In my last post, I complained a little that many of my school administrator Twitter followers were not blogging.

As school administrators, we encourage our teachers to collaborate with each other in order to learn new strategies and skills to better reach their students. Shouldn’t we walk the talk as well? Shouldn’t we make it a point to connect with other school administrators in order to better ourselves for the benefit of our respective schools?

One of my goals for this coming year is to read more posts from school administrator bloggers. I have already found great insight and inspiration from posts I have read recently.

What I’ve found, however, is that many school administrators are active on Twitter, sharing small pieces of advice or re-tweeting links to posts, but they aren’t blogging.

They aren’t sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of school administration. What’s up with that?

Then, it occurred to me that perhaps some administrators want to start blogging, but just don’t know how.

I would like to use this post to to give a small tutorial on how to actually create a blog.

Let’s share the wealth.

How to Start a Blog

Step 1: Find a Host

A host is a company that will store your blog on their computers. They give you access to create your posts and then publish it to the web. There are many hosts to choose from. I recommend WordPress.com. WordPress is easy to use, and it offers a lot of extras. You can also  use your Google account to create a blog.  Both services are free. These hosting companies will allow you to create a blog for free with the condition that address of your blog will end with the name of their company. For example: www.YourBlogName.wordpress.com. If you are interested in getting a unique dot-com web address like SchoolAdministrationMastery.com, you will need to purchase a hosting package. I use GoDaddy.com, but setting up a blog is a little complicated. BlueHost.com has an easier set up, and their prices are reasonable. There are other hosts out there, so shop around if you’re looking to get a dot-com.

Step 2: Set up your Blog

Once you’ve created your hosting account, you’ll need to start setting up your blog. You can select from different generic template designs to give it a more personal feel. You’ll probably want to create an About Me page where you’ll give some basic information about yourself. You will also want to learn how to upload photos to your blog. Each host has a different uploading program, but they’re they pretty easy to learn.

Step 3: Adding your First Post

A post is like a diary entry. They are sequentially added on top of each other. You’ll be asked to give the post a title and then you can start sharing your latest nugget of wisdom with the rest of us. Once you’re finished writing, you hit the publish button and your post is live.

That’s it.

But Sam, what do I write about?

I’m glad you asked. Finding content to write about can be tough, but a quick way to get started is to think of ten tips that you would share with a beginning school administrator. Then, make each tip a different post. Just elaborate on each tip, sharing personal experiences, and you’re set for the next ten posts.

I know that’s a really quick tutorial, but it really is easy to blog. Getting started is the hardest part. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about setting up your blog.

Getting people to read your blog, however,  may be a bit more difficult. You might have great information to share, but if nobody is reading it, then what’s the point? Right? Here are some tips that I’ve learned over the years that have helped me get my posts read and shared. I hope they are helpful.

10 Tips to Get People to Read Your Blog

1. Make your title compelling. Your post title is like a headline in a newspaper article. You want to peak the curiosity of your prospective readers. Collaboration Among Teachers becomes Keep Your Teachers From Being Selfish. Which post would you rather read?

2. Keep your paragraphs short. When I see a blog post with one large block of text, I normally click the back button. There might be a piece of valuable information in the post, but I don’t want to search through a mountain of text to find it.

3. Use bullets. Many of your readers will probably skim your post first. I know I do. I look for the bullet points first. Then, if the bullet points peak my interest, I will read the rest of the post . I think many readers do the same thing.

4. Bold the important phrases. Again, this is to help catch the attention of the skimmers like me.

5. Ask questions of your reader. You want to make your blog interactive. Encourage your readers to talk back to you.

6. Offer something of value to your readers. A lot of blog posts that I run across share school activities or family vacations photos. These may be of value to the blogger, but not to anybody else. If you want people to return to your blog, offer something that they can use.

7. Use social media to promote your post. Share your post on Twitter or Facebook.

8. Add a photo. Adding photos is great to catch the eye of your reader.

9. Use dark letters on a light background. People are used to reading black letters on white pages. Using a dark background with white letters is cool on the screen, but it makes it tough to read.

10. Incorporate your personality in your writings. I’m assuming you’re not a boring person, so don’t make your posts boring. Be you.

There you have it. I hope this post was of value to you.

Please let me know once you have your blog up and running. I am always looking to learn more from other school administrators.

By the way, I wanted to let my readers know about some of the school administrator bloggers who I found during my search through my Twitter followers. Their blogs offer some great insights into this profession, and I’ve added them to my list of blogs to read. Please stop by their sites and take a look. I’m sure you’ll find their posts as valuable as I did.

