Eduleadership

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Posts by Eduleadership

Moving the Bell Curve To the Right

March 19, 2010 - 4:54 am

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In Better, Atul Gawande describes the unexciting but immensely powerful impact of improving the performance of doctors. Rather than focus on breakthroughs and new technologies, he says, many more lives can be saved by simply moving the bell curve to the right.
It used to be assumed that differences among hospitals or doctors in a particular [...]

It Cannot Be Taken Lightly

March 19, 2010 - 12:48 am

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This is the one profession where you are responsible for the future of our country. It cannot be taken lightly or as an impossible task.
-Texas Principal

Providing Feedback to Master Teachers

March 18, 2010 - 5:23 pm

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Teachers at more advanced levels of proficiency are generally very proud of their practice, and may have been asked to serve as a mentor for student teachers or interns. With such experience, it’s easy to perceive feedback as disrespectful if it’s not delivered carefully.
On a short walkthrough, it’s not uncommon for a principal to [...]

Feedback for Performance: The “Next Steps” List

March 17, 2010 - 5:22 pm

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Principals have an obligation to provide instructional leadership for every faculty member, not just those who are struggling. But how do you make an intentional, systematic effort to provide feedback to every teacher, including those who are excellent?
It can be challenging to provide constructive feedback to your best teachers. What do you say to help [...]

The “Warm Body” Zone

March 16, 2010 - 2:19 pm

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What’s my impact as a principal? One way to look at effectiveness is to divide the spectrum (from low to high) into three distinct zones:

The crisis zone – ineffective leadership causing major problems for student learning and school operations
The “warm body” zone – maintaining the status quo, keeping the school functioning the way any moderately [...]

School Library 2.0

March 16, 2010 - 5:00 am

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EdWeek on the 21st century library:
Information literacy, which has long fallen into the realm of librarians, is “no longer an optional literacy,” said Buffy Hamilton, the media specialist at the 1,500-student Creekview High School in Canton, Ga. “It’s a literacy and a form of cultural capital that I think you have to have in order [...]

Seattle’s Child Magazine on Teacher Evaluation

March 15, 2010 - 5:50 pm

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Seattle’s Child Magazine has an informative article on the state of teacher evaluation in Seattle Public Schools:
“Historically, there has not been a lot of will inside the school system to conduct a serious evaluation of employees. There’s been a failure of will to simply make use of the tools the district already had,” [school board [...]

Introducing Atul Gawande, Educator

March 14, 2010 - 8:09 pm

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One of my favorite authors on improvement and performance today is Atul Gawande. His insights have profound implications for educational leaders, and he may be one of the most influential reformers to come along in a long time.
But you won’t find him at Teachers College or ASCD. Atul Gawande is a surgeon.
In Better, he [...]

Book Review: Results Without Authority

January 10, 2010 - 2:18 pm

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My school district has taken an interest in project management (PM) lately, and while principals have not been part of the PM training, I thought I would look into the field and see what I could learn to help in my work.
The book that rose to my attention is Results Without Authority: Controlling a Project [...]

My Essential Mac Applications

December 6, 2009 - 1:59 pm

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I will be upgrading my laptop’s hard drive soon, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a list of the Mac applications I plan to keep:

Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage. Poorly written, but essential, especially for email and calendar sync with Exchange Server.
OmniFocus for keeping track of tasks
Evernote – [...]

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