I knew her my whole life, but I had never experienced anything like this. It was fast-paced, high energy, and down right crazy at times. I'm talking about my Aunt Mary's 5th grade classroom. Honestly, you had to be there to experience it. I can see vividly the many...
I wrote an article sometime ago about a few steps for transforming schools entitled "School Transformation a Lesson From Popeyes!" http://www.herbertoneil.com/school-transformation-a-lesson-from-popeyes-2/It was one of my favorite blog posts, maybe because I like...
In my last blog post I spent a little time being reflective about how I didn’t do a great job of helping teachers be better teachers when I was a campus principal. I thought it was important to talk about it so that as campus leaders we keep focused on what’s...
It’s always pretty interesting to me when I notice the clear deficits I had when I was a campus principal. I always thought I did a great job of laying out a vision for the campus, having attainable goals, setting clear expectations, taking calculated learning risks,...
Are We Really Helping New Principals? I often read articles and posts on twitter that talk about what principals need to do to be successful. There’s always talk about instructional leadership, culture, climate, operational management, and transformation. We...
I was fortunate to do a podcast with Jennifer Gonzalez @cultofpedagogy with the "Cult of Pedagogy." Jennifer interviewed several school administrators about what they look for when hiring teachers. Prospective teachers take a moment to listen to the podcast to find...
As I sit on my final night of an amazing vacation I wanted to take time to thank the people of Corsicana for allowing me to serve as principal for the past 6 years. I still remember my first day as principal of Drane Intermediate and my final day as principal of...
I have said it once, and I will boldly say it again here. Being a principal has to be one of the toughest jobs in education. Of course this is my own opinion, and it's my website, so I can pretty much say what I want to here. 🙂 I still remember my first principal...
This morning I had the opportunity to hang out with students from Life School-Red Oak Secondary. It was a great experience! I was fortunate to hang out with an Engineering class. I will tell you right now that I was blown away by what I witnessed. It was great to...
I always read things about the role of the principal and the term instructional leader being thrown around. Of course I believe and know that the principal is the instructional leader of the building. The principal is also the leader of systems and operational...
It's been a while since I wrote in this space, and I think today is a great time to do so. I had a great time yesterday with our Life Leadership Academy. They are a great group of motivated educators that are part of the next generation of leaders at Life...
At Life School it is our hope that all stakeholders embrace a standard of excellence. If we are all at our best the impossible can be made possible. All of us must do our part to invest a standard of excellence into the lives of the students at Life...