Chet Jackson @chetjackson22

http://chetjackson.wordpress.com

Patrick Malley @ptrkmkl

http://patrickmalley.com

Gordon Vatcher @vatcherg

gordonvatcherprincipal.wordpress.com

Eric Vanden Heuvel @epvandenheuvel

http://www.principalreflections.wordpress.com

Scott Jantzen @ScottJantzen

http://thoughtsfromtheoffice.org

Diane Roberts @robertsdrb

http://dianerroberts.wordpress.com/

Spike C. Cook @DrSpikeCook

http://www.drspikecook.com

Tim Slack @slackt

http://timslack.blogspot.ca/

Dr. Rodney S. Lewis @rodneyslewis

http://2thoughtslewis.blogspot.com

Until next time,

Here’s to your journey toward School Administration Mastery!

Thanks,

Sam

Well, it’s a new year. I’ve been learning a lot lately as I continue on my journey toward school administration mastery.

Just when I think I’ve got things figured out, however, I run into one of those tough learning lessons that bring me back down to earth.

During the last month of 2012, I had to apologize a few times for some mistakes that I made.

One was a typo on some handbooks that I created for the school. I omitted a letter in the last name of our principal, so 1100 handbooks were printed with the principal’s last name misspelled. Thankfully, the principal was great about it. She saw it as funny. I didn’t.

During the three week Christmas break, I had time contemplate my recent mistakes, and I realized that my problem was a lack of focus.

I’m the kind of person who is always trying to make an impact. I think that is a good thing, but lately, it’s been causing me to lose focus on what I really need to be doing. I had been working on a few side projects to help make my job easier and to hopefully improve communication between parents and teachers. A couple of these projects had do to with creating websites for teachers and school administrators.

I was working hard to make an impact with these side projects, but I was not concentrating on what I should be doing as part of my position as school administrator.

Having these weeks off has allowed me to step back and see things from a different perspective.

Now, I’ve made a decision for the coming year: Focus on what is important.

This new year, I’ve come up with a set of 10 resolutions that will help me move toward school administration mastery.

1. Focus on what’s important.

I’ve made a list of my responsibilities. I will focus on these first, and then work on side projects.

2. Smile more.

This has always been difficult for me. I have a natural frown, and I need to actually think about smiling. Smiling demonstrates that I am a positive person and that’s the image that I want to portray.

3. Eat healthier.

Sitting in my office, I find myself munching on candies or other snacks that I know aren’t healthy, and that can’t be good. I have to empty my candy jar and fill it with nuts or granola or something. This is going to be tough. I hate granola.

4. Calendar “Me” time.

My day gets so busy time that I find myself snapping at students or losing focus. I need to have a scheduled time in my day when I can just take a walk for five or ten minutes to replenish myself.

5. Use my calendar more efficiently.

This is pretty obvious one. As a teacher, I didn’t use my calendar that often. As an administrator, there are so many meetings and other dates that are important that I have to make sure I’m aware of.

6. Read more posts from school administrator blogs.

There are so many great school administrator bloggers out there who are sharing their experience online. I would much rather learn from their experience than to learn from my trial and error. I recently decided to browse through my Twitter followers, and I found some great blog posts. What I also came to realize is that too many school administrators are on Twitter, but they aren’t blogging, or if they are blogging, they are only sharing their vacation photos or their special family moments. This is nice, but I would encourage any school administrator reading this to start a blog, and then use that blog to share your experiences with other administrators. 

7. Stop complaining.

I’ve actually improved in this area, but there is still room for growth. My principal showed me how to handle a problem with grace. When I shared with her my mistake on the handbooks, she had every right to complain, but instead she took it in stride and didn’t make a big deal about it. Complaining doesn’t change anything.

8. Ask for help more often.

I know I’m like a lot of new administrators who are trying to prove themselves by  trying to do everything on their own. I have to come to the realization that I’m not a master of school administration yet, and that I’m going to have to swallow my pride every now and then to ask for help.

9. Read more books on leadership.

Right now the admin team is reading a great book that I mentioned in my last post. It’s called Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler. Although I don’t have a lot of time to read anymore, I’m going to make use of my 40 minute commute to work to listen to more podcasts and audio books on leadership. I would love any suggestions from experienced school administrators as to which books to read.

10. Spend more time with family.

I can be sitting with my family around the dinner table, but mentally, I’m back at work thinking about tomorrow’s meeting or that parent who yelled at me over the phone. I find myself being scolded back into reality by my wife on a daily basis. This has to change. This coming year, I’m leaving work at work.

Being able to rearrange priorities is an essential step in becoming a successful school administrator.

I’m committed to fulfilling each of my resolutions for the coming year.

What is your resolution for the coming year?

How will 2013 be different from 2012 for you?

What books on leadership do you recommend?

Do you have a blog about school administration that you recommend?

After that last month of 2012, I feel like I’ve take a few steps back, but I’m committed to making 2013 a year of great growth as I journey toward school administration mastery.

Until next time,

Happy New Year!

Sam

I know it’s been quite a while since my last post. It’s amazing how short the days become as the year progresses.

As I travel on this journey toward School Administration Mastery, I have learned so much.

