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School leadership can feel heavy. There are days when a difficult parent conversation sits with you long after you leave the building. A staff member is frustrated with a decision you made. A student issue did not go the way you hoped. You replay a conversation in your head all evening wondering if you should have handled it differently. Then there are the bigger moments. A difficult personnel situation. A major campus challenge. A year where student growth is n

Every principal I know works hard. The problem is that hard work alone does not guarantee you are spending time on the work that matters most. You can run all day, solve a dozen problems, answer the urgent emails, handle the parent concern, cover the duty gap, and still leave the building wondering why you never got to the leadership work you meant to do. The difficult part of school leadership is that almost everything feels important while it is happening. Schools are busy,

Teacher Appreciation Week is a good thing. I love seeing schools celebrate teachers with breakfast in the lounge, handwritten notes from students, snacks, treats, and all the little extras that help people feel seen. Teachers deserve every bit of that recognition. But a week of appreciation in May cannot make up for a year where teachers feel unheard, unsupported, or disconnected from campus decisions. That is the part we have to be honest about as school leaders. The real ap

If you spend any time in conversations with school leaders right now, you’ll hear a lot about improving Tier 1 instruction. And that’s a good thing. Tier 1, the instruction every student receives in the general education classroom, should absolutely be our priority. When Tier 1 instruction is strong, fewer students need intervention, classrooms run more smoothly, teachers feel more successful...and most importantly, more students learn at high levels. Almost everyone agrees