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Iron Sharpens Iron – Keeping Administrators Sharp

I wanted to share something that my principal instituted at the beginning of the year for the admin team.

It’s called Iron Sharpens Iron.

The idea is to have each member of the admin team (Principal, Assistant Principal, Student Advisor, and Counselor) bring a short lesson on something that can be beneficial to the group during our weekly admin meetings.  

This can be sharing of an insightful article or video that has some relevance to our position as leaders, or it can be a mini lesson on a topic that will help us be better communicators, etc.

The point is to keep learning.

I can see how administrators can become so involved in their jobs that finding time to learn new techniques or strategies can be challenging.

With all the budget cuts in education, sending administrators to conferences is not as popular as it used to be at the district level.

Staying “sharp” can be tough.

That’s why I like the idea of Iron Sharpens Iron.

Here, we each get a turn an share our expertise or our recent learning experience.

We keep each other sharp.

We tell teachers that they need to collaborate more to make use of the “expert across the hall.” We tell them to share their best practices and learn from each other.

Administrators can do the same. We can learn from each other.

That is why, if and when, I become the administrator who calls the admin meeting, I will continue to add this element into our weekly meetings.

Iron Sharpens Iron.

I would like to know if this is something that other administrators include in their meetings.

Please leave a comment.

Thanks,

Sam

2 Comments

  1. January 30, 2012    

    Sam: love the idea and concept! Although our admin learn from each other indirectly, we have nothing as organized as your team. I love the idea that everyone on the admin team can be both teacher and learner. I will look to use this model in the future.

    • Sam's Gravatar Sam
      January 30, 2012    

      Hi Bill, thanks for the comment. I really like it. It helps make these meetings a bit more “interesting.” It also forces us to do research on topics that are relevant to our positions as leaders. Thanks again.

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