Principal Management Principles

The principal of my high school was in charge of overseeing the day to day activities of the school, as well as making big picture decisions. Making sure that the school is meeting the needs of all of its students is no small task. The tasks involved in the principles management can be broken down into 4 basic functions: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Planning starts with setting goals and objectives and determining how you will achieve them. My principal had a goal of making sure that every student had a healthy learning environment. Another goal may have involved being approachable to both students and parents. These goals are longer term, and require a number of steps in order to achieve. For example, in order to …show more content…
This is obviously not a goal that can be achieved overnight, this accessibility and trust has to be built up. An objective on the other hand is shorter-term. One example of an objective most likely involved providing thorough training so teachers are well-equipped to provide quality education, build relationships with students, and communicate with parents. While this is an ongoing process, focusing specifically on the training right before school begins could be considered an objective. Focusing on the training provided throughout the year may be considered a goal. The principal is also in charge of having emergency plans in place, for example in the case of a fire, or an active shooter situation. The second main management function the principal must take on is organizing. One form of organizing utilized by our principal was departmentalization. While science, math, English, and history departments were already pre-determined in our school, the principal departmentalized teachers for other functions. Teachers were also departmentalized by grade, which the principal would determine and move around. For example, if there was a hole within the 12th grade English department, our principal had the power to move a teacher from another department …show more content…
For others, I got take home quizzes instead of homework assignments so that they could be graded. The principal being a transformational leader allowed the teachers to navigate this change in a creative way, in order to best serve their students. The fourth and final function of management is controlling. There is a typical 5 step control process that involves, setting standards, measuring performance, comparing performance with standards, determining reasons for any deviations, and taking corrective action. The principal must use this process to control teachers, but also to control students. In regards to teachers, my principal set standards for teachers in terms of how well their students are learning the material. Their performance is measured through exam scores and standardized tests, which can then be compared to the goal scores set by the principal. They can then look for deviations, which can occur for a number of reasons. For example, there may have been a stressful event that occurred to lower a student’s scores, the student could have been sick, or the teacher could be doing a poor job presenting the material. This can be corrected through extra help for the struggling student(s), or developing new material