Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tips for Starting the New School Year

As both a teacher and principal I recognized the importance of starting the school year on a positive note. These beginnings say a lot about your school's culture and the relationships you want to build with students, families and staff. I'm always looking for good ideas that I can use or that I can share with my teachers. This week I received an online post from Edutopia (from the George Lucas Educational Foundation) that describes 9 tips for starting the new school year. They emphasize collaborative with families, with personnel in your school and with your own Personal Learning Network (PLN). I thought I'd pass them along and hope you find them helpful.

As always I'd enjoy hearing from you about other tips you have for starting the new school year on a positive note.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Tips for New (and Experienced) Principals


The start of another school year is rapidly approaching. When I was a principal I began every year with lots of anticipation and a little bit of anxiety. I always focused on assuring that my school was a welcoming place for students, families and staff. And I was always looking for new ideas for how to get the year off to a good start.

This week I found this blog post from The Connected Principal. It provides 15 great ideas for new principals but as I read them I found them to be helpful for experienced principals as well. So, I want to share them and hope you find them helpful.

As always I would welcome your feedback and thoughts about other tips you have for the beginning of the school year.