A Fish Out of Water, Just Learning How to Breathe Again
Does anyone else feel like a fish out of water right now, just trying to learn how to breathe again? I have felt this way for the last two weeks. As a high school principal for nearly 15 years, I...
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The Ever-Growing Role of the Assistant Principal
In an unexpected way, being from Alaska actually helped me prepare for my role as the 2019 NASSP Assistant Principal of the Year. When you are from Alaska, you get asked a lot of the same questions...
View ArticleAdvisories and Crisis: Taking Care of the Kids
There’s a lot to write about everything going on right now, but I’m going to start with talking about how the structures we have in place are the best things we have to lean on when crisis hits. To...
View ArticleWhen School Is Canceled: The First Few Weeks
On Tuesday, March 10, I was meeting with my instructional leadership team after school for our regular monthly meeting when I was alerted that an email just came in from our superintendent about...
View ArticleOne Step in Front of the Other: Navigating Self-Care in Uncertain Times
How are you? No, really. If you are an educator today, your life has completely turned upside down in a matter of weeks. Just a few weeks ago, most of us were getting ready (or returning) from a spring...
View ArticleTending Our Garden: The Importance of Mental Health
It’s that time of the year again—spring has sprung despite the health crisis we are currently experiencing. I first wrote this blog post for the (now canceled) April virtual tour that was supposed to...
View ArticleNew Per-Pupil Spending Data is Progress Toward Educational Equity
It’s not every day that an issue that impacts my work at my Dallas elementary school makes it into the pages of the New York Times. Yet this opinion piece spoke directly and persuasively to the need...
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Communication During COVID-19
In March 2020, students and educators walked out the doors on a sunny Friday afternoon, waving to one another because spring break had officially begun. Little did any of us know that spring break 2020...
View ArticleEngaging Families in Remote Learning
Throughout my #remotelearning series, I have tried to provide practical ideas and strategies that can be used now. One aspect that needs more attention, at least in my opinion, is how we can assist...
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Denial, Anger, Acceptance: The COVID-19 Grieving Process
As we have transitioned into new territory, I’ve found that many of us seem to be undergoing a process of grief. Initially, I of course was in denial, just as many of my staff and students were. I...
View Article‘Can I Survive This First?’: Teaching and Learning During COVID-19
In a recent Zoom staff meeting, my principal asked five staff members to share the ways they’ve reached out to students. One teacher shared that he’d sent out a journal activity to his students, and...
View ArticleRethinking ‘Senior Moments’ in a Time of Cancelations
My oldest daughter is a senior, and I have been blessed to spend every day with her at school since she was a seventh grader. As we approached the last few months of her high school career, I couldn’t...
View ArticleWe Can—and Will—Do Hard Things
There is no question that we are in absolutely unprecedented times. Naturally, in situations like these, we turn to the leaders in our schools, districts, states, and nation that exhibit empathy,...
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5 Leadership Lessons Learned in Recent Weeks
I began writing this post at the beginning of my state’s—Kentucky—descent into being “healthy at home” and my growing consciousness of social distancing. I replied to the invitation with an...
View ArticleLeading Through a Pandemic
During the best of times, being a school leader is challenging. Balancing the wants and needs of thousands of people on any given day can be exhausting. During the best of times however, there are so...
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Coping With COVID-19: 5 Ways Leaders Can Alleviate the Anxiety of Students
A recent report shared that Americans are experiencing more restlessness, nightmares, and generally poorer levels of sleep during COVID-19. I’m certain this is also true for students. As educators, we...
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Reculturing the Assistant Principalship
Assistant principalship serves as the entry level to educational administration and the gateway to the principalship, yet many assistant principals say they have been ill prepared for lead...
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For Meaningful Learning Experiences, Focus on Connections
On online platforms such as Google Classroom and Zoom, teaching and learning look quite different than our normal program of learning face to face on the school campus. Learning is a social endeavor,...
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Effective Walk-Throughs in Our Digital Spaces
Even as schools have transitioned to online learning, it’s heartening to see that this crisis isn’t keeping school leaders from carrying out what I think is one of the true joys of school...
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Staying Connected During a Lockdown
Pandemic. Lockdown. Virtual Learning. Social Distancing. Social Isolation. Five concepts that few of us thought would consume our world just six short months ago. Yet, here we are. On March 23rd,...
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