… our followership, how we respond to those above us on the organizational chart, reveals much about our potential as leaders. Schools operate within hierarchical systems, where each individual, regardless of their role, is part of a structured chain of command. Teachers report to department chairs, department chairs to assistant principals, principals to presidents, and…
Category: Leadership
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 30 | Gratitude and Fear | February 28, 2024
Gratitude opens the door to joy and abundance, whereas fear firmly closes those very doors. Throughout my life, and particularly in recent weeks, I have found myself reflecting on the many opportunities, both personal and professional, that I have been fortunate to experience. Most have nudged me out of my comfort zones, prompting me to…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 29 | When Leadership Lets Us Down | February 21, 2024
When we are authentic, when we act from our true selves, all of this, though incredibly heavy to shoulder, is worth the weight. Many (most?) of the blogs I have composed over the nine years of Teach & Serve reflect on or reference conditions wherein good leadership is present in a school. They are written…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 28 | Love | February 14, 2024
Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day are about intentionality. They are about relationship. Most importantly, they are about love. Today is Valentine’s Day. It is also Ash Wednesday. Though this confluence of days is rare, it is not as rare as one might think. It just happened six years ago in 2018 and will happen again…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 27 | Polar Approaches | February 7, 2024
How the leader proceeds in the face of negativity and complaints says far more about the leader than the constituents. I recently had cause to reflect on something a good friend of mine said a few years ago: “When disagreeing, the negative opinion can seem to be more informed than the positive opinion. We should…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 26 | Is What I am about to Do Helpful? | January 31, 2024
If what I am about to do is not constructive, I need to discard the thought. If what I am about to say only tears down with no possibility of building up, it is the wrong way to go. When I think back to the over twenty-five years I spent as a high school teacher…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 25 | A Father’s Advice Lived | January 17, 2024
My father, who professed a dislike of school and who I never heard anyone call “teacher” was one of the greatest teachers I ever had. I have shared this post before but, as my father’s birthday is tomorrow and, for me, these messages never get old, I share it again today. My father was a…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 24 | Arrogance and Leadership | January 10, 2024
Arrogance and good leadership are… incompatible. The old adage “oil and water don’t mix” is demonstrably true. Head into your kitchen. Find some oil. Put the oil in a glass filled with water. See what happens. Go ahead. I will wait. See? What did I tell you? Oil and water do not mix. I would…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 23 | ONE WORD 2024 – Embrace | January 3, 2024
I start the year 2024 with the word EMBRACE. Over the course of the past five years or so, I have taken part in a movement among the educational community (and the community writ large, I am certain) to select a word around which to center the upcoming year. I have engaged in this practice…
Teach and Serve | Vol. 9, No. 22 | The Gift of Our Work | December 20, 2023
Our work reaches beyond us. It reaches through time. It reaches into the future. EVERGREEN POST We do not get tired of good Christmas songs. Well, I do not, anyway. I look forward to their repetition each year. When beginning to compose a post for the week before Christmas this year, I realized I had…