Often the students are very excited to move from one grade/school to another. As a former middle and high school principal, I found the folks with the biggest concerns often were the parents. In elementary school (at least in the early years) parents are usually very upset with the separation anxiety of their children. Especially if the child is the oldest or the only child. Where I work now, we are a pre-K through 12th grade school and we have the parents of the little ones walk their...

Here we go again…another horrific school shooting. This time in Florida (I lived and worked there in education for 30 years). Another wringing of hands, people expressing their outrage, call for prayers and condolences but that does not help these victims and the victims at the next school shooting. And there will be another one. The US has to come to grips with the problem. Too many guns (and the wrong type of guns) in the hands of the wrong people. When will it end?

But since...

“The important thing for parents and educators is to focus children on their learning process. When children do well, parents and educators can appreciate their success, but also make sure to tie it to their process—their hard work, good strategies, or good use of resources.” — Carol Dweck

Carol Dweck’s growth...

My message is not necessarily that parents are important (we know this) but you must do what you can to get parents involved in your school. I would make phone calls, emails, hand out invitation to meet with me when I was a principal to parents as they dropped off and picked up their children, used message boards, etc. I would not stop “hounding parents” to get them involved with the school.

Briefly at one middle school where I was a principal our PTA over two years: saw our test...