One of the most important things a principal does as an instructional leader is conduct observations. I have done what I thought were numerous observations. I’ve gone into classrooms, watched the teachers as they talked to students, jotted some things down and noted when students completed tasks. I’d spend anywhere from five to ten minutes in a class and leave feeling quite accomplished. In researching for this blog post I came upon some FAQs at Michigan.gov and found out that what I thought was good is actually not. For a legally qualifying observation in the state of Michigan you must do at least three things.

Check out the lesson plans

While I would scheduled these observations in my calendar. I had not been as formal as to look at the teacher’s lesson plans. This is simple for me to do because we use planbookedu. This is an easy-to-use tool that we purchased through office funds. Once the teachers register they can share it with me. All I needed to do was click on the link before I left my office, check out their plans and then go observe their class. Without checking and considering teachers’ lesson plans your visit to a classroom is just a visit not an observation.

State Content Standard

Once you’ve checked out the lesson plan you gotta focus in on that content standard. When you’re in the room you need to check and see if they are addressing that standard. Is it incorporated into their “Do Now” or is it the “Essential Question” of the unit. Maybe it’s written in student friendly language as a learning target. Regardless of where it is you need to find it during that observation. Just stopping in and watching the teacher as she/he works with students doesn’t cut it.

Student Engagement

The third component that must be considered is student engagement. Do the students know what they’re trying to learn? If you ask them what they’re doing can they point to the essential question or the learning target? Are they sitting there with heads down and eyes glazed or are they actively participating. According to Dr. Michael Schmoker three of the ways to monitor student engagement are to observe whether or not they are alert and tracking with their eyes, taking notes, or reacting to what the teacher or the classmates are saying. Student engagement is the third essential piece of an observation.

Just walking into a classroom and talking to a few students, watching the teacher present to the group and then walking out does not constitute an observation. You must, at the very least, look at lesson plans, know what content standard is being addressed and take note of student engagement.

What do you consider an observation? What are your State’s Minimum Requirements for an Observation? Be as specific as you can and leave a link to your state’s requirements in the comments section below.

I was recently in a Principals’ meeting and the Superintendent described the school atmosphere of some of the district's school buildings as stale. He went on to say that the methods we were using were not benefiting our children and if we wanted to create change in outcomes we needed to be innovative. He challenged us to try new ways to do things. In order to institute change school leaders must be prepared to battle the naysayers. Try these tips to relieve staff stress around innovation.

Tell a story

This comes down to having a vision of what could be. This is the time to weave in hard facts about what has been and how those outcomes aren’t as good as they should be. The data doesn’t lie, but it can be misinterpreted. Use multiple data points to help show the need for change and to support your narrative.

Slow Drip

A constant flow of communication surrounding the change is necessary. At every opportunity speak about the change and why it’s necessary. Use staff meetings, community newsletters and your social media outreach to prepare your community. Don’t rush into it and provide some time for stakeholders to wrap their minds around it. Communication and time are essential components of preparing for change.

Collaboration

As the Principal you already know that collaboration is key. Identify those key influencers on your staff and encourage their input. Use your student governing body to help spread the word and get those students on board. Give an end goal that you would like and have them come up with the means to get there. Having them participate and lead the way will help the other staff and students buy in. The more people involved the less effort you will have to put forth and the greater your chance of success.

Innovation is necessary to change the status quo. What methods do you use to usher in change? Share what you’ve learned in the comment section below. Join us in The Principal Entrepreneur fb group for The Principals' 20 day classroom challenge, sponsored by quickcashmi.com.

One of the unwritten rules of education is that the parent is always right. No principal wants to hear from board members that they didn’t treat a parent well. However, always supporting parents will ruin your ability to lead effectively.

Gives rude parents all the power

If a parent believes that they are always right, ​

regardless of rudeness, they can and often will ask for just about anything. They will demand that Sally be moved from one room to the next or that a teacher change a grade or extend a deadline.

It also means that these oppressive parents are getting better treatment and more attention than their easy going polite counterparts. That just isn’t right.

It will make your entire staff angry

In conflicts between aggressive parents and teachers it’s okay to consistently side with your teachers. They have to put up with and be great in the face of parents’ complaints, societal judgements and unrealistic expectations on a daily basis.

Treating staff like quality members of the team provides them with the value that they’ve earned and deserve. It shows you have their back. If you don’t support them in the face of an overwhelming parent, smaller things will cause huge resentment and inhibit your ability to lead.

Of course there are ineffective teachers who don’t communicate well or appropriately with parents, but in a conflict, that is not the time to coach those behaviors.

Actually leads to worse parent teacher communication

When you put teachers first they will feel secure reaching out to parents knowing if a situation becomes uncomfortable you are there for them. By showing you value them they will be happier and more energetic.

On the other hand if they are resentful or feel unsupported they are more likely to be short with parents. This can perpetuate a cycle of poor communication not only with troublesome parents but with all parents. The best you can get is fake politeness and your learning community can sense that.

