Tom Waters

Mission statements don't matter unless you want to be a great leader - that's the title of a recent article that reviews successful cases of organizational leadership. For school leadership, I'd take it a step further. Mission statements don't matter unless you want to simply be mediocre, at best. Schools rely on a core sense of purpose - a unique selling proposition - because the service we provide is about changing lives. A mission statement removes the fog of daily work and gives purpose to something larger. When you clarify your school's mission, you provide: Unique identity that defines what you do. Core purpose to ignite why you do what you do. A filter through which all goals and strategic decision are passed. Language that unifies teams. If you're lucky to have a community that's academically advantaged, you can get by without a mission statement.  You'll be average or slightly above average, but turnover will be a prob...

Preview a Chapter Here Burned Out, Beaten Up, Fighting Back: A Call to Action for America's Public Educators Released on February 9, 2018 Dr. Latoya Dixon gives a practitioner perspective on the efforts of policymakers to reform education as they actually cause harmful unintended consequences. We have to shift the culture away from competition to collaboration, from standardization to personalization, from the test to the children. We are long overdue for this conversation. She offers a confession and personal narrative about her own burnout as a successful teacher and campus principal. She offers simple-to-follow action steps that will allow educators to fight back against the harmful effects of poorly-designed policy and demeaning narratives. We've become so connected to the test we're using to sort, sift, rank, and label our schools, that the issue of trusting teachers and educators to assess children's academic needs and provide for thos isn't a con...

I once heard the book titled something like,  Feed Your Teachers or They'll Eat the Students . The gist of it was this: build a healthy work environment , and teachers will get the most learning out of the students. To do this, teachers need: Support Affirmation Professional learning Positive feedback Coaching feedback Listening I think you'll agree, these are the basics for a healthy school culture. You'll also agree the same is true at the leadership level. Feed Your Principals, or They'll Eat Your Teachers Your principals want the same as teachers - to  be successful ! Wait a second, that's the same desire held by district leaders and community members. So why do principals often act in ways that reveal detrimental dispositions? Dispositions and actions that undermine success. Such as: Fear of being judged harshly. Insecurity about their success. Need for control. Reaction to unforeseen problems. The answer is... ...they...

We're in the midst of the holiday season and one thing is for sure...every store out there is vying for your attention. It's difficult to focus on your list. All the stores have really cool stuff for really great prices. Focusing is a skill that is hard to develop when the distractions look so great! The same is true in school leadership and school improvement. Every school out there seems to be doing something great. Every publisher has great ideas to improve student learning. Every leader is making an impact in their world of influence. Your superintendent is offering ideas. Your peers are talking about ideas. Your teachers are innovating new initiatives. Your school improvement plan is growing and mounding. But where's the focus? School Improvement Without Focus You know the campus improvement plan. It's thick and no one ever looks at it. You may have started strategic planning in lieu of the traditional campus plan. That's great! Regardless ...