five tips to surviving your first year in the principalship iasp fall professionals conference 2014

Five Tips to Surviving Your First Year in the Principalship

IASP Fall Professionals Conference 2014

So You Think You Can Lead?

Aimee LunsfordPrincipal, Flint Springs Elementary School

Huntington County Community School Corporation

Huntington, IN alunsford@hccsc.k12.in.us

Follow me @Flintfalcons

Introduction

Why 5 Tips?

Our jobs are comprised of tasks that are short in duration and rapid in

pace.An average of 50-60 of these tasks in

an hour.We balance tasks that require

diverse skills, technical capabilities, cognitive functioning and emotional

intelligence.

#1 Be a Listener• Buy Notebooks

in Bulk

• Find a Mentor

you Trust

• Embrace the

Survey

Find a Mentor!

• Mentors that

will be

proactive

instead of

reactive.

• Mentors that

will check in on

you when you

don’t know

which side is

up.

• Mentors in

district and out

of district.

#2 Create a Positive Culture• Greet at all Cost

• Never

underestimate the

power of LUNCH

• Café Lunsford

• Class

Competitions

• Birthday Treats

CLASS COMPETIO

NS

• Pumpkin

Decorating

• Door

Decorating

• Scarecrow

Decorating

Encourages

teamwork,

collaboration,

problem solving

and parent

involvement!

#3 Communicate Well• Weekly Newsletter

• Remind 101

• Twitter

• Update your school

Webpage

• ANSWER/MANAGE

your emails

• Leave notes after

observations

Weekly Newsletters do more than just update

• Tell the

week’s events.

• Set a positive

tone

• Let your

vision/culture

be known

• Say it in the

newsletter so

you don’t have

to call a

meeting

#4 Lead with Vision• Get input from

the whole staff

“What are your

big ticket items?”

• This must have

shared

commitment

• Make it your

language

Creating a Mission

Using a

collaborative

tool like

PADLET can

allow your staff

to all give

input,

categorize into

groups and

work to put

those items into

words that can

be

remembered.

Flint Springs Mission

Statement

“Encouragi

ng Minds to

Grow,

Hearts to

Care and

Lives to

Share.”

#5 Create a Community of Experts

• Grade Level Chairs

• Tech Savvy

• New Teacher Go To

Groups

• Lead PD/Communicate

Initiatives

• Empower your non-

classroom teachers

• Be an expert yourself

by studying the experts

Study the Experts

Be the Lead

Learner and

model/share

who you study

and research to

be on the

cutting edge of

leadership!

Don’t just take my word

for it…

Go to

Todaysmeet.c

om/IASP1stYe

ar

Tell us your

tips for

survivng the

first year of

the

principalship.