Motivating, encouraging, and celebrating life
All classroom teachers have had the thought. Every administrator should go back to the classroom…at least once! Teachers: Hey, maybe administrators will remember how hard it is! What about how much MONEY we pay out-of-pocket? Or how much TIME (not to mention “BLOOD, SWEAT, and TEARS”!) it takes to run a classroom? So I did. For one whole year. The long, gloomy hallway As a classroom
The love of my earthly life moved into his heavenly home 12-13-2022. Since Gene passed away, surprisingly, I rarely feel lonely. I have Jesus to talk to. And I’ve been talking a lot…day in and day out…pretty much non-stop! I told Him that I was doing all the talking and it would be nice if He would tell me what I’m supposed to be doing
I recently asked elementary principals to rate their staff morale on a scale from 1-10 (10 being out-of-this-world wonderful!). Over 100 principals responded. Here is how they rated staff morale: The responses came in the month of May. Typically, a month where teachers are administering end-of-year testing and well, end-of-year EVERYTHING has set in! My heart was saddened by principals dealing with “school closings”, “needed staff
Are you looking for good team-building and problem-solving activities? Here are a few I’ve tried as an elementary school principal. If I thought it was accomplished with a good amount of success, I gave those activities a “thumbs up”. I’ll also share a few that I thought fell short! Look for the “thumbs down”! MAKE YOUR BED I call this one, “Make your Bed” as
This post may contain affiliate links. See the full disclosure here. “It’s not often that I receive an email that does not include a due date, complaint or request.” This statement was embedded in a return email to me from an elementary school principal after I sent her a thank you! A sad statement but a truthful one I know. I realize by reason of the
The creative and humorous lady in the picture above was my librarian, Lori. The library took on amazing transformations through her giftedness. Parents, staff, and kids absolutely loved her. This BEACH theme was incorporated in the last few weeks of school to get everyone ready for summertime. I want to show you Lori’s ideas that transformed the library and also a couple of ideas to
The professor at my first administrative class had just asked the formidable question, “Why did you want to become an administrator?” I shrunk down in my seat while scanning the room making a quick assessment of the seating order. Maybe this professor wouldn’t see me or solicit everyone’s input. I could only hope! After a few minutes, I realized with dread that I was going
Last week I was with my daughter and grandson when we dropped him off at his elementary school. So fun! My daughter made the comment that they were always trying to hurry everyone through the line. I had to stifle a laugh. I was reminded of the signs I ordered from a sign company (no longer in business, sorry!) when I first started as an administrator.
This post may contain affiliate links. See the full disclosure here. Principals! Are you ready for a FUN challenge? This annual event, held the second week of November, is in conjunction with National Young Readers Week. It is sponsored by Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT! program and the Library of Congress Center for the Book. What is the challenge? Principals pick one day during the second week
As a former elementary principal, I was crazy enough to send weekly staff memos. It was grueling at first to keep up until I developed a few tricks (e.g. Boomerang for Gmail to automatically schedule, jotting down notes or taking pictures as events occurred, etc.). Eventually, it became routine. I also made the rule not to beat myself up if I missed a week! The
This post may contain affiliate links. See the full disclosure here. Early in my teaching career, my principal called a leadership team meeting. Sitting on top of the table in the conference room was a small pre-k size blue chair. The chair represented our students. I was told to keep my students first and foremost. Taking care of the needs of our students was to be everyone’s
If you’ve visited this page previously, I’ve changed it up! I’m attaching a link to a FREEBIES category so that you can add to the cart and then have unlimited downloads for that product. That way I can update the items along the way without you losing the link. I hope that makes sense! And if it doesn’t, no worries…just click the link below for
