Optimize Your School

Lead the change that you want to see in your school! Is your school or district heading in the right direction? In this essential guide for leaders, Lee Jenkins shows how to unite and energize your team as never before, while helping your students to love learning and crave achievement. A trusted advisor to numerous districts, Jenkins knows how to successfully transform school culture – for the long-term. Beginning with an introduction from scholar Michael Fullan, each chapter presents compelling insights and strategies for leaders, addressing how to Evolve your leadership style to guide, empower and serve Apply the principles of continuous strategic improvement as an antidote to win/lose approaches to school accountability Develop a healthy, positive culture of achievement by deeply engaging your students in their own progress and success Turn to this resource and prepare to lead positive change, from the classroom to the staff room and beyond. "This book creates a whole picture approach to school improvement while shunning the current top down model in favor of a school-led plan. The approach not only increases school performances, but values the school-level leadership and instructional faculty." Amanda Mayeaux, Career Management Specialist Iberville Parish Schools "If your district is ready to move from arbitrary to observable, from fractured to focused, and from silos to systems, you’ve found the book that can move entire organizations from a goal mindset to a growth mindset. Lee Jenkins provides common-sense strategies that impact the efficiency and effectiveness of our classrooms, with a clear focus on student growth. In an educational era saturated with the latest remedy for what ails us, Lee provides a refreshing cure by offering simple solutions for lasting change." Dr. Jane Stavem, Associate Superintendent for Instruction Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln, NE

Lead the change that you want to see in your school! Is your school or district heading in the right direction? A trusted advisor to numerous districts, author Lee Jenkins shows how to successfully transform your school culture – for the long-term. Discover how to: Evolve your leadership style to guide, empower and serve Apply the principles of continuous strategic improvement as an antidote to win/lose approaches to school accountability Spearhead change across classrooms, departments and organizations – with valuable insights for leaders of individual schools and school districts Develop a healthy, positive culture of achievement by deeply engaging your students in their own progress and success

Effective school leadership is effective leadership, regardless of where it occurs In March 2020, there was no manual for leading schools and school systems during a pandemic. School leaders had to figure things out as the crisis unfolded. But starting now, leaders have the opportunity to prepare for leading schools through distance learning with purpose and intent—using what works best to accelerate students’ learning all the while maintaining an indelible focus on equity. Harnessing the insights and experience of renowned educators Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie, The Distance Learning Playbook for School Leaders applies the wisdom and evidence of the VISIBLE LEARNING® research to understand what works best. Spanning topics from school climate at a distance, leader credibility, care for self and colleagues, instructional leadership teams, stakeholder advisory groups, and virtual visibility, this comprehensive playbook details the research- and evidence-based strategies school leaders can mobilize to lead the delivery of high-impact learning in an online, virtual, and distributed environment. This powerful guide includes: Actionable insights and hands-on steps for each module to help school leaders realize the evidence-based leadership practices that result in meaningful learning in a distance environment Discussion of equity challenges associated with distance learning, along with examples of how leaders can work to ensure that equity gains that have been realized are not lost. Analysis of the mindsets that empower leaders to manage change, rather than technology Space to write and reflect on current practices and plan future leadership strategies The mindframes for distance learning that serve leaders well in any instructional setting and will position schools after the pandemic to come back better than they were before The Distance Learning Playbook for School Leaders is the essential hands-on guide to leading school and school systems from a distance and delivering on the promise of equitable, quality learning experiences for students.

Optimize Your Productivity is the go-to guide for getting more done in less time, especially if other productivity systems have failed you in the past. Lisa Kardos, Ph.D., an engineer, bestselling author, speaker, and consultant, has authored another title in the spirit of applying engineering best practices as a logical approach to improve our lives. Optimize Your Productivity will not only help you get to the root of your productivity issues, but it will also provide an interesting and unique approach to the formidable subject, including a "quickstart" guide to aid you immediately. If you know you could be more productive, or need some motivation to improve your productivity, this book will not disappoint!

Reawaken, refocus, and recommit to your career as a school leader! If you are a school leader who has ever felt lost, confused, or disheartened, then this single, compact, survival guide is for you! A primer of what is truly important for today′s school leaders at all levels, it is a how-to book made up of twenty-five fundamental insights and baseline beliefs that never change. Staying focused on what really matters, each page reminds administrators of the simple, guiding truths and timeless values that made them want to become educators in the first place. Each section acts as a compass that showcases: Commonsense, cornerstone principles Life lessons from school leaders Real-world examples from successful administrators Practical tips on how to concentrate on what counts, and apply what′s most important on the job everyday What Matters Most for School Leaders contains hard-earned wisdom and forgotten truths that are freshly viewed and packaged in modern-day terms. Call it a pep talk or a refresher course, it reawakens, rekindles, renews, and refocuses on the perspective, passion, and priorities of school leaders, reviving their sense of purpose and enhancing their image in the educational field.

What does it feel like to walk into your school? Is it a welcoming place, where everyone feels valued? Most school improvement efforts focus on academic goals, instructional models, curriculum, and assessments. But sometimes what can make or break your learning community are the intangibles--the relationships, identity, and connections that make up its culture. Authors Fisher, Frey, and Pumpian believe that no school improvement effort will be effective unless school culture is addressed. They identify five pillars that are critical to building a culture of achievement: 1. Welcome: Imagine if all staff members in your school considered it their job to make every student, parent, and visitor feel noticed, welcomed, and valued. 2. Do no harm: Your school rules should be tools for teaching students to become the moral and ethical citizens you expect them to be. 3. Choice words: When the language students hear helps them tell a story about themselves that is one of possibility and potential, students perform in ways that are consistent with that belief. 4. It's never too late to learn: Can you push students to go beyond the minimum needed to get by, to discover what they are capable of achieving? 5. Best school in the universe: Is your school the best place to teach and learn? The best place to work? Drawing on their years of experience in the classroom, the authors explain how these pillars support good teaching and learning. In addition, they provide 19 action research tools that will help you create a culture of achievement, so that your school or classroom is the best it can be. After reading this book, you'll see why culture makes the difference between a school that enables success for all students and a school that merely houses those students during the school day.

Designing School Systems for All Students provides a clear methodology for school leaders, teachers, and school board members to follow as they redesign their schools for the benefit of students. The authors demonstrate how school leaders set the expectations for all students to learn and grow as important contributors to the culture. In the effective schools that the authors describe, students deliver performances, discuss and conduct important inquiries, and lead profound learning activities. The book explains how curriculum can be redesigned to engage students in advanced cognitive and social and emotional development. Additionally, several barriers to great schools that include assessment practices, false testing procedures, poor governance, ineffective leadership and staff development are described in stark detail. Throughout the book are examples of effective practices that make it possible for all students to prosper in school. This book is filled with practical ideas that are compiled into a toolkit to fix America's schools.

Baseball "by The Book."