing opportunities for these relationships to strengthen and grow. The middle level leader plays a key role in fostering these important components of success. (more…)
Bringing Light to a Dark Month
Darkness, cold weather, and a continued lack of daylight can bring the winter blues to many of us. While February is considered the shortest month of the year, for some it seems to be the longest; students and staff are longing for warmer weather, increased daylight, and spring break! (more…)
“We Must Be Advocates”: How the NASSP Advocacy Conference Impacts Education
Education in America is being threatened by reduced funding, teacher shortages, school safety concerns, and more—and it needs your voice now more than ever. The 2019 NASSP Advocacy Conference is your opportunity to gather with peers in the education community and converge on Capitol Hill to meet with policymakers who are making important decisions at the federal level. With the February 11 registration deadline fast approaching, students and learning communities are counting on you to be their advocate.
NASSP spoke with three past conference attendees who shared their experiences as well as why they’ll be attending this year’s event: Steve Baker, principal, Bluffton High School in Bluffton, IN; Erika Burden, principal, Westwood Middle School in Spokane, WA; and Brad Seamer, assistant principal, Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, SD. (more…)
Creating a School for All Students: Our Story of Inclusion
There are no restaurants, banks, grocery stores, or other everyday establishments or public places specifically for people with special needs, different education levels, or specific skin tones. Thankfully those places are there for everyone’s use. Shouldn’t students be educated the same way, with all their peers, as much as possible? That would be a great start to teaching and learning acceptance, care, empathy, and respect for others while creating a foundation to help students navigate life. (more…)
Crowdfunding the Right Way: NASSP and DonorsChoose.org release Principal Toolkit
DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit built exclusively to support K–12 public schools and address educational inequities, and DonorsChoose.org has helped teachers in 4 out of 5 U.S. public schools request items for their classroom. Our founder and CEO Charles Best launched the nonprofit 19 years ago out of his Bronx high school history classroom—since then, DonorsChoose.org has generated $775 million from over 3 million donors of all stripes for public school classrooms. We’ve teamed up with NASSP to create a new Principal Toolkit, and show how you too can help teachers get resources for their classroom that line up with your school priorities. (more…)
Giving Students a Voice and Empowering Them to Take Action
Schools benefit when students share their voices, but how often do we take the time to truly listen to what they have to say? The Quaglia Institute suggests that students are seven times more academically motivated when they believe their voices are heard as compared to students who do not. How might we integrate student voice into the way schools work while also honoring what students have to say? (more…)
Lessons Learned from a Decade of RTI/MTSS Implementation
At Centennial Middle School (CtMS), incoming students arrive typically two to three levels behind on academic standards. Every year, 60 percent of the population in math and 55 percent of the population in English/language arts (ELA) need additional academic support. In a building of 600 students, with a 50 percent free and reduced rate, it’s a clear focus of ours to provide that extra support in math and ELA in an effort to help close that gap without taking away from core instruction. (more…)
Maintaining Digital Balance
Much more often than I would like to admit, a little voice can be heard chastising me from the back seat of our minivan while sitting at a traffic light: “Better left unread than dead, Mom.”
In those moments I reflect and recognize I must do better—I am not modeling or practicing what I preach. I need more digital balance, and whatever text or email I am replying to can wait until I get to my destination. The phone goes into the glove box until I get home, with a firm digital boundary set. (more…)
Master Schedule: A Climate and Culture Initiative
For school leaders, January brings the unofficial start to master schedule season. A master schedule includes decisions about course offerings, teacher plan periods, teacher course recommendations, utilization of Full-Time Equivalency (FTE), instructional interventions, and even lunch times. January is often the time of year that principals and assistant principals begin to formulate a plan to best utilize their resources to meet student needs through an efficient and effective master schedule. (more…)
Supporting Students through PBIS: A School Community Endeavor
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, is a system with long-standing results. PBIS aims to teach core skills as they pertain to behavioral expectations, similar to how schools teach core curriculum expectations. Whaley School, a separate day school for students with acute behavior needs, has been using the PBIS model for five years in the Anchorage School District. We believe that much of our PBIS success is due to the work we have done in four key groups: students, staff, families, and community. (more…)
Presenting the first Principal Advocate Champion of 2019
Every quarter, the NASSP Policy & Advocacy Center recognizes outstanding volunteer advocates who dedicate their time toward advancing the policy and civic priorities of school leaders, public education, and students across America. The Principal Advocate Champion is someone who has made a powerful impact on the direction of public education policy through their personal engagement with state and federal policymakers and their ability to organize grassroots support behind NASSP advocacy initiatives.
The NASSP Policy & Advocacy Center is proud to announce that Vicki Puckett has been named the first quarterly Principal Advocate Champion of 2019. (more…)
What American Schools Can Learn from Germany
I recently returned from a trip to Germany sponsored by the Goethe Institute and Germany’s Central Agency for Schools Abroad. The focus of the trip was to learn about Germany’s vocational schools and training programs as well as to learn more about how they teach languages other than German. As with any international trip, especially one focusing on schools, there was much to learn. Here are a few lessons the U.S. school system can learn from Germany. (more…)
You’ve Found Your “Why?” But What’s Your “How?”
If you’re reading this, my guess is that you and your school have crystallized a vision for why you do what you do—student learning outcomes, career pathway discovery, etc. In the case of Elk Grove High School (EGHS), our vision is to solidify America’s middle class by educating a generation of highly ethical, civic-minded, economically successful citizens who create a better future for all of us. (more…)
Streamlining Professional Growth through Micro-Credentialing and Badging
I was a bit fearful at the beginning of this school year. Budget reduction days loomed ahead, which—understandably—would be carved out of our non-student contact days, or our professional development in-service days. I worried that we would not be able to continue to make the great strides we have made in recent years in developing teacher leaders through our PD days. (more…)