The Assistant Principal Podcast

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 26-30, 2023.

We are in an era where teacher and school lead autonomy is under a lot of pressure. It is becoming common practice, especially at the elementary level, for teachers to be handed a tightly structured curriculum and scripted teaching package and told “do this.” We even hear the term “teacher-proof” being used to refer to the idea that anyone, even a struggling teacher, can do this program.

On the other end, we have mandatory evaluation processes that, while well-intentioned, concentrate time and attention on a summative process that actually detracts from the formative work that helps teachers to grow in their craft.

Both of these situations put processes and purpose before people, so today Mike Anderson and I are going to help you think about how to be more strategic and to leverage these two phenomena to put people first and to help grow a better school.

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 19-23, 2023.

In behavioral psychology, a punishment is defined as any change that reduces the likelihood of a
behavior occurring again. Retribution is defined as legal revenge, with something being taken or
inflicted upon someone else for a wrong.
Let’s be honest, we mix these terms up a lot. Students can only act in the ways that they have
learned, and only cope using the strategies they have.
What if there was another way to “do discipline”? One that didn’t chew up half your day and
that actually did decrease the likelihood that you would be dealing with the same kid and same
issue over and over? If your curiosity is piqued, stay tuned!

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 12-6, 2023.

One of the most common laments I hear from school leaders involves the lack of student engagement present in so many classrooms. What drives engagement isn’t activities, its learning – deeper learning. But what is deeper learning, and how do we help teachers learn about it and implement it? I hope you are ready as we go deep into deeper learning on today’s episode. 

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of June 4-9, 2023.

I’ve been hearing from a number of people who are getting ready to be brand new assistant principals in the fall and I have been thinking about the most critical things for them to do during the summer and the first few weeks of school. Of course, you need to build relationships and learn how your school does all the paperwork, and you need to get familiar with your policies. Your new principals and district leaders will help you with all of that.
For my suggestions, I wanted to get away from the obvious, so I have 3 suggestions for you to get ready for the wildest ride of your life. And if you aren’t a new AP, I hope you will stay with me because all of these tips will be helpful for experienced leaders too!

Today’s episode of Five for Friday recaps the strategic leadership emails for the week of May 29 – June 2, 2023. 

I’m going to go completely out of order today and just work through the overall theme which was about solving problems. In today’s episode we will touch on the six dimensions of organizations, the role of leadership, change processes, and an example of identifying root problems. This episode will tie together several of my key conceptual frameworks in more detail than the emails did, so be ready for a meaty episode that begins at 40,000 feet but takes us right down to ground level. The whole week was inspired by a training I did last week with a group of non-profit leaders. We worked through an example of the process of identifying problems and landed in a slightly unexpected space. I’ll share what happened at the end of this episode, so please stay with me.

Last fall I offered a five-page guide on ten activities to support new teachers during the first two-
weeks of school. The activities were designed to achieve three goals:

● Create a trusting relationship with the teacher
● Lay the foundations for a well-managed classroom
● Provide curricular guidance

Today’s guest has been doing some remarkable work using a high-quality teacher satisfaction
survey to identify keys to teacher retention. What really stands out to me is that he can provide
districts with data that is most applicable to them, not to every other district in the state or
country. That said, there are some common things that assistant principals and other school
leaders can do to help increase teacher retention. So how do these rigorously researched factors
compare to my goals for APs of building the relationship, laying foundations for classroom
management, and providing curricular guidance? We are about to find out, but I want to offer
you a challenge before we get any further – if you hear one or more simple actionable strategies
to increase teacher retention, will you actually implement them? I wonder...