Culture of Potential

Potential is defined as having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future. I think the majority of educators understand that it is our obligation to see the potential in our students, our team, our school, and also in ourselves.  We seek to understand and learn how we can improve ourselves and those around us to be something more in the future. As I reflect back on my years in education, I see so many instances where recognizing both the potential of others and myself lead to both doing so much more than originally thought possible.  In addition, it is always important to acknowledge the challenges you may encounter, however, you can not let them blur the innate potential in people or situations.   I separate potential into two categories:   “positive” potential which focuses on improvement and/or growth and “negative” potential , or better yet, lack of potential , which is when a person lacks focus and growth which results in that person o

It seems like yesterday that I began my career as an elementary school principal.  During these past few years, a number of items, strategies, and/or goals have changed during this short time.  One of the biggest changes that I have seen happen is the move from a “building manager” administrator to more of an “instructional manager” administrator.  Times of just making sure that your building is left standing at the end of the day is just not enough for principals.  Now do not get me wrong, it is important and vital that a principal makes sure that teachers have the proper student desks, doors are working, plumbing is flowing, the bell system is ringing, so on and so forth.  Yet, successful schools are more than likely to have a principal who plays not only the part of a building manager, but more importantly, the part an instructional manager. Principals as instructional leaders?  This is nothing new or 21 st century.  However, you are finding more and more principals taking on th