Checking Our P.U.L.S.E. For Kids: A Personal and Practical Guide to Effective Educational Leadership

by Robert Nelson

Overview

Being a principal or an educational leader matters…TREMENDOUSLY. As leaders, our mission is to be the best educational leader for our school, but it takes a formula to help kids win at life. This book will take the reader through the following acronym, P.U.L.S.E., using it as a pathway to becoming an effective educational leader who will stop at nothing until their students are successful. P: Principal: The single most influential person in a school. A weak principal brings a weak school. U: Unity: It takes Unity, Empathy, and Equity to build a positive culture of influence in our schools. L: Leadership Capacity: Growing, Cultivating, and Empowering leaders in our school will build a sense of ownership that can change a community. S: Students: Every decision is Student-Centered in our schools. Our future is depending on it. E: Extra: Effective leadership is about blending a leadership style into the vision for the school. The mission is in the details. After reading this book, the reader will be able to pass the Final P.U.L.S.E. Check, strengthen themselves as educational leaders, focus on the practical and consistent habitude that will lead to student and faculty success, and spotlight the many questions that we must ask ourselves as leaders and individuals. The world does not have enough great principals to lead our schools, so we must make it count when we assume the principalship. Leadership matters and it starts with us, both professionally and personally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781098353919
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	02/25/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	292
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Robert Nelson is an award-winning educational leader with 25 years of coaching experience helping kids win at life. He has been rated as a Highly Effective Principal in the state of Florida for many years and received multiple principal awards from his district from the Counseling Association, Center for Exceptional Children, Hillsborough Association of School Administrators, Hillsborough Reading Association, and the Hillsborough Parent Teacher Student Association. He was chosen to be the first Lead Principal of High Schools in the nation's seventh largest district, Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida. In this role, Mr. Nelson facilitated a professional development program designed to grow all principals and assist new principals with increasing student achievement and boosting their overall effectiveness as educational leaders. Additionally, Mr. Nelson completed the School Superintendents Association National Principal Supervisor Academy, a program focused on the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) Principal Supervisor Standards and the Inquiry Cycle to develop principals as educational leaders. He served on many district committees, presented at numerous district events, and participated in many state and national conferences throughout his career. Recently, he started an educational blog, www.findingyourinnergoat.com, which focuses on his journey as an educational leader, father, and husband and an educational leadership coaching company, Nelson Leadership Group, LLC (www.nelsonleadershipgroup.com). Mr. Nelson received his undergraduate degree in Secondary Physical Education from the University of South Florida and his master's degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University. He lives in Tampa, Florida, with his wife of twenty-three years and their four children, Brittani, Robbie, Abby, and Emily.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Part 1 (P) Principal 5

1 Core Belief: Finding Our "Why" for Wanting to be an Educational Leader 6

2 Measurable Performance: How Do We Know Our "It" Level of Effectiveness as Educational Leaders? 9

3A Sacrifices Part I: The Importance of Balancing Our Professional and Personal Lives During Our Tenure 14