Some of the most recent lessons I’ve learned are:

1. Write stuff down. With all that I have to do and all the people I communicate with on a daily basis, I have learned the hard way that my memory isn’t as good as I thought it was. I’m taking advantage of my iPhone’s Siri application, and having it remind me of what I need to remember.

2. Don’t take work home. This is a tough one for me. I don’t like leaving things unfinished, but if I want to home life, I need to let work stay at work.

3. Make time to stand and move around. I could easily stay in my chair all day somedays. As a teacher,  I was always up and around the classrom. As an administrator, I’m doing a lot, and I mean a lot of sitting. I don’t want to get used to sitting. It’s bad for my posture and bad for my posterior. So, I consiously make it a point to stand and walk around. If there is something that has to be delivered to a classroom, I volunteer to take it, just to get up and move.

Another lesson that I’m learning, and it’s not really a lesson, but more of a revelation, is that my success as an administrator really boils down to two words – Effective Communication.

Being able to effectively communicate is the most essential ingredient in the recipe for my success as an administrator.

I  know that is a pretty big statement, so I’d like to use this post to make this point.

As administrators, our job is focused on trying to convince, encourage, reassure, motivate,  inform, etc.  Whether we are trying to share our vision with teachers or reprimand a staff member who is breaking a rule, how we communicate will determine our effectiveness.

I look back at the many administrators that I’ve worked under and for, and I can now see how those administrators who were the most effective and most respected were the ones who communicated well. In the same way, those administrators who didn’t communicate well were the ones who did not gain respect or make any lasting impact on the school.

Being an effective communicator has become my primary focus as I grow in this position.

With all the people who I come in contact with, either in person, over the phone, or online, I need to make sure  that I am communicating in a way that allows me to continue to be listened to, respected, and followed.

Does that make sense?

If I am not careful with how I compose an email or state an opinion or share information, I can close the door to any future communications, and I can fall into that category of administrators who are not making a difference nor  having an impact.

I know that some of the course work that I was required to complete to get my admin credential was focused on communication.

Now that I’m sitting in the administrator’s chair, I’m realizing that it wasn’t enough.

I believe that there should be a mantatory course called Effective Communication for School Administrators 101.

Here is what I believe the syllabus should look like:

Effective Communication for School Administrators 101

Topics include:

1. Composing Emails
          Emphasis: Writing to be understood and keep from insulting recipients.

2. Communication with Teachers
         a. Sharing vision
         b. Motivitating teachers
         c. Holding teachers accountable

3. Communication with Classified Staff
        a. Avoiding office staff drama
        b. Effective maintenance of maintenance staff

4. Communication with Parents
       a. Recruiting parent volunteers
       b. Addressing parent complaints

5. Communication with the Community
       a. Connecting with local business

Although I’ve only been a school administrator for a couple of years, I think I could teach this course. I doubt if any accredited school of higher education would hire me as a professor, but I think I have enough experiences to share that I could fill a semester, maybe two.

My point is that as administrators, we need to make learning how to effectively communicate one of our life-long learning objectives. 

I know I have.

The admin team here at my school has recently begun reading a great book called, Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler.

Whether we’re speaking with parents, students, or teachers, there will be times when we’ll have to have one of those uncomfortable conversations. Crucial Conversationsexplains how to successfully conduct these discussions.

Another resource that I use is the Essential Communications website at www.EssentialComm.com. Here I have learned valuable lessons on how to make my communications more effective. I’ve downloaded each podcast, and listen to them on the way to work. I enthusiastically recommend it for any school administrator. I wrote a post about it earlier this year.

I want to be an administrator that will have a positive impact on a school community- staff, students, and parents.

To do this, I’ve come to realize, I need to make sure I master the art of effective communication.

I’m not there yet, but I’ve made it my goal.

Hopefully, I’ve made myself clear.

I welcome your comments, encouraging words, complaints, etc.

Until next time, here’s to your journey toward School Administration Mastery!

Thanks,

Sam

As a school administrator, I’m often asked to sit in on a meeting between the teachers and parents of a student who is being unsuccessful in school.

This is normally how the meeting goes:

Teachers take turn talking about how the student is not doing homework or is being disruptive in class.

Then, the parents give their child a lecture on how he/she needs to take school more seriously.

Sometimes a teacher will add to the lecture, describing a personal story or some kind of heart-felt plea for the child to consider his/her actions and the effects they will have on the future.

Then the parents request more communication from the teachers, even going as far as to asking them to notify them daily if the student doesn’t do his/her homework.

This, of course, is not reasonable. Teachers don’t have the time to contact each student’s parents individually to let them know about homework.

The meeting ends with the parents promising to do their best to hold the student accountable for his/her homework and the teachers promising to communicate more via email.

After about a week, however, the student is back to his/her old habits, and eventually ends the year with poor grades.

