Category: School Leadership

The responsibilities of principals, and all school leaders today, are increasingly complex. New challenges call for new initiatives and implementing new initiatives can be scary. However, we’ve chosen this role in life because we’re excited to make a difference for our students and communities. We want to be a positive influence, but there are so many factors that can cause us to hold back, to become discouraged. Therefore, now more than ever, we need to know how to manage our self-limiting fear. And the best way I know how is to turn fear into excitement. 

Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong? Too often this feeling begins or is exacerbated in school. As an educator, when you think about your school and the sense of belonging on the part of students, faculty staff, families, community…is there a strong culture of belonging already present? Or does it feel like everyone is disconnected? Yes, they share the same physical space, but other than that there is no strong sense of community. 

We are social creatures. We have an innate need to belong. In my video, I speak to the importance of belonging and ask soul-searching questions every learning leader must ask of themselves.

Every year schools are having to evolve to meet new challenges. What do students need and want today? Their needs are vastly different, yet curiously the same, to what students needed generations ago. It’s a paradox with which school leaders struggle. However, these basic needs will never change:

• They need to be and feel safe.
• They need to have spaces that are conducive to learning.
• They need school leaders who will listen and be responsive to them.

But how these needs are met vastly differs today. In my video, I speak about how it was, back in 1999. As you listen, think about how your students can feel safe and heard right now….

Is being a school leader your calling? Are you burning to make a difference? Our children, the foundation for our world tomorrow, need strong school leaders who will fight for them. If you are someone who is stepping up to this role, I want to sing your praises from the rooftops, because your work makes a difference. However, to survive the unprecedented challenges we face today, you’ll need to have a firm answer to the question: why do YOU want to be a school leader?

Being a learning leader means you need to know everything, right? If you don’t know, you better get out the books or take a class, because you’re incompetent if you don’t…is that how you feel? I’ve observed this many times from leaders, especially leaders in the field of education. They believe they need to know before they can teach or lead others. Could it be that you’re putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on yourself?