“A leader is worth nothing without voluntary commitment, because the followers are actually more in charge of the outcome.”
Archive for the ‘Difference Maker’ Category
Working Harder or Working Better
February 26th, 2011
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This week I am blogging from the NASSP Conference in San Francisco. "More is easy. Better is hard." This morning I listened to Bill Daggett of ICLE talk about school improvement. Bill said something that I have heard him say many times before. In fact, I have used the same statement in many of my [...]
The Lead Learner is the Learning Leader
December 17th, 2010
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Assistant principals are difference makers. When it comes to getting things done on a day-to-day basis in a middle or high school, assistant principals play a key leadership role. Educators are great at generating plans and ideas, but we are not as good at implementing them. From my experience, both as a long-time assistant principal [...]
Simply the Best: Assistant Principal
November 4th, 2010
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader Over the course of my forty-year teaching career, which included twenty-six years as a department chair, and ten as Curriculum Coordinator, I worked with a significant number of school administrators and district leaders. This is the third in a series highlighting those individuals who in my opinion were the [...]
The 20% Solution
October 28th, 2010
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20% of eighth graders are on target to graduate from high school 20% of students earn passing scores on AP exams 20% of students are prepared to enter the military 20% of students have the writing skills needed for college 20% of current ninth graders will graduate from college in 10 years "America has a [...]
It’s National Principals Month! Go to the Rubber Room!
October 5th, 2010
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“Districts have to treat principals like they expect them to lead.”—The District Leadership Challenge It’s October and it is National Principal’s Month. Congratulations, fellow principals! However, I’m confused. Are we actually honoring principals at the same time that the national plan for school reform is to fire principals first and fire principals often? I have [...]
Superman and Santa Claus
September 30th, 2010
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First, I will give you the bad news boys and girls. Superman and Santa Claus are not coming, at least not to public education any time soon. Now here is the good news. Everyone is talking about the importance of education. New York Times op-ed columnist, Gail Collins, put it best when she wrote, “Right [...]
Simply the Best: District Leader
September 22nd, 2010
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by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader Over the course of my forty-year teaching career, which included twenty-six years as a department chair and ten as Curriculum Coordinator, I worked with a significant number of school administrators and district leaders. This is the second in a series highlighting those individuals who in my opinion were the [...]
Blame the Kids
September 10th, 2010
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The new school year has begun and my principal friends are telling me that they are already hearing complaints about the behavior of this year’s senior class. After years of listening to the same complaints, I finally had heard enough and one day I said to our administrative staff, “If we don’t like how our [...]
Finding the Best Teachers: Who’s Interviewing Whom?
August 12th, 2010
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“The interviewing process says as much about the school as it does about the candidate.”—The Teacher Leader Note: Thanks to the passage of a $26 billion jobs bill to protect 300,000 teachers and other non-federal government workers, principals and school leaders may have the opportunity to actually add or save teaching positions.The interview process may [...]
