Beginning the Assistant Principalship: A Practical Guide for New School Administrators

by John C. Daresh (Editor)

Overview

Establish your goals as an assistant principal!

Effective school leaders are critical to successful schools. Your service as an assistant principal may be one of the most challenging jobs you will ever have. Rarely are you able to predict what you will be doing each day, even from one moment to the next.

John Daresh′s Beginning the Assistant Principalship provides you with excellent tools to navigate your way as a new administrator. Full of ideas for you to use in your work, this valuable resource helps you ask yourself the important questions, find answers, and develop strong plans of action. Some significant topics to help you in your new job include:

• Building a platform
• Developing leadership skills
• Carrying out management skills
• Maintaining balance and perspective
• Knowing your job
• Using effective disagreement to your advantage
• Building your profile as a leader
• Listening, listening, then listening some more

Whether your intention is to eventually assume the principalship using your current job as a kind of internship, or if you have decided to make the assistant principalship a career, this excellent book considers a wide variety of topics to help you succeed!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483304250
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/08/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	120
File size:	471 KB

About the Author

John C. Daresh is professor of educational leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso. Over the years, he has held faculty or administrative appointments at the University of Cincinnati, The Ohio State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and Illinois State University. He has also worked as a consultant on high school reform and administrator professional development for universities, state departments of education, national and state professional associations, and individual schools and districts across the United States, and also in Barbados, Canada, France, Holland, Israel, Turkey, South Africa, and Taiwan. By far, the bulk of Daresh’s international service has been in the United Kingdom where he served an advisor and trainer for the School Management Task Force that developed and promoted support programs for beginning headteachers, the National College for School Leadership, the Welsh Office of Education, the North West Network for Diploma Development in Cheshire, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Lincoln, the University of Hull, CREATE Consultancies, and literally dozens of Local Education Authorities and individual schools across England and Wales.

Daresh recently completed three years of service as the lead consultant on principal mentoring programs for the Chicago Public Schools as that megadistrict was faced with the challenge of bringing in mostly inexperienced principals to serve in nearly of the school system’s elementary and high schools.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
About the Author
Dedication
1. Neither Fish Nor Fowl
Problem with Definition
The Invisibility Factor
So Why Do the Job?
Plan for the Book
References
Additional Suggested Readings
2. It Begins With Values
Case Study: Because I Believe It′s the Right Thing to Do
Building a Platform
What Do You Do With the Platform?
Your Personal Plan
References
Additional Suggested Readings
3. A Personal Leadership Checklist
Leadership Skills
Another Approach to Leadership Analysis
So What Is Educational Leadership?
Your Personal Plan
References
Additional Suggested Readings
4. Carrying Out Your Management Skills
Apparent Contradictions
Formal Requirements
Informal Tasks
Throughout the Year
Planning for the School Year
Before the Year Begins
After the Year Starts
Toward the End of the Year
Building a Personal Plan
5. Cool Your Ego
Maintaining Balance and Your Perspective
Talk With Your Principal
Count to Ten ... Again and Again
Closing Thoughts
Summarizing the Chapter
6. Assist the Principal
Know Your Job
Communication is the Key
Developing an Action Plan
Summarizing the Chapter
7. Reflect Before Talking and Acting
Why?
Why Not?
Tips for Effective Disagreement
Summarizing the Chapter
8. Listen, Listen ... Then Listen Some More
Listen Before Deciding
Can You Listen Too Much?
A Few Tips
Summarizing the Chapter
9. Ask to do More
Building Your Profile as a Leader
Where Do You Begin?
Volunteering to do More
Summarizing the Chapter
10. Stay Alive Professionally
Read, Read, Read
Summarizing the Chapter
11. Stay Positive
Positive Attitude is a Career Builder
Final Observations
Index