FUN!

Dr. William Glasser states that one of our basic needs is to have fun. This is just as important for teachers as it is for students.

When I was at Jackson Elementary our principal at the time, Ernie Nix, showed us the film FISH Philosophy about Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington. They had learned at this market the importance of fun in the workplace. There is also a book Fish! Catch the Energy written by the owner of the market, John Yokoyama.

Principals can do a lot to make the school a place of fun for the teachers. It starts with the attitude. With the right attitude the principal will think of ways to make a teacher's day and be there to provide undivided, caring attention. This is especially important for those teachers who are irreplaceables.

High Expectations for Whom?

I was reading a book What Great Principals Do Differently by Todd Whitaker that gave me some food for thought. He said that almost all teachers, whether they are effective or not, have high expectations of students. He said that it is the same for principals concerning teachers. What separates effective teachers and principals from those who are less effective is that they also have even higher expectations for themselves.

Educators who have high expectations for themselves would constantly be learning and growing by doing such things as:

• Attending conferences, seminars, and workshops to learn and to network with others who want to do quality work
• Finding a mentor and participate in cognitive coaching
• Reading books and articles
• Keeping a reflection journal to determine what went well and what could be improved
• Participating in action research projects
• Etc.

In other words, the teacher who had high expectations would be to be the head learner in the classroom and the principal who had high expectations would be to be the head learner in the school.

It's Part of the Job

How ludicrous it would be for a dentist to tell a person with a toothache that he couldn't help him or for a lawyer to tell a person accused of a crime that he only took cases that had nothing to do with a crime or for a doctor to declare that he doesn't want any patients who are sick. That is what professionals do--deal with the problems people are facing. Yet, too many teachers demand that they only want students who are ready to learn--students without any problems.

Effective teachers believe and accept that problems of students will always be part of a teacher's job. They see problems as part of their normal, expected workload. They are not too hasty in wanting to pass off a student problem to the principal, the school psychologist/social worker, and/or to the Special Education teacher expecting them to resolve the problem.

Principal Behaviors Affect Learning

The effectiveness of the principal has been found to be only second to teacher quality as a factor in student achievement. Yet, the principal factor may be underestimated because the principal can affect achievement indirectly as well as directly.

In today's posting the direct ways will be mentioned. These include visiting classrooms, frequently interacting with students, publicly celebrating accomplishments of students, and maintaining visibility around the school.

Listening to student voices--especially those of diverse learners and low achieving students--has provided added insights as to what principal behaviors contribute to their learning such as:

• Not only do principals need to be visible, but they also need to be approachable. They make themselves available to speak with students and engage with them letting students know they are interested in their personal academic challenges and successes.
• The principals not only visited classrooms on a regular basis but they were interacted with the students while in the classroom.
• Principals who exhibited both administrative and teacher behaviors were more influential than those who only exhibited administrative behaviors.

The impact of leadership tends to be greatest where the learning needs of students are most acute. In fact, it is next to impossible to meet the needs of diverse learners without the critical component of effective and powerful leadership.

Principals and Spiritual Leadership

When I was at BYU working on my doctorate I wrote a paper for one of my classes about the leadership of principals and diverse learners. My conceptual framework was:

• Principals have the potential to have an impact on student academic achievement
• Diverse learners have specific, unique needs that, if met contribute to their academic success
• The principles and attributes of spiritual leadership complement the needs diverse learners have to be successful
• Principals who become spiritual leaders will help diverse learners experience greater academic success

My hypothesis became: Principals who approach their educational leadership role as a spiritual leader will be more effective in helping diverse learners be academically successful. Therefore, over the next few blog postings we'll explore what it means to be a spiritual leader and what it takes to become one.