Get Your Learnin’ On
Education fluctuates more than a rattlesnake’s temperature. We cannot wait two years, then emerge and ask, “What did I miss?” Education moves much too fast for that. So what can we do to keep our heads in the game? Here are some ideas…
The Bull’s-Eye of School Discipline
Remember that time when there was a line of students awaiting their punishments outside your office door? The school day was a blur of black eyes, name-calling, and disobedience. That was this morning, really? Oh, you mean that happens every day?
Stop It!
The principalship is one step shy of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, so a little diversion is nice. But when all the diversions in our day get in the way of what is most important, we need to say Stop it! because sometimes succinct wins.
Leading Off the Edge of the Map
It might not surprise you to come across in a column about principal leadership names the likes of Thomas Edison and Ferdinand Magellan. So how the heck did Pete Hall manage to add to that mix Rowlf the Dog from The Muppet Show? Follow along…
Confronting Concerns With Teacher Performance
The time is now to confront the malpractice being committed by teachers who don’t pull their weight. If there are children in that teacher’s classroom, we have an obligation to provide the best possible learning environment and to insist upon excellence from that teacher.
Four Things You Must Do in the New Year
For this new year, let's promise ourselves we won't overdo it with pledges we can't keep. Let's make a few subtle shifts in our attitude that can pay substantial dividends in our daily routines. Let's make a special effort to do these "Four Things You Must Do in the New Year."
Who’s Doing the Work Here, Anyway?
I’ll just spit this out there: It’s time that we, as educators, evaluate everything that we do in our classrooms. Many of us are spending a tremendous amount of time and a monumental amount of energy in low-yield practices.
Who’s Your Joey Amalfitano?
You wake up late, you burn the toast, the cat vomited on the rug and you find out by stepping in it, you leave the house just barely behind schedule but then have to stop for gas… Ever had a day like that? That’s the day you have to find your Joey Amalfitano.
Teacher Selection Counts: Six Steps to Hiring
As principals, we feel an enormous amount of pressure to staff our buildings with strong, effective, intelligent people. If you’ve ever had to fill a teaching vacancy, you know how hard that is: Hard as a coffin nail. Included: Tips for "getting the right people on the bus."
Reviving the American Dream
Pete Hall is wondering if the American Dream is dying. "As educators, we can teach -- through some direct instruction and intentional role-modeling -- what the American Dream means," he says. Will you be joining Pete in reviving the American Dream this year?
Changing Addresses
Forward this column to anyone you know who will have a new principal’s office in the coming school year. That includes new principals beginning their first assignments and vets who are moving to new schools or districts. Plus: Tips for starting off on the right foot.
Turning Teacher Evaluations on Their Ears
The scheduling, the classroom observations, the reports, the checklists… Teacher evaluation time is an exhausting time. Just ask our ulcers. But when you keep SITTM in mind, and pair it with frequent classroom walk-throughs, students end up the big winners.
Before "Lightning” Strikes
Around and around we go with the Frequent Fliers. The Detention Crew. The kids who have difficulty staying out of trouble. They are the Lightning Club. Lightning can strike at any time, without warning. Included: Start a Lightning Club in your school.
Why 100 Matters
According to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, all students -- that’s 100 percent of enrolled students -- will test proficient by the 2013-2014 school year. Do you know what 100 percent really means? One goal-oriented school in Washington State does!
Meet Pete
In each monthly entry, Education World columnist Pete Hall challenges principals to always strive to be their best. Hall is currently an elementary school principal and serves as the executive director of EducationHall.com, a company he founded to offer support and professional development to school leaders and leadership teams. While principal at Anderson Elementary School in Reno, Nevada, Hall transformed the school from one "in need of improvement" in 2002 to the only Title I school in the state of Nevada to garner "high achieving" designation in 2004. That achievement thrust Hall into the national spotlight when he earned ASCD's 2004 Outstanding Young Educator Award.
Hall is a sought-after national speaker, consultant, and author. Among his works is The First-Year Principal.
To learn more about Pete Hall, go to his Web site, EducationHall.com.
See previous columns in Pete Hall's "Always Strive to Be a Better You" series.
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Why I Wear Red Socks to School
The earliest known socks were discovered in Egyptian tombs. In subsequent years, socks have taken many turns on the paths of style and function. Principal Pete Hall’s socks, for instance, are red. Every day, red socks. So why does Hall wear red socks to school every day?
T2 -- Togetherness and Teamwork
There is a Kilimanjaro-sized mountain of research supporting the importance of teamwork in our schools. Quotes such as "many hands make light work" and "two heads are better than one" could not be more apropos than they are in today's schoolhouses.
The Attack
With the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act, higher standards and expectations, growing pressure for preparing children for global competition, and an increasing need to address the whole child… on behalf of 50 million children I ask you to join me in "The Attack."
My Three Favorite Things: Data, Data, and Data
"Educators, as a breed, are afraid of data," says Ed World columnist Pete Hall. "We treat them like contagious numerical pathogens. After all, for decades we have been the evaluators, but now we are the evaluatees, often left to the mercy of unpleasant school designations..."
600 Reasons To Do It Again Next Year
"I cannot begin to share the number of times that I've sat alone in my car at the end of a long day of principaling. I sit, unwilling to turn the key as dusk creeps into the staff parking lot, and wonder aloud, 'Why, exactly, do I continue to do this?'"
Prioritize and Delegate Your Way to Effective Leadership
"If a principal cannot effectively prioritize time and energy, and if a principal cannot delegate certain tasks and decisions, then that principal will find him or herself dangling at the end of a very short rope over a frothing sea of sharks, piranhas..."
Get Out of That Chair!
Principal Pete Hall says walk-throughs are the most powerful thing he does. They provide him with a clear picture of the state of learning in his school and many peripheral benefits too. Walk-throughs, Hall says, should be a priority in every principal's day.
Morphing Your Elementary School Into a Literacy Academy
We used to call them grammar schools. Now we call them elementary schools. I propose a new definition of our schools -- especially those that service the primary grades. We need to shift our mindset and rename them as…
Mentoring and the Three Golden Rules
New principals have no idea what they're about to encounter. That is not their districts' fault; they hired competent leaders. The principalship is simply a beast that cannot be understood until one has wrangled with it. Included: Three "golden rules" for principals.
3 Steps to Embracing Change
Change is scary. But as leaders of school improvement, we are faced with the daunting challenge of making change a necessity, a known quantity, and fun. Yes, change is fun! If you don't believe that, come along with me.
Panning for Gold in the Era of Accountability
Is your school's public perception in need of a little polishing? Even if your school is "in need of improvement," you can mine golden nuggets of good news and silver linings to make the school's image shine. Here are some ways you can do just that.
Always Strive to Be a Better You
Just as James Bond exists by the words "Live and let die" so award-winning principal Pete Hall lives by the words "Always strive to be a better you." How does Hall's motto guide his principalship? He shares ideas that might help all principals be their best.
Pete Hall is one of Education World's Administrator's Desk columnists.
Click to meet the rest of our Administrators Desk columnist team.
Click to meet the enire Education World columnist team.
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