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Opinion Blog

Classroom Q&A

With Larry Ferlazzo

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to lferlazzo@epe.org. Read more from this blog.

School & District Management Opinion

Q&A Collections: Administrator Leadership

By Larry Ferlazzo — August 14, 2021 7 min read
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During the summer, I am sharing thematic posts bringing together responses on similar topics from the past 10 years. You can see all those collections from the first nine years here.

Here are the ones I’ve published so far:

The 11 Most Popular Classroom Q&A Posts of the Year

Race & Racism in 69ý

School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis

Classroom-Management Advice

Best Ways to Begin the School Year

Best Ways to End the School Year

Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning

Implementing the Common Core

Challenging Normative Gender Culture in Education

Teaching Social Studies

Cooperative & Collaborative Learning

Using Tech With 69ý

Student Voices

Parent Engagement in 69ý

Teaching English-Language Learners

69ý Instruction

Writing Instruction

Education Policy Issues

Assessment

Differentiating Instruction

Math Instruction

Science Instruction

Advice for New Teachers

Author Interviews

Entering the Teaching Profession

The Inclusive Classroom

Learning & the Brain

Today’s theme is on administrator leadership. You can see the list of posts following this excerpt from one of them:

administratorscanmakepowell

With the coronavirus as a backdrop, a district superintendent weighs the pros and cons of different strategies for reopening schools in the fall.

District schools Superintendent PJ Caposey shares the challenges and questions he is grappling with as he plans for a school year during the pandemic.

Four educators share advice on dealing with student absences. These include trying to find out the real reasons behind the lack of attendance and building positive teacher/student relationships.

Four educators share strategies for responding to absenteeism—whether from remote learning or from the physical school. They include a reduced emphasis on negative consequences and a renewed focus on relationship-building.

A five-part series on mistakes made by school administrators is wrapped up today with commentaries from Lynell Powell, Stuart Ablon, Alisha Pollastri, Diane Mora, and many comments from readers.

*

Julie Hasson, Ryan Huels, David Bosso, Cindy Terebush, and Kelly Wickham Hurst contribute their thoughts on administrators and the mistakes they make.

Jen Schwanke, Jenny Grant Rankin, Harvey Alvy, Michael Haggen, James Erekson, and Michael D. Toth write about their experiences working as, or with, school administrators.

PJ Caposey, Sarah Said, Amy Fast, Andrew Miller, Anthony Kim, and Edward Cosentino share their observations on mistakes administrators make and how to avoid them.

Commentaries from Anne Vilen, Marcy Webb, Jason Kotch, Roxanna Elden, Baruti Kafele, and Manuel Rustin “kick off” this five-part series on administrators’ mistakes.

Scott Ratchford, Michael Lubelfeld, Jody Spiro, Jonas Chartock, and Victoria L. Bernhardt comment on the best roles central offices should play in providing school support.

Adeyemi Stembridge, Douglas Reeves, Amber Teamann, PJ Caposey, Rachael George, Patrick Darfler-Sweeney, and Sherry Lanza share their ideas on how school district central offices can best help schools.

Greg Giglio, Jane Kise, David Bateman, Jenifer Cline, Tom Hoerr, and Jennifer Abrams contribute their suggestions for dealing with staff conflict.

Sanée Bell, Ed.D., Todd Franklin, Jenny Edwards, Julie P. Combs, Stacey Edmonson, Sandy Harris, and Amber Teamann discuss how to handle workplace conflict at schools.

Jen Schwanke, William Sterrett, Amy Dujon, Raymond Smith, Pete Hall, Sandi Novak, Bonnie Houck, Ed. D., and Daniel Rechtschaffen share their ideas on how principals should do their jobs.

Mike Janatovich, Ann Mausbach, Kim Morrison, Otis Kriegel, Jonathan Eckert, David Geurin, and Robert Cunard contribute their thoughts on how principals should spend their time.

PJ Caposey, Stephanie Brant, Megan Allen, Sanée Bell, and Rachael George share their ideas about how principals should spend their time.

Michael Haggen, Donna Wilson, Marcus Conyers, Tom Hoerr, David Bateman, Jenifer Cline, and Jennifer Abrams provide commentaries on the challenges facing principals.

Sanée Bell, Jen Schwanke, Mike Janatovich, Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., Cynthia L. Uline, and Lynne G. Perez share their ideas on challenges facing principals and how best to respond to them.

PJ Caposey, Amber Teamann, Matt Renwick, Paul Barnwell, and Mitch Barnes share their ideas on the roles of administrators in making curriculum innovations.

Sanée Bell, Mark Estrada, Sally J. Zepeda, Adeyemi Stembridge, Kenneth Baum, David Krulwich, and Daniel Venables contribute their suggestions about how administrators can support curriculum innovations.

Myron Dueck, PJ Caposey, Pete Hall, and Christina Post contribute their commentaries on the topic of qualities potential principals should develop and maintain.

Catherine Beck, Mark Estrada, Bill Sterrett, and Ben Fenton share their suggestions about the qualities aspiring principals should cultivate within themselves.

In this post, Troy Hicks, Kristina J. Doubet, David Sherrin, Kirke Olson, and Barbara Blackburn share their thoughts on how principals can support teachers, specifically in the social sciences. I’ve also included comments from many readers.

In this post, Shawn Blankenship, Pete Hall, Jennifer Hindman, Steven Anderson, and Aubrie Rojee share their suggestions on how principals can mentor teachers.

This piece features commentaries from Mark Estrada, Diana Laufenberg, Bryan Harris, Ben Spielberg, Sarah Cooper, and William & Pérsida Himmele on how principals can best support teachers.

Justin Baeder and Kelly Young (who I consider my mentor in education) contribute their answers here. I include comments from readers, too.

This post shares guest responses from three educators—Anne Reeves, Justin Tarte, and PJ Caposey.

This column shares responses from Maurice J. Elias and Elise Foster, plus comments from readers.

This post includes commentaries by Scott McLeod, Sally Zepeda, and Tony Frontier.

Scott McLeod, Kelly Young, John Gabriel, and Paul Farmer all offer their advice here.

Justin Baeder, Allan R. Bonilla, and Josh Stumpenhorst share their reflections.

Lyn Hilt, Joe Mazza, and Cheryl James-Ward contribute to this post.

This is Part One in a series responding to the question: “How can teachers best relate to superintendents—and vice versa?”

This post provides responses from a teacher’s perspective, with contributions from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Dean Vogel, president of the California Teachers Association; and Barnett Berry of the Center for Teaching Quality.

This is Part Two, which provides responses from a superintendent’s perspective, with contributions from three superintendents (along with comments from readers): Joshua Starr, Pamela Moran, and John Kuhn.

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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