3 Things a Principal Can Do in the Next 4 Years

I have been asked to share a vision for a school tonight. I am going to share three things I think a principal can do for any campus that will foster student growth and bring joy to the community at the same time.

The first thing principals can do is support classrooms to foster student growth. As a teaching/learning community that means we principals need to listen well- observe the ins and outs of the challenges our staff faces every day. We can watch and support through making changes that make teacher's work easier. If there are unnecessary barriers to their work- we remove them. I once met a teacher in her room during break and she said, "Dr. Roth do you know that I only see my entire class for one our on Thursdays?" See our master schedule was set up to put all these programs on during Thursdays (Art, Orchestra, PE) and things like Math and reading were pushed to the side. As a principal we took this problem to a teacher group who helped adjust our schedule the following year.

We listen because it helps us support. We plan professional development that teachers can use the next day- training that helps them foster student growth.

The second way we can positively impact the campus is to Increase Collaborative Density. When schools operate like a group of independent contractors they fail to produce the best program for students. Only when we create structures that pull out the awesome ideas within the school- and help them spread... only then do we bring the best for our students. I love it when schools are united in meeting the challenges in front of them. Little things like using one problem solving process throughout the campus (learned that from Katie Wisdom at Ridgeview) can go a long way towards developing academic momentum. I saw Mr. Barth teach an awesome lesson on critical thinking- which would be even more powerful if other subjects and grades were using the same tools he shared with the students.

The third thing we can do as principals is Magnetize the Campus. Find relevant and meaningful ways to attract people to your school. We created a Young Author's Conference at our school. Students worked to produce books and then had a chance to display that work in front of external audiences- like a convention. The students were joined by professional authors in the local area and could interact and be inspired by them. We magnetized the campus! Parents were talking about the writing the students were doing for a year after that... and it is fun too.

These are three things a principal could do to impact the culture of their schools in the next 4 years- I guarantee this will inspire the next generation.
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