Summer Prep for Back to School: Resources for School Leaders

Strategies That Make a Difference

• Four Summer Strategies for School Leaders: Discover four strategies that will help focus your energy and prepare for success before returning for a new school year. Though written with middle school principals in mind, the suggestions are relevant for school leaders of all kinds. (MiddleWeb, 2016)
• Cultivating a New Leadership Archetype: Find ways to set the tone for the community in which you work by embracing creativity and play, promoting a culture of celebration, and maintaining health and spirit. (Edutopia, 2016)
• What Makes a Great School Leader?: Reflect on three qualities that are indicative of a great school leader. (Edutopia, 2014)
• A Teacher Perspective: Advice for Principals: Consider one teacher's observations on how administrators can better support and build relationships with teachers. (Edutopia, 2013)
• Successful School Leaders Know: People Come First: Explore takeaways from the research on school leadership, and read about five key responsibilities for school principals. (Vanderbilt University, 2012)
• My Back to School Speech: Mine this post to find food for thought when mulling over new-school-year messaging. (Ideas and Thoughts, 2013)

Explore strategies for maintaining balance, retaining focus on key priorities, managing limited time, and staying organized at the start of a busy school year:

• Maintaining Balance (SmartBlog on Education, 2014)
• Out of Time? How to Reclaim Your Greatest Asset (ASCD, 2014)
• Managing the Workload of Leadership (The Principal News, 2011)
• The Principal Connection: Checking for Checklists (ASCD's Educational Leadership, 2010)

Also, whether you’re a new or veteran administrator, these first-year tip lists include useful advice and reminders:

• 5 Strategic Tips for First-Year Administrators (Edutopia, 2015)
• 15 Tips for the New Principal (Connected Principals, 2012)

Engaging Families and Community

• Making the Most of Back-to-School Communications: During back-to-school season, take advantage of multiple avenues to spread the word about what’s happening in schools and districts. (Edutopia, 2015)
• 9 Suggestions for the Welcome Back Letter From the Principal: Use welcome-back letters to communicate important messages to parents about educational philosophy, successes, next steps, teacher accomplishments, mission, and vision. (Connected Principals, 2012)
• Parents: 19 Meaningful Questions You Should Ask: Browse a list of questions worth discussing at your school site when thinking about how to encourage dialogue between educators and parents. You may also want to discuss "12 Conversation Starters on What Parents Want You (Teachers) to Know." (Edutopia, 2013)
• Plan a "Digital Family Summit" to Engage Students and Parents: Learn how digital family summits can engage families around questions of technology use and digital citizenship. (Edutopia, 2012)
• Engaging ELL Families: Twenty Strategies for School Leaders: As you head into a new school year, how can you welcome and engage ELL families? This guide offers 20 ideas for building a new ELL family engagement plan. (Colorin Colorado, 2011)

Planning Purposeful Teacher Development

• Administrators, Please Inspire at Back to School: Consider suggestions to school leaders on how to inspire teachers at the start of a new year. (Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension, 2013)
• Transform Your Staff Meeting, Engage Your Faculty: Start the year off right by exploring ways to remix and energize school staff meetings to make them more effective. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Flipping the Staff Meeting: Follow three easy steps to restructure staff meetings in order to meet teachers' professional learning goals. On a related note, also read Chris Wejr’s post from Connected Principals on "Making Meetings Meaningful." (ASCD In Service, 2013)
• 8 Top Tips for Highly Effective PD: Browse top strategies for crafting highly effective professional development. Another great resource is "10 Tips for Delivering Awesome Professional Development." (Edutopia, 2015)
• Back-to-School Professional Development: Love It or Leave It: Bring the Edcamp model of professional development into back-to-school staff sessions. (SmartBlog on Education, 2012)
• Reimagining Classroom Walkthroughs: Clarify and streamline classroom walkthroughs using a new walkthrough tool. (Edutopia, 2015)

Building School Culture and Climate

• Talking in the Hallway: 3 Questions Principals Should Be Asking: Elevate daily conversations in the fall by considering how to communicate meaningfully with members of the school community during in-between moments. (Edutopia, 2016)
• Routine, Ritual, and School Community: Take a close look at your school’s routines and rituals at the start of the new school year. (Edutopia, 2015)
• A Feelings Walking Tour: Surveying Your School Culture and Climate: In the first days of school, consider taking a symbolic walk through your school to gain insight and ideas for any necessary action or changes. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Empathy: The Most Important Back-to-School Supply: Access a road map for promoting empathy in schools. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Building a Positive School Culture: Discover seven ways that school leaders can help set a positive tone and promote a caring and supportive school culture in the new school year. (SmartBlog on Education, 2013)

Connected Digital Leadership

• The Strategic Imperative for Schools: Technology as Connector: Help your school prepare students for an unknown future by making technology easy to use -- through hardware, software, mindset, and practice. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Tech Integration and School Culture: Take a look at three of the puzzle pieces for a school-wide tech integration initiative: developing a trusting, open culture; embracing risk and innovation; and turning PD into exploratory, sharing experiences. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Technology SAMR Model for Administrators: Staff Presentations: Enhance staff presentations with technology via the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) model for clarity and efficiency in presenting to and communicating with school staff. This is the first article of a five-part series that also examines using this model for community interaction, file management, classroom evaluations, and staff input. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Learn How to Be a Digital Leader: Listen to a talk on how to become a digital leader. For more on this topic, you may also want to read Sheninger's TeachThought post, "7 Pillars of Digital Leadership in Education." (PrincipalCast, 2014)
• Create Your PLN: 6 Easy Steps: Follow these steps over the summer to launch or further develop your own personal learning network; you might also consider participating in school leadership chats on Twitter such as #Satchat, #SatchatWC, and #CPchat. (ASCD's Educational Leadership, 2013)
• 8 Free Apps and Web Tools for Staying Organized in the New Year: The life of a school leader is a busy one; explore a few web tools and apps that can help with staying organized, keeping connected, and arriving on time. (Edutopia, 2015)