What I’ve found is that most parents want to help their child succeed, and they are willing to force them to do their homework or study for their test if necessary. Especially in grades six, seven, eight and nine, it’s important that the parents buckle down on the student. These are the years, in my experience, when many students will place their education on the bottom of their priority list.

The problem is that the parents don’t know what the homework is. They have to rely on the student to tell them if there is homework or not, and the student may not want to divulge such information, especially if homework interferes with skateboarding or video games.

Some teachers have tried to solve this problem by having a website where they post their homework online. This is a great idea, but unfortunately, teachers get busy, and find it difficult to consistently update their web page. Eventually, their website gets abandoned.

So what’s the answer?

It’s called a Homework Blog.

But not just any homework blog, it’s a homework blog that’s not updated by the teacher, but rather by students.

When I was a teacher, I created a homework blog for my team, and it was a great success. Parents could check every night what their child had for homework in each of their classes, and I didn’t have to do a thing, except set it up and select the students who were going to update the blog.

Here’s how it worked:

I set up a blog on Blogger.com (Now I would use WordPress.com)

I set up the first homework page.

I gave two responsible students the login and password to the blog and showed them how to add a new post.

The students then went to each teacher on the team and copied down the homework for the day that was written on the white board.

The students then updated the blog on a daily basis.

All I had to do was give the parents the web address to the blog, and that’s it.

Teachers are happy; parents are happy; students are not too thrilled about it.

Below, I’ve added a link to a video I created for my other blog, SuccessInTheClassroom.com, along with a PDF How-To sheet that I passed out to my current staff.

This is one of the most successful projects that I’ve come up with. It’s a free and easy way to keep parents involved in the education of their children.

I would encourage any administrator who is reading this to share this post with their staff and any other administrator who is looking for a way to involve parents in a more immediate way.

Most parents want to help. They are willing to do their part at home. They just don’t know what the student should be doing.

This student-run homework blog gives the parents what they need to help their child be successful.

I worked great for me as a teacher, and I am confident that your teachers will also see it as a valuable tool to get parents more involved and get more students finding success.

I welcome your comments.

Thank you,

Sam
SchoolAdministrationMastery.com

Here's the PDF file that I gave to teachers at my current school.

Here's a link to the video.

Well, it’s the beginning of my second year in school administration. After 23 years in the classroom and one year of administration under my belt, I feel a little more confident in my new role. Last year was a total mind shift for me. It was also a year of learning and adapting. I’m grateful to the many school administrators who have shared their experience and expertise online.  I have subscribed to many of their RSS feeds, and I have learned so much about what it takes to be successful in this position. I’m always checking my Feedly iPhone App to see what new posts I can read.

As part of the beginning of a new school year, my principal held a meeting for all the teacher leaders on campus. That is, she invited the team leaders and department leaders, along with the admin team.

Her goal was to begin the year with some  policies in place that would help make the year run more smoothly.

At the end of last year, our former principal (We have a new principal this year.) conducted a survey of the teachers, asking them for feedback on how the year went. The results of that feedback identified a few areas where the teachers felt there could be some improvement.

Our current principal used this first meeting of the year to try and come up with strategic policies that would help improve those areas that were identified in the feedback results. We expected the meeting to be a bit contentious, since we were dealing with staff complaints, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It was a great meeting. The teachers proposed ideas; the administration shared their point of view, and together we came up with a definite direction as to what we need to do to change those weaknesses into strengths.

The principal used her position to facilitate the discussion, organize the comments on large posters on the wall, and keep us from deviating from our focus. I was very impressed with the way the meeting was conducted. I learned a lot.

A day before school is to begin, we will have a full staff meeting to go over the direction our school will take for this new school year. This will be the meeting where the policies we developed in the leadership meeting will be share with the staff. The question was, “Who is going to share our new policies with everybody?”

I assumed that the responsibility to tell the staff what we as a school are going to do would fall on the administration.

I was  wrong.

Once we had come to a consensus as to what new policies would be adopted by the school, the principal then asked, “Which of you teacher leaders will be the one to share this with the staff?”

I was surprised by the willingness of the teachers to be the one to take on that responsibility. Teachers quickly volunteered, and I was a bit relieved.

Although most seasoned school administrators probably already know this, I learned that when sharing a new policy or direction for the school, having a fellow teacher share this information will have a greater effect than if coming from administration.

Unfortunately, there is always going to be an us-versus-them mentality between the teachers and administration. Some schools have it worse than others, but whatever the case, having a fellow teacher demonstrate his/her personal buy-in to this policy will go along way to convincing other teachers to buy-in as well.

It also demonstrates that an administrator values the leadership abilities of the teacher. To give away that “time behind the podium” shows that we are a team working together for the benifit of all.

I know some school administrators love to be the center of attention in staff meetings, but I believe it is a wise school administrator who will allow the other leaders on campus to share the spotlight. You can be the best motivational speaker in the world, but if you are still considered one of them, you’re not going to be as effective as a teacher speaking as one of us. I hope that made sense.

