Creating a school culture that champions innovation, rewards teamwork, and values feedback As a building principal whose days are filled with countless observations, emails, and student interactions, it’s easy to forget that there really is a world outside of my wonderful middle school. Over the last several years, I have been fortunate to have spent
One school’s approach to rethinking advisory From our first days on campus, it was clear that the school had once been committed to an advisory program. There were dusty advisory binders in the corners of classrooms, and many teachers remained passionate about the aims and some features of the program, but it no longer had
Engaging students in shaping school climate improvement pays off There is growing research demonstrating that students perform better academically, socially, and emotionally when they are meaningfully engaged, contributing members of a school with a positive, caring, equitable school climate. As adults, we often think we are the architects of a school’s culture, but we underestimate
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Literacy as sustaining practice in every classroom Régine recently decided to plant a flower garden. A friend, who was also a master gardener, volunteered to help. Immediately, this friend began talking about how plants create “themes” in a garden. Would there be a theme of color, height, or texture? That’s when Régine nearly gave up
Where students take a test can make a difference in their ability to perform “I didn’t do very well in the library, I was distracted,” one of my sixth grade students told me a few days after completing a math progress monitoring test in the school library. An uncomfortable testing environment can lead to distracted
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Insights from and for principals Exemplary middle schools focus on health and wellness. While this focus may be primarily on our students’ wellness, we also need to focus on the wellness of our faculty and administrators. It is a fact that, as teachers, we are under a lot of stress. I believe that morale is