Great Team Building Activities Part IV. The Captivating Teacher Manifesto. I want to be captivating.
I want to entrance students with my subject. I want students fascinated to walk into my classroom. I am the teacher of THIS subject. I can't make all their subjects captivating, that isn't my job. I can speak of the importance of English, Math, Science, History and pull a little into my topic, but I will make my class one they want to come to.I will be that teacher who captivates them. When I see the spark in their eyes, I will fan it with my energy, excitement, and education in the subject until it flames into a bonfire that will never go out.
6 Ways Principals Can Connect With Students. This killed me today… My 8 year old girl when asked what a Principal does, “It’s that person that talks to you when you’ve done something bad.”
#cpchat—Alec Couros (@courosa) August 25, 2012 As most of you know, that was from my brother and he is referring to my amazing little niece. I do not want her or any other kid seeing their principal in that manner. This is in no way meant to criticize the current principal or Raine’s school, but it did spark me to think about my time as a school principal and some of the things that were extremely important to me. ”Fostering Effective Relationships”, in my opinion, is the most important quality outlined in the Alberta Principal Quality Standard, and those relationships are the basis of a strong and innovative school.
As schools have either started or will be starting in the next little while, I just wanted to share some ideas about practices that I thought were important as a principal. Welcome the kids when they arrive. Highly Effective Principals Raise Student Achievement: Study. It's indisputable that great teachers lead to successful students, as the presidential candidates have touted, but what about students' connection to their school principals?
A study published in Education Next has found that the effect of highly effective principals on student achievement is equivalent to 2-7 months of additional learning each school year, while ineffective principals negatively impact student achievement by a comparable amount. For their study, the authors used a value-added model similar to the one used to measure teacher quality, but applied the calculation to the entire school. They examined the extent to which math achievement in a given school is higher or lower than would be expected based on student characteristics, including their achievement the previous year. The authors attributed achievement differences in schools enrolling similar students to the quality of the principal. Leading Successful and Dynamic Schools. Creating the conditions for great teachers to thrive.
A previous post, What makes a great teacher?
, was a popular post. I suppose that’s not surprising; people are intrigued to know what the answer might be. Am I a great teacher? Can I be a great teacher? What would it take for me to feel that this applies to me? Where teachers are already ‘great teachers’, am I doing enough to reward and motivate them? I’m not going to use this post to describe the full gamut of accountability systems we deploy or the CPD opportunities that we offer.
I think it comes down to a few key principles and this is an attempt to capture the essence: Purpose: All organisations are essentially collections of individuals with their own personal values and goals. Challenge: Talented people thrive in a high-demand environment. Autonomy: Fundamentally, if we think we’re doing a decent job (and if we’re not), we like to be left alone. Growth: Great teachers are learners; they want to move forward. Related Posts: Principals Share 'Best Meetings of the Year' All it takes is one waste-of-time meeting to give all staff meetings a bad name.
That's why we asked our "Principal Files" team to share a meeting that went exceptionally well. You're sure to find an idea or two here to pump up the value of meetings in your school. How successful are your staff meetings? Do some go over with a bang? Others with a thud? Creating staff meetings that are truly valuable, motivate teachers, and lead to improved student achievement is the goal of every principal.
Click for a list of the 14 principals who contributed to this article. Great staff meetings start on the first day of the new school year. One of the more tedious tasks at the start of the school year is the time spent "reviewing the rules of the road" and "reaffirming the nuts and bolts" related to a host of issues from attendance to safety, Green told Education World. Green's game actually combined elements of several popular game shows. Sample "Handbook Jeopardy" Questions. Interview Questions for Prospective Elementary Teachers by Leah Davies, M.E. Effective Principal Leadership. Sharing. Learning. Leading.