This is one strategy that I will take with me as I continue my journey toward School Administration Mastery.

Hope this was helpful.

If it was, please share, tweet, or pin.

You can also subscribe to my RSS feed here.

Until next time,

Thanks,

Sam

I recently attended a graduation party for an administrator friend of mine who had just received her doctorate, and learned one of the greatest school administration lessons of my life. I thought I’d share it here.

Sitting at a table out on the patio with my wife and family, sipping on a lemonade, I noticed a principal of a middle school walk out into the patio and head my way.

I was a little taken aback, because this just happened to be the principal of the school for which I had just submitted an application to be its next assistant principal.

Although we had worked together years ago when we were both teachers, we were only acquaintances.

She came and sat next to me, and we struck up a conversation.

At the time, I didn’t know if she was aware that I was interested in the open assistant principal position at her school. As I learned later, she did know, which makes what happened next so important.

When my wife left to get some more lemonade, I found myself alone with my hope-to-be future boss.

She asked the question, “So Sam, how do you like being a school administrator?”

Looking back now, I realize that I was sitting in the best kind of job interview possible – informal, without time restriction, no scripted questions, sitting in the backyard patio, sipping on lemonades.

And how did I answer?

I rambled.

I tried to impress the principal with my vast knowledge of school administration, and I went on and on.

I remember driving home that night, and thinking about all that I could have said, but didn’t. I had a great opportunity to demonstrate my abilities, and I blew it.

About a week later, I sat in the official interview with the principal and a panel of other administrators, and I was wishing I had a lemonade.

Well, I didn’t get the job, but I did learn a great lesson – Always Be Ready For The Interview.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get such a great opportunity again, but if I do, I know I will be better prepared.

As a school administrator, I know I might find myself in a grocery store line with district officials or at a school event with a school board member or at a barbershop with the district superintendent. It’s important that I am prepared to show competence in my position as a school administrator, which means that I need to be prepared to answer some basic questions about what I do.

Rambling does not demonstrate competence.

I  tried to think of some of the basic questions that I need to be able to answer competently when asked by a parent, a district official, another school administrator, etc.

My goal is to take some time and have a prepared, concise answer to each of these questions. I don’t want it to come off as a scripted response, but I do want to demonstrate confidence in my knowledge of the topic, and most of all, I don’t want to ramble.

Tom Henschel from Essential Communications calls these “Elevator Speeches.” These are prepared and practiced mini speeches that take no longer than an elevator ride.

10 Questions Every School Administrator Should Be Able to Answer

 1. How would you describe your school?

This seems like a pretty easy question, but being able to answer it in a concise manner, without rambling, may be a bit more difficult. I would first focus on maybe three words or phrases that describe my school, and then elaborate each word/phrase. For example: “I would describe my school in three ways: dedicated to excellence, student-centered, and technologically advanced.” I would then go into a brief description of how we meet these three identifiers. The important point to make is to keep it brief. A school administrator could probably go on forever describing his/her school, but that would be – you guessed it – rambling.

2. What is your school’s API?

Most schools are ranked based on their Academic Performance Index. I get lots of parents who are looking to move into the area, and they want to know what our API is. Since it’s so important to so many people, this number is one that every administrator should know. It’s also good to be able to answer the questions: What do you credit the score to? What are you plans to maintain or improve this score?

3. What is the population distribution of your school?

This distribution could be divided based on ethnicity, special education, languages, socioeconomic status, etc. Having a rough idea of the total number of students you have at your school is also important.

4. What intervention programs are in place to ensure the success of all students?

There should be some specialized programs dedicated to meet the needs of those students who are struggling. As a school administrator, I need to know what these programs are.

5. What are your plans for the coming year?

This answer has to be based around the idea of improving student learning. There should always be some plan for improvement in the works – new programs, better access to technology, greater concentration of efforts toward special needs students, etc.

6. What are the challenges you face at your school?

Here’s where I need to be a little careful. I don’t want have an answer that reflects negatively on my school. I can’t use this answer to place blame for our struggles. I need to phrase my answer that it comes out in a positive light. For example: “With the State cutting our budget every year, we are having to rely on more creative ways to find funds for program to help our students learn.”

7. How do you see your role as school administrator at your school?

This is similar to the question that I was asked at the party in the story mentioned above. It’s important that I’m able to articulate exactly what I do in my position, and more importantly, how what I do is improving the learning environment of the students in my school? If I say, “I handle the master schedule and a little discipline,” I’m answering the question, but I’m not making an impact. I need to be able to connect my duties with student learning. I need to express that I’m not just filling a position, but making a valuable contribution to learning environment of my school.

8. What are some Enrichment programs available at your school?

What programs do you have for those students who don’t need intervention? These are what we call Enrichment classes. They are also called Elective classes. Art? Cooking? Music? Web Design? It’s a good idea to know what other non-intervention classes that you offer.

