Restorative Practices Roundup: 5 Leaders, 5 Stories“RP has become increasingly important as a tool for educators who are struggling to meet the educational and social-emotional needs of children surviving a pandemic.”
— Karen Webber
3 Steps to Intentional Instructional Leadership“If I want to encourage students to excel, I have to equip teachers to excel – and that means working deliberately to provide my team with the tools, structures and support they need.”
— Ranesia Edwards
It’s time to mathematize our schools“School leaders like you have an important role to play in building a school-wide positive math culture, regardless of your own background in math. Research shows that the way adults talk about math powerfully shapes students’ math mindsets.”
— Margie Pearse
Want more culturally responsive instruction? Start with restorative practices.
In conversations with folks who are newer to restorative practices (RP), I often hear that they’re familiar with the idea of restorative circles – but that’s it. And while restorative circles are valuable and transformative, the reality is that RP isn’t just about community-building or reforming your school’s approach to discipline. Restorative practices shift teachers’ […]
7 Principal–Tested Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas
Teacher Appreciation Week is here! For leaders like you, showing appreciation doesn’t always have to involve elaborate gestures. It can be as simple as sharing heartfelt words or offering teachers the gift of time. Here are 7 ideas from leaders in the Principal Project community:
School leaders, are we giving teachers mixed messages about “self-care”? Here are 3 ways to get it right.
Today, I called a teacher to ask how she was doing. Halfway through the conversation, she stopped me and confessed, “I was dreading this phone call.” When I asked why, she said, “Because there are so many things I know I haven’t done yet, and I thought you were going to ask me for them.” […]
SEL for School Leaders: 5 Strategies for Adaptive Leadership (Part 3 of 3)
This is part of our series on supporting the capacity of leaders to foster the psychological safety and well-being of staff, in partnership with leaders in Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Check out Part 1 on building emotional capacity, Part 2 on meeting design and facilitation and the full deck of strategies. “If there was […]
In 18 years of being a principal, implementing restorative practices is the most valuable thing I’ve done.
In Principal Matt Hornbeck’s school community, implementing restorative practices reduced detentions, suspensions and office referrals and increased teacher retention.
SEL for School Leaders: 5 Strategies for Meeting Design & Facilitation (Part 2 of 3)
This is part of our series on supporting the capacity of leaders to foster the psychological safety and well-being of staff, in partnership with leaders in Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Check out Part 1 on building emotional capacity and the full deck of strategies. Shifting meetings online can seem straightforward: You schedule a meeting, you […]
SEL for School Leaders: 5 Strategies for Fostering Your Team’s Emotional Intelligence (Part 1 of 3)
This is part of our series in partnership with leaders in Virginia City Public Schools, on how leaders can foster the psychological safety and well-being of staff. Every decision we make in our schools has to go back to the question: How is this going to impact the students we are charged with every single […]
Equity Pauses: A Tool for Creating a Whole-Child Approach to Data Analysis
As education leaders, we often encounter friction when it comes to looking at student data with our teams. One of the biggest tensions comes from the difference between using data for accountability and using it for improvement. I believe strongly that the schools we lead are the people’s schools, and our communities need to be […]
How restorative practices are transforming Baltimore City Public Schools – and where to start in your school community
Over the past several years, Baltimore City Schools has been working to transform our schools and communities by fully implementing restorative practices (RP). We’ve learned that restorative practices are not just another thing you “do” or some new thing to “try out.” They’re a way of being. Restorative Practices emanate from the use of problem-solving […]
Distributed leadership: Empowering teachers to make a lasting difference for students
Beulah McLoyd is a former high school principal and now serves as executive director of Program Implementation, Midwest Region, for New Leaders. You can follow her on Twitter at @BeulahMcLoyd. When I first took on the principal role at a Chicago high school for the arts, I was charged with reopening a school that had […]