Dynamic principals put their staff first knowing that this builds a culture of caring that spills over into students and their families. The parent isn’t always right.

What are your strategies for dealing with a parent that is just plain wrong? Leave you tips in the comment section.

You want everybody, teachers, students, community and board members, to walk into your building and feel the great energy that you’ve worked so hard to establish. If you want your school culture to be positive, guard against these three destroyers of staff morale.

​Vertical management

We’ve all been on staff that has been top-down and complained about the “leadership” not caring about or even knowing about our situation.

Being overly authoritarian and not collecting or listening to your staffs’ input leads to grudging compliance at best and active resistance at worse. The more collaboration between staff and you, will help keep motivation high.

Meeting Overkill

I’ve been to any number of professional development and staff meetings that I thought were a massive time suck. During those occasions I was on my phone tuning out or answering emails. A great way to demonstrate that you value your staff is to value their time. That way they can take that mental break or do something else that will be more impactful to their classroom outcomes.

Cancerous Staff Members

On a large staff there are usually one or two cynical staff members that can infect new teachers with their negativity. These are the teachers that complain about the new initiatives you're implementing and they actively work to shut down innovation. Find ways to bring them into the fold or figure out a way to coach them up or out. Put processes and procedures in place to minimize their damage until you can do so. Limiting their influence will have a huge impact on the morale and motivation of the entire staff.

When you identify any of these serial motivation killers in the profile of your building culture do everything in your power to reduce and eliminate them.

​What are other motivation killers in your building? How do you mitigate them? Share in the comments’ section.

With the holidays fast approaching finding a gift for staff can be stressful. Trying to figure out what a teacher wants, what gift might send the wrong message and how much is the appropriate amount to spend takes up valuable time. If you’re part of a staff gift exchange the challenge can be even greater. You want the gift to be personal and professional. The solution is easy, gift cards.

Finding a gift card has never been easier. They’re everywhere from your local corner store and gas station to a kiosk in the mall. Getting them for your staff is simple. But who wants to pay full price? Funds around the holiday season are tighter than ever and unless you’re really, really lucky and your PTO is doing something for you, that money isn’t coming out of your budget. It’s coming out of your pocket. The cool thing about gift cards is that you can get them at a discount if you buy them online.

There are local Michigan gift card exchange sites like quickcashmi.com where you can get cards up to 32% off face value. In addition there are national exchange sites like Raise.com and cardpool.com with any number of gift cards to choose from.

As always, planning is important if you want things to run smoothly and on time. Scheduling a time to buy these gift cards now so they have time to arrive is important. Showing your staff that you care for them and that you know them by purchasing a gift card that fits them is a great way to demonstrate your appreciation for all they do.

What are your tips for gifts for your staff during the holidays? Share them in the comments.

It was 5:30 am and I was on the treadmill getting my workout in before school. Sweat was dripping in my eyes as my bad knees complained about the pounding I was giving them. Luckily I had on SportsCenter to distract me. I was about halfway through my time when one of those Fantasy Football commercials came on urging the viewer to create a league. It looked simple enough, and I knew a lot of my friends were participants. I decided to check it out.

According to ESPN if I wanted to be a commissioner I would be able to tweak almost every detail imaginable in a never ending quest to create the greatest league of all-time! As a fantasy football commissioner all that power would be fantastic.

As I reflected on the role of principal vs the role of commissioner I realized that the two roles required entirely different mindsets. As a principal believing you have that kind of unlimited power and behaving as if you do is a recipe for disaster.

The commissioner in fantasy football is based off of the outdated autocratic model of leadership. Criticisms of this leadership style mentioned in an article by N Nayab and edited by: Jean Scheid include:

Lack of involvement from the employee in the decision making process leads to employees not assuming ownership of their work, contributing to low morale, lack of commitment, and manifesting in high turnover, absenteeism, and work stoppage.

The leader reserving the right to make all decisions leads to subordinates becoming heavily dependent on the leader. The team thereby becomes useless in running operations if they lose contact with their leader, and absence of the leader leads to total collapse and shutdown of operations.

The one sided communication flow in an autocratic leadership style restricts the creative and leadership skills of the employees and prevents their development. This harms the organization as well, for the employees remain incapable of assuming greater responsibilities, or to perform anything outside the routine.

An autocratic leader may be successful in the short term and is often romanticized in Hollywood, but once he or she leaves, there is an inevitable collapse of what he or she has built.

A Dynamic Principal finds ways to empower the staff through servant leadership and is as democratic as possible. This gives the staff ownership which helps create high morale and strong commitment. An ancillary benefit of this is not as many teachers call off.

With everyone buying-in and sharing in the decisions, when the principal has to leave for the inevitable meeting, is again unavailable, or eventually finds a different job, teachers are able to pick up the slack, make decisions, and even support a new principal. Under this leadership style teachers are much more flexible and feel safer because they have been part of the solutions.