9. How do you ensure a high level of excellence at your school?

I can see this question coming from a school board member or a district official or even a parent of a prospective student. It’s a pretty tough question, but every principal I know  has different programs in place to keep their staff and students working at a high level of excellence. It can be scheduled staff development, time dedicated for teacher collaboration, a no-tolerance-for-missed-homework policy, additional time given to students needing extra help, an emphasis on parent communication and involvement, etc. Most, if not all, school administrators want to be able to say that their teachers and students work at a high level of excellence. The key is being able to articulate what actions are being taken to ensure this.

10. What steps are you taking to involve parents and the community in student learning?

After sitting in the school administrator’s chair for a year, I am beginning to understand how important it is to get parents involved in their child’s education. I’ve seen a great gap in this area. With the advent of the Internet, however, there are so many ways that schools can communicate with parents. Parents no longer have to be left in the dark when it comes to their child’s grades, attendance, missing assignments, etc. It’s equally important for the school administrator to have connections with community leaders and local businesses. With the cut in funding, being able to find business partners can be impressive. Again, the key is to be able to answer this question concisely and competently. This takes preparation and practice.

There you have it:

10 Questions Every School Administrator Should Be Able to Answer

I’m going to be spending the next few evenings going over my responses, and hopefully, should I find myself having to represent myself as a school administrator, I’ll be able to answer in a way that better demonstrates my competency and experience.

If I don’t ramble, I’ll be happy.

I know there are probably other questions that can fit on this list. Please feel free to add them by commenting below.

Hope this post was helpful. If so, please Pin, Post, Share, or Tweet.

Until next time,

Thanks,

Sam

Part of a school administrator’s duties is to deal with students when they are sent to the office for being disrespectful, disruptive, or defiant in the classroom.

It’s our job to talk with the student, hand out consequences, and contact parents if necessary.

I don’t think any administrator enjoys giving consequences to students, ( I know I don’t ), but I choose to see these meetings as opportunities to teach a lesson on respect, and hopefully impress upon the student the need to avoid repeating the negative behavior.

Recently, I was asked to share my experience with a colleague who was stepping into the school administrator role for the first time.

Although I don’t consider myself an expert in dealing with discipline, I shared with him some of what I’ve learned so far – mostly by trial and error – as a school administrator.

I made a list of what I say to the students when they’re sent to my office.

I thought I’d share that list here in case there are other new-to-school-administration readers.

Disclaimer: This list is primarily for those minor incidences like class disruption, excessive tardies, minor rules violations, etc. Major incidences like fighting, theft, drugs, etc. need to be handled more severely, and this list may not apply.

Questions to Ask a Student Who is Sent to the School Administrator’s Office on a Behavior Referral

1. Do you know why you’re here?

Most students will know why they were being sent up, but having them explain the situation will force them to evaluate how their actions led them to this place.

2. Can you tell me what happened?

By giving them the opportunity to share their side of the incident, you gain valuable information about the causes for their behavior. They might blame the teacher or another student, but just listening to their side tells them that you are interested in them.

3. Why do you think you needed to be sent to the office?

This question causes the student to see the teacher’s point of view. You may have to ask this question a couple of times for them to really start reflecting on why they’re in your office.

4. Is this behavior you?

This question will get the student thinking about his/her reputation. Most students don’t want to be known as the bad kid, so I always follow up with, “You’re right. I don’t think this behavior is who you are.”

5. What could you have done differently?

I love this question, because this is where the learning begins. Students begin to think about what they would do if they had a do-over. Sometimes they need some help with ideas for different choices that they could have made.

6. What is going to happen next time you’re in this situation?

This is a good follow up question to question #5. It’s also a good question for the end of the meeting just as a reminder.

7. Are you a good kid?

Again, you don’t want them leaving your office thinking that they are a bad kid. Almost all students will respond by saying that they are a good kid. Here is where I would reinforce this by agreeing with them. “You’re right. You’re a good kid who just made a bad choice this time. We all make bad choices.”

8. Is this something that you can fix?

Some students will want to blame their friends or the teacher or their ADHD, but most students will take responsibility and promise to make better choices.

9. What should I tell mom or dad?

I like this question, because I can add the question: “Can I tell mom and dad that you admitted to making a poor choice and that you promised to work on making better choices?” When I call parents, I always want to include something positive to help make it a more pleasant phone call. “Your son is a good student, and he admitted to not making the best choice in class today, and he promised that he would do his best to focus more on school and less on trying to be funny.”

10. What can I do to help make sure this won’t happen again?

Most students won’t want any help, but the question demonstrates to them that you are concerned about them.

11. You understand that I have to give you a consequence for this. Right?

Most students are willing to accept a consequence for their behavior. I tell them that if I let them get away with being disrespectful to their teachers, then the other students will want to be disrespectful. Students understand this logic and accept the consequence.

