(Photo credit: Tommy Brown)
An active visible principal is a viable one. We’ve moved from the principal as a manager to one that is an effective education leader. But how do you balance those administrative business duties (office time) with making an appearance in the classrooms?
I found the “Classroom Visitation Calendar” a valuable tool to document the principal’s time spent in classrooms. It was the accountability factor for me that kept me on track.
When I was an instructional coach I was required to document my visits to the classrooms. To do this, I created a calendar that hung on the inside of their classroom door. I initialed this “Classroom Visitation” page upon entering the room on the correct date. The teacher then signed the page once (at the end-of-the-month) to verify my visits.
Visiting the classrooms was the BEST part of my job as an administrator. When I first started as a principal, it wasn’t always easy getting into the classrooms. Many seemingly urgent needs tried to pull me away from that all important job. Here are three things that helped:
- Make classroom visits a priority. My goal was to visit at least once a day if I was on campus. You and I both know the countless needs of what running a campus entails. Many other items will scream for attention!! If you don’t make classroom visitations a conscious goal or priority by verbalizing it, writing it down, or by whatever method works for you…it’s not going to work! And by the way, I never beat myself up (too much) when I didn’t accomplish that goal. Everyone knows life at school doesn’t look the same every day!
- Let office staff/parents/teachers know a general time you will be in the classrooms…and why. My office staff did a great job of letting parents know how important their children and my staff were to me and that I was “making the rounds” soon after the morning announcements. Eventually, it became common knowledge. It helped to have #1 in mind (the goal) after entering your office in the morning. I would skim my emails for any high priority messages (you know, ones from the superintendent or such that needed an immediate response) with the intent of answering them AFTER “morning rounds”. The words “get to work” for me meant walking the campus, not working in my office at that time.
- Utilize a “Classroom Visitation Calendar”. Again, I have to factor in accountability for my goals to work and the calendar did that for me. I would initial on the calendar the specific date upon entering. The teacher would sign once (at the end of the month) to verify. One glance at a calendar told me if I needed more visits or perhaps if I was in there too often. These calendars then went into a notebook that I could use for documentation.
I’ve included a free download of calendars for you! You can hang up the calendar by month “as is” or use the insert button to add text, clip art, etc.! Note: I’ll be updating these every year, so please create an account when you download these FREEBIES. Do not worry, I absolutely do not share your info or overload email boxes! ENJOY!
Update: The July 2024 to July 2025 Calendar is ready to download!
Click the picture below or get the download here!
Thanks again for your service to the next generation of leaders!
Lead joyfully,
Gail Boulton
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