I’m in the Principal’s Seat, Now What? Five Things You Can Do Tomorrow to Create an Exemplary School

Allan R. Bonilla, Ed.Dabonilla1@yahoo.com

www.coaching4educators.com

This Was Me

Palm Springs Middle School

Here I Am!

• And I Want To Be Great!

#1…Structured VisibilityHow visible are you?

• First Things First…

Visibility Pays Off!

Which Will You BE?

We are in a People Business• A family of caring individuals….

See & Be Seen

Classroom Walkthroughs

• An Amazing Strategy..

Supervision

Cafeteria Success

Extra-Curricula

The End of a Great Day!

What is your typical day?

#2…From Delegation to Collaboration

“What I think a great leader does, a great coach does, is understand what kind of

talent you have and then you help people leverage that talent so that people can achieve what they never thought they

were capable of.”• David C. Novak, CEO, Yum Brands

Honor Roll

Marcus Buckingham

Strengths & Interests

• Curriculum• Special Ed.• English Language Learners• Data Interpretation• Parental Involvement• Discipline• Technology

Marshallmemo.com

Kim Marshall Memo Mar.10,2008

“The key to long-range sanity and effectiveness is hiring good people, nurturing them, and refraining from micromanagement. The goal is clear: teachers handling instruction and virtually all discipline problems, teacher teams using data to continuously improve teaching and learning, counselors preventing or dealing with students’ emotional problems, custodians handling the physical plant, students taking increasing responsibility for their own learning, and the principal freed up to orchestrate the whole process”.

Will this be you?

You Are The Orchestra Leader

Are you a good delegator?

#3…From Collaboration to Change

Working Together To Succeed

Miami-Dade’s SBM/SDM

Shared Decision Making Teams

• Personnel• Budget• Curriculum• Social• Calendar• Discipline

School Based Management Committee

• Chairperson of each team• Chairperson of SBM committee• Parent reps• Student reps• Community reps• Principal• Open

Attendance ImprovementWhat We Did

• Competition• Shorts Day• Donuts & Pizza• Trips• Announcements• Culture shift• Tech Guy

We Made It!!

Block Schedule

• A B C D E F• 1 2 3 4 5 6• 3 4 5 6 1 2• 5 6 1 2 3 4• The above shows a cycle of six days. Assuming that “A” might be a

Monday, students would attend periods 1,3,5. The “B” would be Tuesday and students would attend periods 2,4,6. The “F” day would be the following Monday and the cycle would complete. Students would have attended all six classes in a two day period with all classes rotating from the first block to the middle block to the last block.

Middle School Conversion

• Grouping classrooms• Setting-up teams• Team leaders• Interdisciplinary units• Team meetings• Team planning• Advisory period

#4…Celebration

10 tips for boosting employee morale.

• #1 tip: “Recognize special events in the lives of your employees”.

“Celebrate what you want to see more of” Thomas Peters

• Birthdays• Graduations• Children & Grandchildren• Holidays• Awards & Recognitions• Achievements

“Great leaders know the importance of job satisfaction. Employees want to feel appreciated,

respected, empowered, and valued.”

• “There are two things people want more than sex and money…and that is RECOGNITION & PRAISE.”

Dr. Edward Hallowell, Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2010

• “We have known for a long time that the need for recognition is fundamental to optimal human performance. It releases dopamine, a transmitter linked to pleasure and well-being, which is why praise feels so good.”

What do you celebrate?

#5…Culture & Climate

• Culture is the collective behavior of people who are part of an organization & includes beliefs, values , vision.

• Climate is the pattern of behavior.

Culture is the Foundation

• “Culture drives great results” Jack Welch

“Culture is not the most important thing, it is the only thing”.

• Craig Jelinek, CEO

Rethinking Principal Evaluation nassp.org/evaluation.aspx

• New report outlining six domains…Building a positive culture is 1 of 6.

• Joint report of NASSP & NAESP

Tony Hsieh

• Deliveringhappinessatwork.com• Happiness at work survey (11,000

participants)• What are we doing to ensure happiness?

Tal Ben Shahar, Harvardtalbenshahar.com

• Chapter 7 “Happiness in the Workplace”

“The CEO’s demeanor can directly effect the staff…so smile often, talk about fun things or crack a joke”

• Inc. Jan 7, 2011

JohannWolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832)