Again, I wish all students were perfect and never made poor choices, but that isn’t reality. We school administrators will have students sent to us on a daily basis, because they weren’t able to control their actions. I believe, however, we have a great opportunity to make some significant changes in their behavior if we just look at these encounters and learning moments.

Asking the right questions is a key factor in making these changes.

These are the questions I ask. I would love to hear what other questions school administrators ask their students.

Please comment below or send me an email.

I hope this was helpful.

If it was, please share it with your Facebook friends or your Twitter followers.

You can find me on Twitter at: @schladmnmastery

Until next time,

Thanks,

Sam

I spend a lot of time on the road, and I try and use that time to either listen to an audiobook or podcasts on my iPhone.

Recently, I conducted a search for podcasts on leadership, and I found an amazing resource that I had to share here on this blog.

It’s called “The Look and Sound of Leadership.”

Although the podcast is designed to coach leaders in the corporate world, I have found so many tips and strategies that can be used by school administrators.

The host, Tom Henschel, is a leadership coach who shares his experiences and expertise on the EssentialComm.com  website, and in his podcasts. He offers practical strategies on how to be an effective leader.

I have downloaded several of his podcasts, and have already found great advice that can be used to make me a more effective school administrator.

Some of the topics that he discusses are:

Building Rapport

Resolving Conflict

Performance Reviews

Leading Teams

Leading Change

I have found great value in each of the podcasts that I have listened to, and I find myself looking forward to driving to work, just so I can plug in my iPhone and listen to another lesson from a professional leadership coach.

Although it may appear like this is a paid commercial for Mr. Henschel’s company, it is not. I am not getting a penny for this testimonial.  I just wanted to share this great resource with other school administrators who would like to polish their leadership skills.

You can find the Essential Communication website at www.EssentialComm.com.

You can find his podcasts by typing in “The Look and Sound of Leadership” in the iTunes search box.

I am confident that you will find value in the successful leadership strategies that Mr. Henschel offers.

I am.

Until next time,

Thanks,

Sam

It’s not the part of the job I enjoy that much, but I try to use the time I spend with each student to turn it into a learning opportunity, so they leave my office a little smarter and hopefully they won’t continue the negative behavior. I’ve been able to create some positive connections with many of these students who seem to have a difficult time with self control.

Recently, I had a belief of mine confirmed concerning the relationship with student engagement and behavior problems.

I suppose it’s pretty easy to hypothesize that with more student engagement, you will have less behavior issues.

The confirmation of that belief came on a day when we had very important visitors to our campus.

Our district was one of the four finalists for the distinguished Broad Award given out each year, and my school was selected to be one of the host schools where Broad representatives would be using to visit classrooms and conduct interviews with administrators, teachers, and parents from around the district.

It was a great honor to host the Broad committee, but it was also a great responsibility. We spend a lot of time preparing for the day of the visit.

Teachers knew that there would be a possibility that the committee would visit their classes, and they were feeling the pressure. We weren’t told which classrooms would be visited, so teachers were a little stressed out.

The day of the Broad visit came, and we heard that the committee was very pleased with what they saw.

One of my concerns was how it would look if there was a fight on campus or if there were a bunch of students sent out of class for poor behavior.

As it turned, however, on the day of the Broad visit, there was a total of ZERO students sent to me on a discipline referral. That’s right. No students got in trouble on that day. No student was sent out of class for being disrespectful. No student was involved in a fight. No student was sent to the office for being defiant or disruptive.

Amazing.

In contrast, on the second to the last day of school, when many teachers had a “free” day where students could spend the entire period signing yearbooks and hanging out in the classroom, I had too many students to count sent to me on discipline referrals. I suspended four students on that day – a one-day record for me. I spent most of that day getting witness statements, calling parents, and handing out consequences to students.

What’s my point?

The way I saw it, was that on the day when teachers pulled out their best, most engaging lessons, in order to impress the visitors on our campus, there were no behavior problems. On the other hand, on that day when some teachers had no real lesson plan, giving students a lot of freedom, there were more behavior problems to count.

It was a clear confirmation of what most educators believe: An engaged student is not a behavior problem.

A student who is not engaged in a classroom lesson is prone to be engaged in other perhaps more negative behaviors.

When I was a teacher, I had my good days and my bad days. What I can honestly say is that the level of my lesson plan preparation had a direct effect on what kind of day I was going to have. The more I planned, the better days I had. The opposite is true too. If I threw a lesson plan together on the way to work, things didn’t go too well.

A bored student is discipline issue waiting to happen.

As a school administrator, if I want to lower my discipline count, I need to have more of my teachers creating engaging lessons on a more consistent basis.

How do I do that?

Any ideas?

I found this to be a pretty interesting study on the relationship between student engagement and behavior. Now I have to take what was revealed to me and use it to improve the level of engagement in the classroom.

Wish me luck.

Hope this post was helpful.

If it was, please share it with your friends and followers.

