There is no question that educational leaders today deal with a relentless stream of competing demands, requiring them to work at a rapid pace, shifting quickly from one task to…
Category: Embodying Visionary Leadership
My professional career for the past 23 years has been as an educator. I was previously an elementary school teacher and for the past 18 years, I’ve been a principal.…
Read More Why I Create…The Principal as Educational “Artist”
Outside of school, most people apply learning across disciplines, scenarios, and experiences. For a majority of our lives as students, we are taught in a system that creates blocks of…
This post originally appeared on my EdWeek Blog One of the hottest new education books is The Innovator’s Mindset by my friend George Couros a Division Principal of Teaching and Learning with Parkland School Division,…
Read More An Interview With George Couros About The Innovator’s Mindset
As I approached the end of my first year at New Albany High School, I took the time to reflect on my beliefs and share them with my Staffulty and…
Join us tomorrow night for our third Connected Educator Month #CPChat. We are excited to have a great trio of Education Leaders moderating this week as we discuss using social…
Read More This Week’s #CPChat – Social Media for Professional Learning
This post was originally published by Johnny Bevacqua at Figuring It Out I have the best job in the world. Being around talented, passionate, inquisitive, creative, compassionate and fun people is…
With any new position, job, or skill…there is a learning curve. These days I walk the tightrope of leading…and learning. I posted this quote at our PLC meeting today and…
One thing that I pride myself on, is the ability to curate and share the work of others. I have been blessed with a huge network on social media and…
Although I have seen this picture before, I saw it tweeted again recently: Although this seems like a no-brainer as a method to quickly capture information, there is also the…
Read More Taking Notes vs. Taking a Picture of Notes; Which Wins?
This post was originally posted on Figuring It Out by J. Bevacqua One of the exciting opportunities that stand before us as a community is the renewal a large portion of our…
Read More From Possibilties to Priorities: Inspiring a Vision for Learning
I was just recently issued a challenge by a good principal friend of mine, Adam Welcome, to post ideas around specific topics each week. I think it is a wonderful…
To simplify the notion of innovation, it is something that is both new (either invention or iteration) and better. Innovation is not about the “stuff”, but about a way of…
Frustration is an easy emotion when you either see opportunities for change in our work, but don’t see others moving to the point that you have envisioned. In one day,…
Read More 3 Questions Crucial to Creating the Conditions for Change
A question that has been burning in my mind lately is “how do we make great learning go viral?” Many want positive change to spread quickly, but often we create conditions…
“Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity.” Will Smith Maybe it’s because I have been listening to “motivational speeches” on 8Tracks, or maybe because I have been…
If you have read this blog before, you have known that I am repetitive on the notion that innovation starts with the question, “what is best for kids?” We have…
Read More It’s not always about the decision, but often about how the decision was made.
Dr. Todd Whitaker says, “The best thing a principal can do to build parent relations is to ensure every student has a phenomenal teacher.” To do this, we can start…
Our high school football team (American football) is headed for the state championship game this weekend (You can see their championship game promo here.)
Two years ago when these senior players were sophomores, their team won no games. It was a painful experience for everyone.
But the coaches and players rallied around a new vision, and now they are reaping the harvest of their hard work.
A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to say a few words to the team. So I shared with them one of my favorite stories from history: the epic battle of Little Round Top. Read More Going For Gold: An Essential Element
We are excited that for the second straight year Connected Principals will be working in conjunction with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) during the…