Servant leadership creates a culture where an interchange of ideas and open communication is the norm. In this type of environment teachers feel supported and are placed into roles where they become teacher leaders. A principal who has created and fostered this type of environment knows his staff and their strengths and is able to find opportunities for them to succeed.

While being a commissioner in a fantasy league is a great way to hangout with your friends and compete for bragging rights it's a horrible way to run a school.

Stepping into a new building as the leader one of the first things I had to do was build trust. The staff has gone through three different leaders in the three short years the program had been running. Gaining their trust helps to create a safe and orderly environment for learning. Something that ripples through our school culture and helps support our students both academically and socially. ​

Ask for Help:

As the new Principal one of the first things I did was ask for help. I was looking to create a schedule that accommodated the needs of the staff while still providing building level support for students. By asking for help in making a daily schedule, I was able develop trust by clearly showing that I was taking their needs into consideration. Asking for help demonstrates vulnerability and makes it clear that you don’t believe that you have all the answers.

Offer Help:

Simply asking “how can I help” shows empathy. It demonstrates that you understand the stress and the time constraints that your teachers are under. I have a special education teacher who is swamped with getting ready for her IEP’s and student follow up. The previous week I asked if there was anything I could do to help support her. At that time she said that she had everything under control. The next week while I was walking down the hall to do a pre observation she asked for some assistance in putting her lesson plans online. By offering to help and then following through I showed I was reliable and true to my word.

Give Thanks:

Offering a staff member sincere acknowledgement of what they’ve contributed shows them that you see the hard work that they’re putting in and that you aren’t taking it for granted. We have a teacher in a leadership position who consistently pulls staff together. She hosts staff get togethers, facilitates small learning communities and provides support in numerous other areas both big and small. Publicly giving thanks for her efforts at our staff meeting creates a culture of openness, support and trust.

What are your quick tips for building a culture of trust? Share below.

sAs a Dynamic Principal you don’t have to be Darth Vader and force students to do what you like. There are three simple psychological techniques that can help change students’ behavior and your interactions with them.

Go to Dagaboh

Change the environment when meeting with a student. According to Psychology Today, [priming] refers to activating particular representations in memory just before carrying out an action or a task. For example, most students associate the principal’s office with discipline and their defenses and anxiety go up. They’ve been primed to expect negative consequences. This shuts down higher brain functions.

To combat this, instead of meeting in your office meet in the media center or talk while taking a stroll through the building or outside. You will find that students will be more inclined to have a conversation instead of inventing stories and excuses.

Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy . ..

Another simple technique is in language modification. Everybody want to feel like they belong, students in particular want to fit in. By simply changing a word from a verb to a noun you can influence students.

Say you would like students to have more grit. Instead of saying, “It is important for you to continue to work hard.” You would say, “It’s important for you to continue to be a hard worker.” Using the noun worker implies they are part of a larger group of students who are also workers. This provides the social inclusion that students need helping to create change.

These are not the druids you are looking for . . .

The third technique is a modification of the tried and true ‘decoy’ used in sales. This is when the sales person offers three different options. One of the options only purpose is to make the more expensive offer look like a better deal.

This technique could be used when it comes to the point where you have to administer a consequence. You would provide options: two lunch detentions, a lunch detention and a saturday detention, or a day in in school suspension. The in school suspension would be your decoy. Most kids would not choose a day in in school suspension. (we all know some kids who would though :-) That leaves you two options with the two lunch detentions obviously looking like a better deal then having to come in on a Saturday. Most students will make the choice of the two lunch detention.

By using the decoy technique you’ve given the student choice and can still administer the consequence for the negative behavior.

Dynamic Principals do not surrender to the dark side of the force and compel student behavior through force. Like Yoda we teach and guide sometimes without the students even knowing. How do you create change in student behavior? Leave your Jedi training tip below. ​

Visibility

Students, staff and parents need to see the principal. Being visible provides the school community with a sense of safety and predictability. Every morning try to greet students as they enter the building, wave to parents as they drop their kids off and stop into teacher’s classrooms to say good morning. Being visible not only gives a sense of stability to your community, it also provides the opportunity to asses the students and staff and get a feel for the emotional temperature of the building.

Sensitivity

Being sensitive to the emotional temperature of your building is a great way to head off any impending blowups. It can also provide valuable information on students who need extra support. A quick email out to your staff can alert them that a student could use some space or a counselor needs to be contacted. Greeting each student or walking through a classroom and reading their body language, facial expression, and tone of voice and being sensitive to their nonverbal cues is an attribute of a dynamic principal.

Positivity

Changing negativity with positive intent is the role of the principal. To paraphrase University of Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh, “attack each day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.” As the principal of the building your energy, positivity and love for students can influence the emotional temperature of your building. It can impact staff’s response to students, students responses to each other and staff and both of their responses to you. Being enthusiastic, and loving the staff and students is what dynamic principals do everyday.

These three essentials: visibility, sensitivity and positivity are three aspects of the principalship that help create a great school culture. What are your three daily essentials?