School leaders thrive in places that provide support through strong leadership teams, support staff, and others who both balance and add to the leader’s strengths and weaknesses. Schools would do well to cultivate leadership teams that feature individuals with gifts that complement and empower each other.
Crisis Mode: 10 Keys to Unlock Thriving in Christian School Leadership – Part 1 of 5
Leading is hard. Leading during an unforeseen crisis is even harder. We must see each crisis not as something to white-knuckle our way through but as an invitation to growth and transformation as Christian leaders and school communities.
Lessons Confirmed from 2020
This blog is inspired by my great friend, Joel Gaines, who wrote a Converge blog “Three Lessons I Can’t Unlearn from 2020.” If you haven’t read his thoughts, I would highly encourage you to; however, this blog is not a follow-up to Joel’s, but inspired as I am more convinced of things, I’ve written about in the past as we … Read More
What Kind of a School?
During the eight years I taught EDUC 501 as an adjunct at Dordt University, my graduate classes increasingly became a mix of Christian and public school teachers. In order to put all of my students on a common ground of biblical understanding, I used Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony, a wonderful “creed” published by the Christian Reformed … Read More
Retaining Educators
There are several reasons teacher retention should be a priority for Christian school leaders. Keeping good teachers affects students’ academic growth, staff morale, the ability to align classroom practices with the school’s mission and vision, and teacher replacement costs. Bottomline, high teacher retention is critical because it is good for students and their learning.
All the Stuff We Collect
What’s precious? What’s worth keeping? What’s worthy but could be moved on or needs to be refreshed? And, what should we ditch? What things would I put in which category? You could also play this game. It’s an interesting exercise.
Beyond the Formal Curriculum
Of course you are intentional about developing a formal curriculum for your school, but what are your students—and the community—learning from your hidden curriculum?
Taking Up the Mantle: Having Your Own Confidence
One of the dangers of sitting at the feet of a legend, however, is that you can develop feelings of inadequacy. You do not understand and discern complexity as well as them. You cannot express yourself with such poise. You feel you have so much more to learn before you should contribute.
Take the Long View
Delaware County Christian School head of School, Dan Steinfield, shares the five keys to becoming leaders for the long haul.
Getting the Big Things Right: Priorities for School Leaders
Axios founder Jim VandeHei built his nimble, voracious media channel on five words: get the big things right. My mind immediately recalled VanderHei’s mantra when Drs. Smith and Lepine asked me to write a follow-up to their foundational blogpost, “Keeping a Kingdom Mindset.” How do transformational leaders get (and keep) the big things right? Big Thing #1: Posture In both … Read More