Tag: leadership

Good to Great: Attracting the Right Teachers

In my previous article, I introduced a new series on how insights from Jim Collins’ Good to Great (New York: Harper Business, 2001) might apply to schools. In his book, Collins and his team of researchers study eleven companies that achieved exceptional results over a long period of time in relation to their comparison peers. Through his research, Collins and his team distilled seven characteristics of these great companies, each of which he claims are implementable across industry lines. A few years later, Collins wrote Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005). In this companion monograph, Collins draws out

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Building a Strong Faculty Culture

Schools are interesting organizations, to say the least. They may vary in leadership structures and governance policies, but they all contain the same core groups of constituents: students, parents, faculty and staff members, administrators, board members, and donors. Of these groups, which is most critical for the success of the school? While a compelling case could be made for each one of them, I have come to believe that the answer is faculty. Faculty are the front line workers and first responders of the school. They are not only expected to interface with school customers (parents) on a regular basis.

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Three People You Should Listen to in 2021

As 2020 wraps up there is much to be grateful for in the midst of one of the most difficult years we’ve experienced as a society. Today is Boxing Day, which is a great day for gift giving, reflection on the year past and perspective on the year ahead. (When I lived in the UK, my family and I fell in love with Boxing Day. It was such a relaxing addition to the Christmas season.) So I would like to give a gift by recommending a few different podcasters who will fill your new year with excellent content and interesting

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Class of 2020: The Next Greatest Generation

The class of 2020 has felt the full force of the disruption caused by the Coronavirus. Graduation ceremonies have been cancelled, postponed or held virtually online. Nothing about the spring of senior year went according to plan for the class of 2020. It has been described as catastrophic and traumatic by students, parents and teachers. In the face of such obstacles, how do we maintain a confident faith? Part of gaining the courage to lead, we must come to grips with our current circumstances. I myself find great meaning in the quote by Marcus Aurelius, “What stands in the way

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“Teach Like a Champion” for the Classical Classroom, Part 2: Teacher-Driven Professional Development

There are two general approaches to professional development in education, one that is supervisor-driven and the other that is teacher-driven. In the supervisor-driven approach, the principal or dean is the primary driver for teacher development. The principal sets the goals, schedules observations, provides feedback, and identifies future growth areas. The strength of this approach is that it puts the responsibility of developing teachers on administrators, field experts who have been on their journey as educators long enough to develop a general sense of best practices to pursue and pitfalls to avoid. The notable weakness of the supervisor-driven approach is that

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The Importance of Courage and Curiosity for School Leaders Today

If you were to make a short list of some of the most important traits for school leaders, what would you include? You might start with confidence. Confidence affords leaders the ability to stay calm under pressure and remain focused on a course of action when the going gets tough. Or perhaps humility comes to mind. The quality of humility enables a leader to see beyond her own well-being in order to seek the well-being of others. Along with confidence or humility, you might think of perseverance. Perseverance is that invaluable leadership trait that propels a leader to never give

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journal on the table for reviewing the year

20 of the Most Memorable Maxims from 2019 Educational Renaissance

The end of the year is a good time to take stock and review how far we’ve come. These last few days I’ve been doing this, both for myself through rereading my bullet journals, but also for Educational Renaissance by rereading all the old articles of 2019 in search of gems of wisdom. Along the way, I was impressed by the unity of thought among the Educational Renaissance writers, as well as the presence of quite a few memorable maxims in the midst of all that dense (or playful) educational theory and practice. A maxim is usually defined as a

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marketing manipulation

Marketing, Manipulations and True Classroom Leadership

Earlier this fall I finished reading Simon Sinek’s Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Besides being inspired and challenged in my own leadership, I was deeply taken with his vision for effective marketing or branding: the idea that starting with why the organization exists is the most effective way to inspire excellence and a loyal following. I was first introduced to Simon Sinek by one of my former students. He was working on his Senior Thesis with me, and his topic was the negative ramifications of the smart phone. So naturally he shared with me

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