Hello everyone!!!

As I read the article How Do You Grow Good Principals, I immediately thought about the principal where I teach. She is an amazing woman that treats her staff with 100% respect. She helps create an environment that is positive and supportive to our diverse group of learners. As it mentions in the article that Guzman invites teachers to her house--my principal has invited us over to her home for "get-togethers." Writing notes when you do something well--it occurs frequently at my school in verbal and written form. Not throwing fits when someone goofs--I have never seen my principal "throw a fit" or demeanor her staff in any way. She always strives to make each day a learning experience. She is certainly a role model that I look up to on a daily basis!!

You are lucky to have such a wonderful principal. I does as well, but have heard horror stories of a principal who observed teachers and if she didn't feel the lesson was being taught correctly she would ask the teacher to sit down and she would teach. I liked the article about the principal in Charlotte turning the school around. Principals are such integral parts of the school. It seemed in the book, Savage Inequalities that some of the principals had given up. They felt there schools had too much growth to make and wouldn't be able to. We are lucky to have principals that stand by our schools and push the teachers and students to succeed.

Hi Tasha,

What a wonderful thing it is to have a supportive, encouraging principal. I have one too! Ms. Ferrell never ceases to encourage and support her staff. She leads our school in such professional manner and treats our staff as if we were "treasures." She values our opinions and speaks words of support regularly. We are blessed to have such principals.

Elizabeth beat me to bragging on our principal! I'm 10 hours away from my family and have started my 5th year at South Newton. Had I not had the amount of support and encouragement from Ms. Ferrell as I have had over the years, I'm sure that I would not have stayed in NC. Having fantastic, supportive colleagues is a major bonus as well. Our school's manifesto is "Where knowledge and friendship grow"--and we do believe in this!

I am so glad to hear that you have great principals! It makes such an impact on each of us to work in an environment that is positive and rewarding. Lisa you were blessed to have Ms. Ferrell "take you under her wing." I have also seen my principal help teachers from out of state and country move into their new homes and help them in any way possible to make their experience in Catawba County a great one.

I have a super great...awesome principal. She is fair, professional and does everyting she can that is in the best interest of the students. She works hard and she expects the same from her staff. What is really unfair is that for the second year in a row, this school has not made AYP. (This is only her second year at this school) If we do not make AYP this year, the state makes us a school of choice. If after that her job is on the line. As a teacher, I want my students to be successful. I also want them to be loved, taken care of, and fed. I want them to have new clothes and new school supplies. However, I know that that is not the reality. How can students care about a test when their basic human needs are neglected? How can one person be blamed for years of generational curses?

I think the most important point this article macde is that good principals, in fact good leaders, sometimes have to decide to not do what is mandated because that mandate just might not be best for the school. Too often, I think that we all get too caught up in what we have been told to do that we don't stop to analyze the situation for what might be best. I have experienced situations where I had to turn in weekly lesson plans, and these suckers can be time-consuming to create! And then, if a teacher where to be observed and happened to veer even the slightest bit off that lesson plan, perhaps to make a time adjustment or for "teachable moments," then the evaluation would be poor. I do think that we all have to keep in mind what the end goal is--to educate and nurture, and I just wished we could keep the jumpoing through hoops at a minimum!

I'll let you know about my new principle at a later date. I'm pleased with his friendliness. My former principal did not welcome me back from maternity leave for three weeks, even though I sat right beside him at a falculty meeting the day I got back.
I think that personal touch really does go a long way. Our jobs are hard enough--good, family-like relationships at work really does help make the job easier!

I too have a wonderful principal. You have already heard about her from Anna, but I just have to say more. She came to our school last year, and has already done so many professional things for our school and teachers, it is unbelievable. Right away, she had a room for a research lab. The students love to go. Even my second graders are doing research on the computers. Our runninng record books and leveled books almost doubled. There are many more things I could list, but overall, our school has much more to offer our students.

I have a great principal too. He values our opinions and lets us use our profressional knowledge to decide how and what to teach in our classrooms. He also makes a point to greet all of us everyday and makes sure that we are doing well. I have been sick all week and he has made a point to come into my classroom everyday to check up on me to see if I need anything. That speaks volumes to me. He not only has great relationship with the staff but with the children as well. He is constantly coming around encouraging the students to do there best and knows all of them by name. I only had one principal like that when I was in school. I'm glad that my students get to enjoy the pleasure of knowing that each and everyone of them are important enough for him to get to know.

We just last year got a new principal and she is very well organized but is not very friendly to her staff nor to the students at our school. She has started out the year much better than last year so maybe things will be different. In her defense she has no AP to help her and she was only an AP for 1 year before becoming our principal. We also have 2 or 3 teachers that last year ran our school and pretty much what they said or wanted happened. I hope things are different this year but we will see.

Personality and being personable go a long way. Our principal expects us to greet our students at the door each morning. She is out each morning at our car riders drop off, getting kids out of the cars. She is at car riders in the afternoon (she knows which kid belongs to which car). Not only that, she's there if we need shoulder to cry on or an ear to brag about our kids and successes. A great leader leaves space for flexibility, bends the rules, and looks out for those she is in charge of.