Where can assistant principals turn when they need to find encouragement and renewal in one of education’s toughest jobs? Veteran AP DeAnna Miller has found ways to strengthen her confidence and optimism as a leader through online communities and authors like Baruti Kafele.
Creating a dynamic communication model so that information flows effectively among the leadership team, faculty and staff, and parents and stakeholders helps nurture a culture and climate of shared leadership where all voices are heard and appreciated, writes AP DeAnna Miller.
Educational leadership classes are great for the principalship. Not so much for the job of assistant principal. AP DeAnna Miller shares helpful advice she has found on her own in the books of Baruti Kafele (values and beliefs) and Ryan Donlan (day-to-day management and more).
Instructional Coaching / My AP Life
by DeAnna Miller · Published 12/20/2021 · Last modified 01/09/2022
When administrators use their instructional coaches effectively, writes AP DeAnna Miller, they can watch the culture in their buildings shift to one of positivity and engagement. Without clear guidelines and indepth PD for coaches AND leaders, expect mistrust and dissent.
When we take the time to research and develop leadership styles that are true to our beliefs and values, while at the same time encouraging others to develop themselves and their own leadership styles, we become ethical and transformational leaders, writes AP DeAnna Miller.
If there’s ever been a year for reflection and pampering during winter break, then 2020 is that year. A.P. DeAnna Miller intends to set aside time to write and reflect on what worked and what needs changing. And she will “really and truly” revive and embrace the self-care routines she loves.
For the past two and half years, assistant principal DeAnna Miller has been on a leadership journey, seeking insights into a school career she’s already come to love. So far, the former teacher-coach writes, “I’ve discovered one profound ‘a-ha’ and two recurring truths.”
Assistant principals “feel so limited in what we can do or say that it often seems we have no voice at all,” writes DeAnna Miller. Yet if APs use this time to analyze their “why” and learn what they want to be as principals, they can find the courage to become change-makers.
Teaching and instructional coaching weren’t all the prep DeAnna Miller needed when she signed on as a new middle school assistant principal last fall. A year later she looks back at the challenges she faced and the solutions she discovered as she preps for another year.
