With commitment and hard work, school librarians can become indispensable to school success, writes Judi Moreillon. Through their support for community building, PD, inquiry learning, digital resources and more, librarians can be a vital part of leadership teams.
Reclaiming the Principalship develops six innovative ideas – including unifying the school community and professional networking – that a school leader can use and reflect upon throughout their career. Assistant principal Laura Colbert highly recommends the book.
K-12 and higher education veteran M. Scott Norton has written a book about the human resources role of principals. Retired principal Mary Langer Thompson finds the resources on school climate helpful, but disagrees that principals should take on major HR responsibilities.
In High-Payoff Strategies, Jody Spiro promises a toolkit of strategies and templates for school leaders to facilitate change. Principal Matt Renwick says Spiro tackles too many agendas in the brief book but thinks readers can pull out some useful ideas, including a culture scan.
Don’t Suspend Me! can be used to ramp up school and district discussions about discipline policies. Principals, discipline teams, and individual teachers whose schools don’t have access to onsite PBIS training might adapt the book’s suggestions, says Mary L. Thompson.
The framework Jennifer Abrams develops in Hard Conversations Unpacked focuses on professional growth, and ultimately on positive outcomes for student learning. Principal Mike Janatovich will never again attempt a challenging conversation without this guidance.
Jody Spiro provides leaders with three essential building blocks to improve school culture, instruction, and learning communities and offers case studies and videos showing how those building blocks apply to selected strategies, says teacher-leader Rebecca Berger.
This is a needed, practical book for superintendents, school leaders, and others who want to know how districts work and how these key figures should function in terms of school governance and working relationships, says retired principal Mary Langer Thompson.
School Culture Recharged is a good mix of philosophy, research, and practical strategy. Rita Platt recommends that “school and district leaders read it to get a handle on the what’s, how’s, and why’s of developing school cultures that help bring about success for all.”
Carol Pelletier Radford’s 2017 books can help beginning teachers by giving their mentors detailed guidelines, a clearly defined schedule, and routines that allow flexibility for both mentor and mentee, says school district new-teacher liaison Michael DiClemente.
