美国校长鼓励师生的十种方法原文

BRAVO Principals...Rekindle the SpiritAt a recent meeting of principals the speaker shared a list that began You might be a school principal if?/I>厃ou want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to haveyour summers free."You might be a school principal if you can tell it's a full moon withouteven looking outside.You might be a school principal if you believe the staff room should beequipped with a Valium salt lick. ?卆nd the list went on in that vein. You probably know the list I mean. You might have been forwarded a similar list by e-mail.When our speaker finished reading the list of "if" statements, many of which brought smiles of agreement or recognition from the principals gathered in the room, one of the attendees spoke up: "You might be a principal if you begin to cry before you even open the newspaper."THE NEED FOR ENCOURAGEMENTIf there was ever an entity that needed encouragement, today's public schools are it. Every day the newspaper is full of discouraging news about how our schools are failing students. Headlines highlight our shortcomings. Editorials decry our faults. While all good principal know there is always room for improvement, we also know that many wonderful successes happen on our campuses each day. Because of all the negative publicity schools have been getting, we have taken on another large new responsibility. Today's principals must be cheerleaders -- encouraging teachers, students, and the larger school community.Albert Schweitzer said that encouragement rekindles the spirit. Consequently, BRAVO principals recognize that a major responsibility in B uilding R elationships with A ctions that V alue O thers is to do just that: rekindle the spirit -- by being an encourager.As principals, we strengthen the foundation of respect for our schools, and encourage the good work that occurs every day in the lives of our students, when our actions rekindle the spirit of teachers and students. We do that in many ways. Here are just 10 of the ways in which good principals everywhere encourage the people on their campuses:YOU MIGHT BE A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL IF?BR> YOU DO THESE TEN THINGSGet to know your faculty and your students. Getting to know your faculty and students is the first step in being able to encourage them. How else will you notice if something is different? Is a normally cheerful, outgoing student, quiet and withdrawn?Is a teacher who always comes to school early, suddenly arriving late? Take advantage of those "duty" times when you are in the hallways, on the grounds, and in the lunchroom, to talk with students and teachers, and to find out about their lives. Keep a notebook of concerns. When you hear of concerns that a student or faculty member has, write them down in a notebook and keep that notebook close at hand. Read through the notebook every couple days to be reminded of the stressors that people in your school experience. Then write a note, send an e-mail, leave a voice mail, or inquire face to face about their well being. Many times just knowing that you care can be a great encourager in difficult times.Just say "No" to deficit thinking. When principals emphasize teacher talents, rather than deficits, teachers, in turn, emphasize student talents, rather than deficits. When you go in a classroom on a walk-through, train yourself to look first for what is working. Then look for what needs to improve. Ask teachers to do the same when they evaluate students. Always have them identify a student's strengths first, then identify areas where improvement is needed.Emphasize potential, not peril. Students should never be labeled "at risk." That terminology alone suggests a perilous outcome and often pre-determines that kids will fail. If you must use a label, you should consider them "at-potential." Being at-potential suggests that something good is about to happen and gives us all -- principals, teachers, and students -- something wonderful to work toward. The same goes for the teachers on your staff. You will never save a teacher who is not doing well by thinking "how can I get rid of him?" Instead, you should be thinking "What can I do to help him reach his potential?"Build confidence. Principals build confidence whenthey share their success stories. That is especially important today, when a school can be labeled "lowperforming" or "unacceptable" even if just one smallsegment of the school population does not do as well as expected on state-mandated testing, in attendance, orin some other way. Despite what the media might haveus believe, sharing success stories does not negate the areas where we need to improve. In fact, rememberingour successes helps faculty and students have moreconfidence that they can meet the new challenges thatface them.Structure for collaboration. The old adage "Twoheads are better than one" expresses perfectly thebenefits that result when faculty and students worktogether in a collaborative effort. It's one thing forprincipals to encourage this type of work with frequentreminders, but it's even more important to structuretimes during the school day that allow for groupplanning and idea sharing. One high school holds"Lunch and Learn" meetings every two weeks whereteachers and administrators share ideas and continueprofessional development activities. That same schoolhas a student-mentoring program in which olderstudents mentor younger students in academic subjects. Another principal puts information that he used to share at faculty meetings in a written memo in order to free up monthly faculty meetings for idea sharing.Let faculty and students see you work. You knowhow hard you work, and I know how hard you work, butyour work is often behind closed doors. Sometimes it isa great encourager for students and teachers to see you doing physical work. I know one principal who mid-yeareach year puts on jeans and cleans out the book room;he intentionally starts the task while students andteachers are still at school. Some principals keep nails,a screwdriver, and a hammer in their desks -- great forlast-minute fast fixes for distraught teachers.Do something special for faculty and students.Principals act as encouragers when they do somethingspecial for faculty and students. They know the value of recognizing good work by students and teachers, andthey do it often. They even do special things for noreason at all -- except to be an encourager. I have a principal friend who arranged to BRAVO PrincipalsBRAVO is an acronym forB uilding R elationships with A ctions that V alue O thers. 揚rincipals canact in many ways that value others,?said Sandra Harris, author of BRAVO Principal!, and each month I will share in this column some of those ways. The ideas shared will not be directionless, busy-work activities; instead they will be 憈actical actions?-- actions with the purposeful intent of building valued relationships with others.Harris, an associateprofessorin the educational leadership program at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, is author of other titles including BestPractices of Award-Winning Elementary School Principals (Corwin Press, 2005) and seven titles for Rowman & Littlefield Publishers . Her newest book, BRAVO Teacher , wasjust released.bring in special coffees once a month for the faculty. A few years later she saw a now-retired teacher who said it was that one act that encouraged her to stay in teaching at least two more years! On a blistering hot day in May some principals arrange to have popsicles for the students and teachers. Those are small acts, but they are great encouragers.Provide resources. I hear educators complain all the time about the No Child Left Behind Act. Yet no one has ever complained to me that they disagree with the premise of NCLB -- that every child should have an opportunity to achieve at school. Instead their complaints center around the lack of resources needed to effectively implement this Act. When principals find creative ways to provide time, materials, or cash resources, they are acting as encouragers.Be persistent -- don't give up easily. The faculty and staff, as well as students and parents, draw strength from the principal. If you give up, so might they. Remember, when a strategy or program doesn't work, it is only failure if you fail to learn from the experience. If you implement a strategy or a program that is not effective and learn from that a way to be more effective, then it has been valuable. How can anything that is valuable be considered a failure?PERSISTENCE PAYSAs principals, it's much easier to be persistent and to keep on trying when we realize that achieving a goal is incremental and that every learning step brings us closer to that goal. We encourage others, and even ourselves, when we understand that successful schools are all about that kind of learning. Persistent principals do not give up easily, because we know that all learning has the potential to improve achievement for everyone on campus. It's our job to encourage toward that commitment. Principals are encouragers. We re-kindle the spirit of everyone on our campuses. The very act of encouraging emphasizes our belief in others. It says: "I believe we can achieve."Come to think of it, you might be a BRAVO principal if . . . before you open the newspaper you smile knowing one day the headline will be about your school being an Exemplary School.Article by Sandra HarrisEducation World®Copyright © 2005 Education World12/05/2005。