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Bestseller!

Making Time to Lead

How Principals Can Stay on Top of It All

By: Richard A. Simon, James F. Newman

Get organized and find the time to succeed in leadership and excel as a principal!

Do your days seem increasingly shorter and your to-do lists increasingly longer? This essential reference offers a multitude of ideas, tips, and strategies for organizing every aspect of a principal's job—practical concepts intended to simplify managerial tasks:

Organize to-do lists for use as future planning tools
Customize your filing and scheduling systems to get more out of less
Maximize your summer break by learning how to plan for the coming year
Energize your staff with innovative ideas for faculty meetings
Realize your leadership potential while encouraging your students
Develop your faculty and build relationships with parents

Full description

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9780761938651
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2003
Page Count: 96
Publication date: January 21, 2004

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Description

"This book would be a wonderful guide for someone new to the profession. The practical strategies and ideas will truly help that first year principal."
—Rick Doss, Principal
Brownsburg Junior High School, Indianapolis, IN

"The examples and suggested activities are great with lots of simple suggestions that are real and practical—very effective!"
—Kevin Peterson, Principal
Red Bank Elementary, Clovis, CA
Get organized and find the time to succeed in leadership and excel as a principal!

Do your days seem increasingly shorter and your to-do lists increasingly longer? Do you struggle to find time to meet students and interact with staff? Do you wonder if you will ever see the bottom of your "in" box? This essential reference offers a multitude of ideas, tips, and strategies for organizing every aspect of a principal's job—from controlling your calendar to creating newsletters.

Making Time to Lead shows the busy principal how to organize in order to lead more effectively. Simon and Newman introduce practical concepts to simplify managerial tasks:

Organize to-do lists for use as future planning tools
Customize your filing and scheduling systems to get more out of less
Maximize your summer break by learning how to plan for the coming year
Energize your staff with innovative ideas for faculty meetings
Realize your leadership potential while encouraging your students
Develop your faculty and build relationships with parents

In the complicated and demanding world of a principal, organization is the key to sanity—and successful leadership.

Key features

Helpful for all principals - elementary, middle, secondary
Should be popular addition to NAESP and NASSP mailers
Very good supplement or addition to leadership induction and training programs
This is the book principals really want - real-world, timesaving, simple tool
Principal management tool books typically sell well
Rick Simon received the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellow for School Leadership and received his Master's in Education from Harvard University.
Response to his ASCD presentation was very strong, leading ASCD to include a summary of the presentation on their website's reading room of education updates. ASCD has offered to sign the project.

Author(s)

Richard A. Simon

Richard A. Simon has been a high school principal for the past twenty years in three states. He is currently the principal of The Wheatley School, an 8^th-12^th grade public high school in Nassau County, Long Island. He has also served as principal at Allentown High School in Allentown, New Jersey, Amity Regional High School, in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and at Cherry Hill High School West, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Mr. Simon holds a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. He has received a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellow for School Leadership Award and a National CBE Fellow for Independent Study in the Humanities grant. Mr. Simon serves as a chair for the new Accreditation For Growth Middle States process and is the co-author of The High School Principal’s Calendar (Corwin Press 2000).

James F. Newman

James F. Newman has been an educator for over 25 years, working both as a teacher and a principal. He has been the principal of North Side elementary school in East Williston, New York, for the past 14 years. Prior to his current position, he was the principal of Centre Avenue School in East Rockaway for 2 years and an elementary teacher in a number of districts on Long Island for 12 years.

Dr. Newman holds a doctorate from Columbia University in the education of the gifted, and he holds 2 masters’ degrees from Hofstra University, one in elementary education and one in educational administration. The title of Dr. Newman’s doctoral thesis was "The Metacognitive Abilities of Gifted Educational Leaders".

Dr. Newman has been an invited speaker at a number of national conventions, and will be presenting in February 2003 at the AASA convention in New Orleans. The topic of this presentation will be, "The Top Ten Ways to Land the Administrative Job of Your Choice".

Dr. Newman is a longtime resident of New York, currently residing in Long Beach, Long Island. He is a partner in an educational consulting firm called, "Leading By Example" that helps prospective candidates find administrative positions. His firm also works with Boards of Education in the selection of superintendent’s and other administrative positions.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction

1. Organizing

Setting Up Your Organizational System

Make To-Do Lists

Keep Up With Mail

Make Special Folders

Clip, Post, and Save Those Articles

Creating Your Own Filing System

Carry Your Desk With You

Technology Can Set You Free

Copying Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Be Your School's Historian

Be Ready For Prospective Parents

Note Cards: The Best Invention Since Sliced Bread

The Master Key Is a Must

Student Planners

2. Time

Building Your Calendar

Being in Two Places at Once

Meetings

Getting Started

Coffee Shop Time

Telephone Time

Save Your Calendars

Accreditation

3. Communication

How to Use a Telephone

Visibility: Leading by Walking Around

The Working Lunch

Parents as Partners

Public Presentations

4. Delegation

Questions to Ask

Use Your Staff

Faculty Meetings Can Be Fun

5. Summer

Staff Selection

Save Those Resumes

Student Placement Records

Student Placement Procedures

Keeping Your Files Active

Getting Ready for the Year

Remember Your Own Professional Development

6. People

Know Your Faculty and Staff

Learn Those Student Names

Break Bread Together

The Little Things Do Matter

Buy Stock in Hallmark

Everyone Values a Break

Let Them Eat Ice Cream

7. Self

Keep a Journal

Conferences

Study Groups

Portfolios

Preparing Future Principals

Administrative Retreats

Pamper Yourself

Teach a Class

Reading and Sharing

Resource A: Today's Agenda

Resource B: Yearly Task List

Resource C: Faculty Note Cards

Resource D: Student Planner Memo

Resource E: Aspiring Administrator Training Brochure

Resource F: Administrative Retreat Memo

Reviews

This book would be a wonderful guide for someone new to the profession. The practical strategies and ideas will truly help that first year principal.

Rick Doss, Principal
Brownsburg Junior High School, Indianapolis, IN

The examples and suggested activities are great with lots of simple suggestions that are real and practical--very effective!

Kevin Peterson, Principal
Red Bank Elementary, Clovis, CA

"This is not your ordinary time management tome. Making Time to Lead is a geared to the specialized needs of principals and will help you 'find the time to lead--as well as manage--schools.'"

Principal, September/October 2004

Other Titles in: Principalship | Leadership | Organizational Tools

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