Leader 2 Leader

Building a Culture of Happiness Matthew Ohlson Anna Crawford, Principal of Wadsworth Elementary School Teacher retention is a major issue in our field, costing the United States about $2 billion each year. Research also shows that teacher stability is crucial for building strong relationships between staff and students (LPI, 2016). With increased employee mobility and decreased retention rates in the teaching field, an emerging trend in school improvement is focusing on empowering school leaders to celebrate employee successes and build a culture of happiness to bring about improved outcomes. Leading with Joy What if we’ve had it wrong all along? We spend so much time chasing “happy.” We’ve been taught that happiness comes as we achieve success, and the truth is, it does.  With every new success comes happiness – the two are synonymous. But what about flipping the sequence and starting with happy? First comes happy – then comes success. This is the mantra of “leadin...

Student Councils Matter Juhan Mixon, Ed.D., Executive Director of FASA One of my earliest opportunities to participate in a school club in student council at Sulphur Springs Jr. High School in Tampa. I was selected homeroom representative in the seventh grade. It was the game changer in my life. For the first time, I met with teachers and administrators (Mr. O’Brian –social studies teacher, Ms. Cunningham –the principal) who actually sat down listened, encouraged and supported us as we planned dances, club days, pep rallies, field trips, etc. It was natural that this leadership experience continued through King High school where I was president in my senior year. Student council motivated me to be a part of Key Club, sports teams, and pep group to interact with student leaders throughout the district. Instead of being in the dean’s office for skipping school and discipline I was actually inducted into the National Honor Society and received attendance awards. To ...

Setting a Vision for Excellent Instruction Tyler Wood Assistant Principal, Orange Park Junior High School Defining and developing a shared vision with respect to instructional leadership and excellent instruction is a substantial task that, if we are being honest here, can occasionally feel insurmountable.   In my experience, beginning the work alone can be a troublesome task. How often do we as an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) get a substantive opportunity to be together and complete an all-inclusive/functional plan for excellent instruction? To be fair, the scope of this mission is expansive and there are opportunities to dive into this work during the summer, but it can sometimes feel fragmented and disconnected as you’re working to prepare for the school year. Fortunately, for approximately 60 school principals, assistants, district-based administrators and FLDOE personnel, TNTP conducted an Instructional Leadership Team institute aimed at challenging leaders t...