Online Only
For Principals:
A Social Media Support Group
To increase your comfort zone with social media, join Eric
Sheninger (principal of New Milford High School in New
Jersey) and Joe Mazza (principal of Knapp Elementary
School in Lansdale, Pennsylvania) on Leadership 2.0
( www.ed Web.net/leadership). This professional learning
community (PLC) offers free webinars, live chats, and
online discussions that help principals expand their
personal networks, integrate technology into learning,
connect with parents and the community, and get
practical advice about how to get started with social
media. Monthly webinars tackle such topics as the
fundamentals of leadership 2.0 and maximizing
engagement in a Common Core environment.
Relevant Reads
The Principal: Traversing the
High-Wire with No Net Below
by Don Sternberg (RoseDog
Books, 2012)
Sternberg, an award-winning
principal with a 42-year career
in public education, likens
the principalship to being a
high-wire aerialist: “At times,
as principal, you can feel that
you are a hundred feet off the
ground, traversing your career alone—spotlight beaming
up at you—and with no net under you.” The bottom line
is that there is only one principal, whose every decision
is scrutinized by multiple stakeholders. Sternberg offers
practical advice for remaining balanced.
“The last thing anyone wants to hear is a principal standing in front of a large gathering of school stakeholders and asking the
group to trust him or her. Asking for trust won’t get it! What
people do want is to work with a principal who can be trusted
day in and day out, and whose credibility and integrity are never
in question.” (p. 3)
World Spin
Let’s Hear It for Local
In New South Wales,
Australia, school principals
will now have greater
control over their school
budgets. More than 200
public schools will switch
to a funding model that
provides extra money for
schools that have large
proportions of students
from low socioeconomic
backgrounds, Aboriginal
students, English language
learners, and students with
disabilities. When fully implemented, this model will
enable schools to control 70 percent of the total school
budget as part of New South Wales’ Local School, Local
Decisions autonomy plan.
PageTurner
When she discovered I was the new principal, she gasped and assured me
everybody was praying for me. —Deborah S. Peterson, p. 74
ASCD / WWW.ASCD.ORG