Have a Good Life

superintendent department of ed, 34 years in education.

Great educators all over the place.

Seven Keys to a Positive Learning Environment in Your Classroom

I have yet to meet a kid who is connected who disappoints.

If you build them, they will learn.

Learn every kid’s DNA, Dreams, Needs, Abilities

Start with something simple.

Every kid wants adult time and we should make that positive.

Focus on the kids

Kids don’t get consequenced to better behavior.

Don’t try to change people, try to change behavior.

Have adult conversations about what we are going to do with kids.

You can’t manage every classroom from your office.

Be the “Judicious Parent”

What is managed within and what is managed without the classroom.

The difference between rules and expectations.

What it looks like, feels, like, sounds like.

If we don’t model what we expect, then we should expect what we model.

How to work with challenging team members?

If everyone is nodding their head in agreement, you know somebody is leaving in disagreement.

Sometimes, we just follow someone and deal with what they left behind.

Leadership Rule #1, whether you create it or condone it, you own it.

How to deal with the comfortable, but not good.

Get clarity on our purpose.

Knowing the skills you have, how do you see that aligning with our purpose.

When it gets tough, we will turn to each other when we have clarity of purpose.

We do construction work in times of calm.

Ineffective practices = easy.

We have to get to the hard stuff and be willing to get messy to service 100 % of our kids.

How to find time. We make time for what we really believe.

Good collaboration takes time, but Bad collaborations takes even more time.

Chase time doesn’t work

How to be a transformative principal? Ensure that relationships are healthy and positive. Being positive doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, but being negative does guarantee a negative outcome.