Until next time,

Thank you,

Sam

Every year, 8th graders in our district are sent off into the world of high school with a promotion ceremony that takes place on the last day of school. For the last 23 years, I’ve only been involved in these promotion ceremonies as a teacher, escorting students up to the microphone where I would read off their names for all to hear, never even considering all that went on in the background to put on the event.

This year, my first year as administrator, I was asked to organize my school’s promotion ceremony.

I was surprised with all the details that were involved in putting on this ceremony. It only lasts for about an hour, but the preparation involved was more than what I expected.

It turned out to be a great success. What I mean is that there were no major glitches or mistakes with the ceremony. The students all promoted; the parents were happy, and the teachers and administrators were pleased with the way it turned out. I was especially proud and relieved with the outcome of the event.

I learned a lot while planning this event. I wanted to share some of the lessons I learned, just in case I have to do this again next year.

Putting on a Promotion Ceremony – What to Remember for Next Year

1. Walk the Field.

Our ceremony took place on the football field of the high school next door. The first thing I did was walk the field to see how the students would be entering the field, where they would be sitting, how the stage would be set up, etc.

2. Diagram the Event.

I created a diagram of the event – how students would gather and line up, how and where they would enter, the locations of the chairs, the stage, the bleachers, etc. I included captions describing the various landmarks.

3. Ask Questions about Previous Years’ Events.

I asked about what worked and what didn’t work. How were the teachers involved? Who do I need to contact at the high school for the ceremony? I needed to get as much information about previous events, so I’m not reiventing the wheel or creating new mistakes.

4. Communicate with the Participating Teachers Often.

I emailed the teachers with the plans, letting them know what their responsibilities will be during the ceremony.

5. Make a To-Do List.

I created a checklist of all the details that needed to be addressed to pull of the event. Here’s a short list:

Name cards for each student – divided by team, in two piles (row A and row B), and alphabetized. These cards were distributed to the students on the day of the event, so students would know where to line up before entering the field.

Plants – We needed to get plants to decorate the stage. We ended up borrowing the artificial plants from the front office to place on the stage to make it more attractive.

Name Callers – I needed to know which teachers would be reading off the names of the students as they crossed the stage. It’s important to use teachers who actually have the students, because they will know how to correctly say the names – especially the more difficult-to-pronounce names.

Music – Our district wanted the intermediate schools to use different music than the high schools did. High school usually use “Pomp and Circumstance.” We had to find another piece of music to play as the students walked into the ceremony. This turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought. I ended up composing something on my little recording studio at home. Yes, I composed the walk-into-the-ceremony music. It didn’t have to be too elaborate. It just needed to be about 6 minutes of marching music that sounded regal. I think I was the only one actually listening to it. Here’s a link if you want to hear a clip of the song. I called it, “The March of the Young Scholars.”

Program distributors – I had to get some seventh grade students to help pass out programs to the family and friends who were going to be sitting in the bleachers. I also needed to find a teacher to monitor these students.

Sound man – I had to find someone who could be in the sound booth with a walkie-talkie to play the entrance and exit music. This turned out to be more difficult than I expected. I wanted to use a custodian, but his supervisor didn’t want to let him go. He eventually relented, and I was able to borrow the custodian for an hour.

Chairs – I needed to make sure there was going to be enough chairs for the students and on the stage. In previous years, some administrators had to stand during the event. I was going to make sure that everybody had a comfortable seat this year.

Microphones – There had to be three microphones for the event – two for the teachers and one for the stage.

Signs – I had to place signs in prominent locations to help students line up in the right place.

Students participants – We had three student participating in the ceremony – a student singing the National Anthem, another leading in the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Student Body President who gave the welcome. I needed to make sure that they knew where they fit in the program.

I’m sure there were more items on my to-do list, but these are the more important ones.

What I’ll Change for Next Year

1. Keep the front office staff informed.

I forgot to let the front office ladies know the details of the event, and when parents called to get information, they didn’t have the answers.

2. Don’t micro-manage teacher so much.

I’m a perfectionist  -  a detail-oriented person, so I wanted to be involved in every aspect of the project. I had to back off a little when dealing with the teachers, however. I realized that they are quite capable of following through with their responsibilities. I just had to communicate to them what they need to do. This was a tough lesson to learn.

I actually enjoyed the role of “Project Manager” for this event. It was pretty stressful, but there is something about making a plan and seeing it through to completion that is kind of fun for me.

Like I said, it was a great success, and I received a lot of pats on the back for pulling it off. It never would have gone so smoothly, however, without the help of so many people. I made it a point to thank them all as often as I could.

I don’t know if next year, I’ll be asked to organize the event again, but if I am, I’ll be ready for it – I hope.

I don’t know how helpful this post has been to you, since it was written basically to remind me of what I need to do for next year, but if you took the time to read my ramblings, I thank you.

Until next time,

Thanks,

Sam