Principal Lamb

Surgeons don’t have to play two truths and a lie before they pick up a scalpel.

So why is there double standard for educators?

Let’s stop requiring teachers to participate in icebreakers and give them more time to work in their classrooms.

As the end of the school year approaches, here’s a universal reminder:

Do not demand a teacher works a miracle with a student’s grade after a school year of missing assignments and lackluster effort.

Schools get the student behaviors they tolerate.

Yesterday I delivered a box of pencils to every teacher at our school.

Today I delivered Expo markers.

Teachers should not have to pay out-of-pocket for basic classroom supplies.

Seemingly small stuff I address every time I see it:

Students talking when the teacher is talking.

Play fighting.

Cell phones out.

Hoods over heads during a lesson.

We cannot let the behavior of one student ruin learning for an entire class.

Being a principal is wild.

One moment I’m finger waving and complimenting kindergarten students for showing “quiet coyotes” hallway. The next minute I’m suspending a student for vaping.

Here’s my best principal hack. When I’m sending an email to all faculty and staff I put their emails in the bcc so no one can “reply all.”

Wild that I have to say this but one way to increase the respect for the teaching profession is by giving teachers restroom breaks.

Here’s the thing about passive aggressive emails sent to the entire faculty and staff:

1. They cause people doing the right thing to ask themselves what they did wrong.

2. The people they’re intended for don’t read them.

We should exempt teachers from the Blood Borne Pathogen session after five consecutive years of completing the training.

Non-educators will never understand that after dismissal feeling we get on Friday.

I love being an educator. And it’s also one of the most overstimulating jobs. We are “on” all day.

When I get in my car after work, I sit there. I take a deep breath. And I take a minute to appreciate the silence.

When school administrators send a misbehaving student back to class after a two minute pep talk, here’s the message it sends to the rest of the class:

We accept poor behavior at this school.

Teachers shouldn’t have to go out of pocket to purchase supplies for their students.

Pencils. Tissue. Wipes. Dry erase markers. Paper. This stuff should be provided.

We don’t pay teachers enough to ask them to buy the basics.

Wonder how I balance being a school principal and a dad of three kids?

Well, my first grade daughter brought the book “Go the F*** to Sleep” into school for independent reading last week.

So apparently, not very well.

Primary school teachers deserve medals for coordinating the distribution of Valentines.

Me Sunday night: Laughing at how Kendrick Lamar annihilated Drake.

Me Monday morning to students: “That’s not how we speak to each other.”

We should make the day after the Super Bowl a no school day.

Teachers and students could use an extra day to digest that 7 layer bean dip.

One time a student stole a teacher’s iPad.

I drove to the student’s house.

By the time I got the iPad back I had been threatened and it was after sunset. But I got the iPad.

Dumb move in retrospect? Yes.

But teachers don’t have it easy. They deserve to work with admin who have their back.

Here’s why I don’t require teachers to post the learning objective on the board:

Because we’re only really posting it for the administrator.

School administrators are instructional leaders.

We gotta be ready to jump into a classroom and teach.

3 Inexpensive Ways School Administrators Can Improve Teacher Morale:

1. Wrote a note of gratitude on a teacher’s whiteboard.

2. Deliver a box of pre-sharpened pencils to a teacher.

3. Stop by a teacher’s classroom in the morning and ask if they need anything.

Here are 4 questions I ask myself when I’m deciding if I should remove a student from class:

1. Is the student preventing other students from learning?

2. Is the teacher at a breaking point?

3. Is someone’s physical safety in jeopardy?

4. Did the teacher request to remove the student?

Yesterday I informed our team that today’s faculty meeting was canceled.

Because we don’t meet for the sake of meeting.

Thank you for the support, my friend! ✨

Here’s why we’ve scaled back on PLCs and formal observations + debriefs:

Because sometimes the support teachers actually need is just an uninterrupted planning period and some time to decompress.

Thank you for the support, my friend! We need more common sense in our schools!

When students pass Algebra 1 we don’t make them retake it again next school year.

We need to adopt this same policy with teachers and exempt them from doing the same professional development year after year.

We shouldn’t require teachers to sit in meetings and professional developments that are not relevant to their role.