3b Sacrifices Part II: Watch Out for Burnt-Out and Bored-Out 20

4 Non-Negotiable Opportunities: Our Master Schedule is Student-Centered 23

5 Most Important Trait: We Have to Hire the Right People 33

6 Visibility: Be a Mover, not a Sitter 37

7 Instructional Leaders: Walkthroughs, Feedback, and Follow-Up 40

8 Leadership Management: Designing Our Systems and Structures to Meet Our Vision 47

9 Essential Education Terms: Engagement, Rigor, and Differentiation 51

10 School Strife: Shut Down the Outside Noise or Die by "Pleasing" 57

11 Principal Influence: Do Families Move into Our District or Area Because of Us? 62

12 Performance Decisions: Evaluation is Critical to a School's Success 66

13 Simplicity: No Need to Overthink 70

14 Leaders Always Learn: Always Seek to Grow Our Weaknesses 74

15 Leadership Fact: Working Smarter and Harder Beats Talent 77

16 Leadership 101: Operate with a Sense of Urgency 81

17 Leadership Warning: Do Not Have a Meeting to Just Have a Meeting 84

18 Professionalism: Do Not Ever Burn That Bridge…Totally 87

19 Real Talk: Think Deeply About Leadership…Above and Below 91

20 Key Leadership Question: Will They Run Through a Wall for You? 95

21 Make "The School" or Break "The School": Move the Middle 50% 98

22 Mentality: Do Not Accept Excuses, but Do Accept Reflection with a Side of Patience 101

23 Pre-Planning: Be Creative for and Conscious of Our Teachers 104

24 Principal Philosophies: How does Retention/Promotion Effect Our School? 107

Part 2 U (Unity) 111

25 Developing Bonds: Bring Students, Families and Communities into Schools by All Means Necessary 112

26 Solidifying Bonds: Securing Relationships 120

27 Inclusion: We Must Believe in Our ESE Students (and Program) 123

28 Leadership Difference: We Must Take Care of and Celebrate Our Teachers and Faculty 126

29 School Culture: Random Acts of Kindness Cannot Be So Random 131

30 Dream: Believe in Possibilities Unconditionally 134

31 Harmony: End All Administrative Staff Meetings with Kumbaya 137

Part 3 L (Leadership Capacity) 142

32 Professional Commitment: Make Every Decision based on Each Student 143

33 Trust the Analytics: Let Data Drive Our Decisions 148

34 School Influence: Building Instructional and Leadership Capacity 150

35 Quality vs. Quantity Proactiveness: Strategic, Intentional, and Purposeful Decisions 154

36 Friendly "Fire": Use Our Internal Drive for Our Students 157

37 Our School Faculty: Ownership vs. Rent 160

38 Instructional Priority Essential: Consistent Progress Monitoring 163

39 Leadership 102: Accountability 167

40 Leadership Dislikes: Hate the Words Regression and Complacency at All Costs 170

41 Details: Small Group is Better Than Large Group 174

42 Fact: Teacher Goal Setting Can Improve Student Achievement 177

43 Can I get an Amen?: Technology Does Not Replace a Great Teacher 182

44 Personal Commitment: Learn to Take Care of Us, Meditate, and Go Home 184

45 Be Bold: Lead to Make Mistakes 187

46 The Only Certainty: We Can Only Control the Amount of Time During the Day 189

Part 4 S (Students) 191

47 Classroom Facilitation: Let the Students Do the Work 192

48 Student Discipline: We Must Evolve in Our Mindset and Practice 195

49 Attendance: The Silent Assassin 201

50 Student Achievement: Focus on Gains 204

51 Student Culture: Is it Cool to be Smart in Our School? 207

52 Rigor: Where is the Bucket of Questions When Students Get It? 211

53 Switch It Up: Turn Lunch Duty into Student Engagement 213

54 Somebody Needs to Step Up: Who Owns the "Average" Student? 215

55 Electives, Athletics, and Clubs: Not Every Student is Excited for their Core Class 217

56 Leadership Belief: Our Students Must Write in Every Subject 220

Part 5 E (Extra) 224

57 Be "Extra": Steo Out of the Box for our Students and Faculty 225

58 Show the Love for the Role: Can We Dance? 230

59 Leadership Supplement: When Days Get Tough, Listen to Christmas/Holiday Music 233

60 Leadership Etiquette: Everything is Better with Food 236

61 Save Your Budget: Quit Buying Desks 238

62 My Pet Peeve: Do We Have to Use Chart Paper? 241

63 Sugar and Salt Look the Same: Do Not Sell Your Soul to the Devil 243

64 Take My Advice: Party Buses Are Not That Much Fun 245

65 Everybody Loves a Good Raffle: …If You Read Your Email 248

66 Preparedness: Substitute Teachers will be Needed on Mondays and Fridays 251

67 Jerry Maguire Moment: Show Us… Our Calling 254

68 Unfortunate Part of the Job: Our Leadership will be Needed in Tragedy 256

69 Acquire a Second Diploma: Are We Marketing the Great Things About Our School? 258

70 Show Me the Money: Go Find A Pot of Gold 260

71 Sanity Check: Laugh at All Costs 262

72 Time Management: Confusion Reigns with No Calendar 264

73 Love: All MEANS All 266

The Final Exam 269

References 271