Walk-throughs? Why?

Walk-throughs? Why?

When I was a newer principal, I was advised to get out of the office and into the classrooms of my school. “Go do walk-throughs,” my advisor said. “Lots of them. They’re a great tool.” Seemed like a good idea, but soon a problem arose. You never announce, “I’m going...
Watching Game-Tape: Video and professional growth

Watching Game-Tape: Video and professional growth

What do successful quarterbacks do when they come off the field? Not blow-dry their hair and sign autographs; that’s for later. The successful ones grab a tablet and immediately begin to analyze video footage of the plays they just ran. They analyze their opponent’s...
Are you mission-driven? Really?

Are you mission-driven? Really?

What drives you? When I ask that, I mean this: Really, truly, what drives every decision you make? Many of us identify goals we’d like to accomplish and then take actions, by and large, that are pretty darn similar to what we would have done before we set the goals....
“They” – the most dangerous word in education?

“They” – the most dangerous word in education?

As I sat with a school’s leadership team recently, their plan to calibrate staff members’ mindsets and align team expectations called for a monthly staff “huddle,” a departure from their “no staff meetings” practice. The principal sat back and sighed. “It seems like a...
It’s more than relationships

It’s more than relationships

Relationships, relationships, relationships. We’ve heard this refrain from educators for a while now – learning starts with relationships. I had the good fortune to chat with two high school students recently about their experience with a particular teacher who had...