I believe that good schools educate children in a safe and caring environment, for this to occur the principal, the leader, the main instructional driver in a school must have a vision for it’s success. The principal will craft a vision through collaboration with the staff. This sounds simple, yet teacher “buy in” seems to be one of the biggest hurdles effective principals face. According to my principal interviews with Ms. Ashley Warren and Ms. Crystal Clayton, one way to encourage “buy in” is to have your teachers help craft the vision of the school. This can be done by utilizing a leadership team. Major school decisions should always be vetted by a leadership team. This will assist the principal in gaining valuable feedback before …show more content…
Schools often struggle with a negative or toxic culture. For a school to be successful, principals must first facilitate change of the culture to positive and collaborative. According to Portin (2009), to change this kind of climate and begin to combat teacher isolation, closed doors, negativism, defeatism and teacher resistance – the most effective principals focus on building a sense of school community, with the attendant characteristics. These include respect for every member of the school community; “an upbeat, welcoming, solution-oriented, no-blame, professional environment;” and efforts to involve staff and students in a variety of activities, many of them schoolwide (55). A principal may give up some leadership and control to help teachers become leaders. By doing this teachers become involved, engaged, and leaders themselves. Ms. Ashley Warren shared her simple approach in her interview. Her school has only three committees: culture, climate, and community; instructional leadership; and student support. Every teacher in her building chooses to be on a certain committee. When she arrived in her building she knew of teachers that had strengths in specific areas. She recruited them to be on specific committees. The committees were populated and led by teachers, with every faculty member assigned to one. Administration also serves on these committees but just facilitates. This process is slowly changing and combating the toxic culture that existed in the school, because teachers feel heard and empowered. The change in the school is coming from within. Ms. Crystal Clayton utilizes learning walks, otherwise known as instructional rounds. During instructional rounds teachers visit other classrooms to watch instruction taking place in the same grade level. The change and power came from the conversations afterwards. The principal facilitated the conversation but listened to