How my team and I promote students’ positive self-identities all year round
Wondering what asset-based language sounds like in your interactions with students? These principles can help.
4 reflections for building more equitable schools
How each of us can build environments of consistent, unconditional support for every student.
Our approach to creating a community-centered school
To encourage family participation and engagement, we must center community in all we do.
3 reminders for equity-focused leaders
During Hurricane Katrina, I was a new teacher. In 2020, I was a new principal. Here’s how these experiences shaped my approach to equity.
3 key leadership questions for Black History Month and beyond
With the humanity of our students at stake, we have to sit with some serious questions.
How to Reject the “Achievement Gap” and Boost Our Belief in Every Student
We’ve been looking at the so-called “achievement gap” for decades and too often misreading it as a sign that some students innately do better, perform better or are just somehow better than others. Depending on your environment, that’s not something you might say out loud or take seriously as an idea. But it could still […]
Look, Listen & Learn: Reflections from my first year as a new Principal
For 19 years, I worked in the same school district. I started as a teacher, then various Instructional and Climate Support positions, and then transitioned to the role of Assistant Principal. Then last year, I started a new role as Principal in a new building and a new district. It was important to me to […]
Leader tip: Creating a student spotlight, step by step
One day during a staff meeting, our team was discussing school culture and strategies to focus on student strengths and family wisdom. A teacher spoke about the importance of centering student voice in all of our communications – and that inspired us to create a “student voice feature” for our school newsletter, highlighting one student […]
4 instructional coaching strategies for math teams
As a math coach and education administrator at the county level, I collaborate with leaders and teachers to support mathematics instruction across 23 districts. Every school has its own unique culture, students and staff, and when the collaboration with a school leader begins, I build their instructional leadership priorities into our plans (such as supporting […]
It’s time to mathematize our schools
As a math curriculum specialist working with teachers and school leaders, I find that principals are sometimes a bit apprehensive when it comes to math. Feeling hesitant in a subject that you are not comfortable with is natural. It is what we do with that uneasiness that makes all the difference. School leaders like you […]