Tag: #cpchat
Ever Wonder if You’re the Worst Principal in the World?
Have you ever wondered if you’re the worst school administrator in the entire world? OK, maybe I’m exaggerating the question a bit. But truthfully, this question has entered my mind on a few occasions. I’m sure it’s natural instinct to compare my performance, knowledge, and achievements against my colleagues. If nothing else, it gives me [...]
To Explo and Elective Teachers, I’ve Failed You
I’ll just come right out and say it–to all of the elective and exploratory subject teachers with whom I’ve worked over the years, as a school administrator I’ve failed you. And miserably too. Trying to answer to all the legislative mandates, rules, and regulations that have placed such heavy emphasis on core subjects; professional learning [...]
Pinterest: Organize and Share Your Favorite Education Links and Images
I’m so happy to share another bookmarking-content curation tool that was recently launched, called Pinterest. Using Pinterest, individuals can create a board on a specific topic while “pinning” various images and links on their board for others to read. It’s described as “online pinboard” that yields people with the power to organize and share their [...]
Sorry, but I Won’t Think for You
As a school administrator and former special education teacher, I have tremendous respect and high regard for teachers. Occasionally, the teaching field can be extremely-difficult, stressful, and full of delayed gratification. Teachers are the “front-line force” for implementing a school district and school building’s goals and objectives. It is teachers that face the numerous academic, [...]
Students and Kids Say the Darndest Things
Even on stressful days, the one thing I can almost always count on, is that my students will say something that just cracks me up and lifts my spirits. It’s almost as though students can gauge when adults feel overcome with emotion and know exactly when to insert a wise-crack that leaves an adult with [...]
Principals Need to Make the Uncomfortable, Comfortable
Yesterday, our district dedicated the day to school-based staff development, with an emphasis on curricular issues. But, during the second-half of the day, I dedicated my high school grade-level team attention toward our ongoing planning/implementation of a school-wide positive behavior supports (PBS) program. I would be flat-out lying if I said this planning process went [...]
NCLB Finally Not Making Sense to Lawmakers; What Took so Long?
I receive automatic email messages from my elected U.S. House of Representative Sam Graves (MO-R) on a weekly basis. Admittedly, I usually send many of these directly for the inbox, but today I held back and decided to read it because of the title line–”Our Education Standards Must Make Sense.” In short, because some of [...]
Connected Principals’ Newest Contributing Blogger
Ok, ok…I’ll admit that these type of announcements should be coming directly from an organization’s leaders, but I’M EXCITED!! Since early this summer, I’ve been regularly participating in a personal learning network (PLN) dedicated just for school administrators and principals, Connected Principals. Through this network of administrators, I’ve been reading others’ blogs, linking to their [...]
Too Many Meetings? Too Much Planning and Brainstorming?
Early this morning, I had an interesting, and somewhat surprising, conversation with a fellow staff member about the excessive meetings to plan and brainstorm our school’s PBS program. From our conversation, it was very obvious that this staff member was prepared to get the PBS program rolling and felt as though we’ve been “spinning our [...]
Study: Devastating Neighborhoods and Impact on HS Graduation
A recent joint study by University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin sociologists find that the longer children live in a “devastating neighborhood,” the greater the chance is that students will not graduate from high school. According to the study: “Compared to growing up in affluent neighborhoods, growing up in neighborhoods with high levels of [...]
