Five Characteristics Of A Principal Analysis

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If I could narrow down what I’ve learned so far in this principal program and spending time with my mentor principal, this would be the question or statement I would summarize it in. Being a principal, and a teacher, you always have to think about the students. They are, after all, the reason why we are here. They are the reason we have a job. This program has made me a far better teacher, so I can only assume what kind of administrator I will be one day. It was hard to only choose five essential characteristics, but I’ve chosen trust, communication, change agent, instructional leadership, and listener as my top five characteristics of an effective and successful school leader. These, among others, will be my focus if I move into an administrative …show more content…
The ones that stood out to me most were the following: “I want your input, but not really”, “I ignore incompetence”, and “I’m in love with my ideas”. The last two I mention kind of go together. If I were to be a principal one day, I would like to think I would lean on my people who I know are excellent in what they do. I would ask their opinion, I would want them to tell me how they accomplish the great things they do in their classroom. Unfortunately there are so many principals who feel like they hold, or have to hold, all the answers and don’t value others’ ideas. The second “trust buster” I mention is a huge one for myself. If someone is not doing their job, call them on it! If they need help, help them. If they need to be let go, let them go. Not only are you busting your teachers’ morale, but you are adding to the detriment of your students’ …show more content…
In the book Teaching Matters Most by McCann, Jones, and Aronoff, they outline some of the most important characteristics of an instructional leader: mentor, evaluation, and professional development. These three items are just a few of the elements discussed in their book. In order to be an effective instructional leader, you need to mentor and observe your teachers. This doesn’t just include the brand new teachers, this includes any teacher you feel needs some extra guidance. A great principal would mentor them or have a teacher mentor them. For you to know who needs some mentoring comes from your evaluations and observations. An instructional leader needs to be in the classroom often, looking for trends, gathering data, seeing who can be a teacher mentor, watching for best practices. These are just some of the items principals are looking for when observing teachers. After gathering and analyzing the walkthrough and observations data, an instructional leader decides what they need to educate their staff about. A great principal always wants their teachers to grow and learn. You do this by helping them but also showing them you are a life long learner as

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