The Balcony View

Wednesday I had the privilege of hearing David and Tina Long speak. Their son, Tyler, is one of the students featured in the film Bully . David is the first person to speak in the film's trailer. He and Tina were brought to Iowa by the excellent UNI Center for Violence Prevention. I was fortunate to serve as a panelist a year ago when the film's director Lee Hirsch  and co-writer Cynthia Lowen  visited campus for a screening. It was an honor to be asked to offer something to this important discussion and I tried to share lessons I learned from the kids featured in my book, The Principal's Challenge . Tyler Long   Since Tyler hanged himself in his closet after enduring years of bullying from peers, the Longs have been on a crusade to raise awareness and empower educators and communities to take action. They recently launched their own non-profit, Everything Starts With 1 , which also has a Facebook presence. Their efforts have landed them on GMA ,  Ellen, H...

Several years ago, we were busy revising our principalship program. We were fortunate that our process coincided with an upcoming visit from the Iowa Department of Education, which happens every seven years. A few weeks after the state visitors left, we hosted two additional reviewers from other universities who would review our program as part of a university-required process. Both were a ton of work but very well timed. It was a busy spring. As we met as a team to determine what changes we felt would strengthen our program's ability to develop and nurture difference-making principals, we stuck closely to our mission statement and core values, which we had sharpened and put in graphic form in all of our offices a couple years before. We knew firsthand the stresses of being school administrators and the danger of taking on so many things and losing oneself in the process. At that point, our well intended attempt at cautioning our students against the dangers of job stress was li...

This edition of The Balcony View is guest written by Jamie Cranston, an aspiring school leader in the All-Iowa Principalship cohort at UNI. Jamie currently serves as an Early Childhood Special Education Teacher and Preschool Site Coordinator for the Newton Community School District. Setting the Stage: In early June I attended a special education conference in Des Moines with many of the administrators in my district. This conference was a first time experience for me. I had never attended a conference that focuses only on special education or even one that administrators attend. I am not sure that I have ever even attended a conference where lunch was provided! While waiting for the conference to begin I was looking at the different options for workshops to attend and mapping out my day. I looked up from my very important work to see a group of special needs students standing at the end of the stage with parents and an instructor. They began moving onto the stage ...

Every fall semester, I begin a new journey with aspiring school leaders who quickly have their eyes and minds thrown open by new, sometimes conflicting ideas, possibilities and controversies as they try to understand school leadership from a broad perspective. I call it the balcony view. They probably tire of the phrase. Inevitably, we spend time talking about how simple and straightforward good school leadership looks from the safety of a comfortable chair, newspaper article, politician’s stump speech, corporate board room, faculty lounge, or classroom or office tucked away in the Ivory Tower. And every fall semester, through those messy and often long-running conversations, I’m encouraged by the passion, level of commitment and desire to do good work I see in our students. A couple years ago, I asked Tara Estep ( @TaraEstep ), one of our program graduates and a new principal, to participate in a blogging project with my class of aspiring principals. I knew ...

A few weeks ago, I jumped into the Panther Car for meetings with aspiring principals and their mentors. Farmers were working, small town windows had been painted for homecoming and, save for the familiar descent into the cesspool that is political advertising, it was a great day to be out. I had a few excellent meetings with my students, who are spending a large chunk of money and even larger amounts of time and effort learning to be principals. In class and online, we talk extensively about why they want to lead schools, what they have to offer, and their vision for kids' opportunities. They are among the most inquisitive, coachable, intellectually curious people I've met. And it's refreshing. On my way back to campus, I caught a couple former students who are in their first year as principals on the phone. I heard about the daily trials that are familiar to anyone who has spent time leading schools--working with teachers to develop plans to get off the NCLB naughty l...

Hi.  My name is Alison and I am excited Dr. Pace asked me to be a guest blogger!  When it comes to blogs I am a long time reader, first time blogger.  I am currently in Dr. Pace’s class at UNI in the Ed Leadership program.  I keep plenty busy with two jobs and school; keeps me on my toes! I lived on the east side of Des Moines when I was younger, but my family moved to a quiet suburb when I was in 2 nd grade.  My parents ran out of things to say when my brother and I asked why our bikes kept getting stolen.  The final straw was a man who broke in and was found sleeping in our house.  We landed in suburbia.  Everyone I went to school with looked like me and we all had similar religious beliefs. I was there from third through twelfth grades and was quite happy and comfortable.  If you would have asked me then what I would be doing as an adult, there is NO way I would have every guessed I would be working with alternative high schoo...

I didn't want to run this morning, but I always feel better if i do. So I did. That was good. Arrived at my office with the intention of spending some time on a book project that is now due much sooner than it once was. As is often the case, the day played out differently than my Google Calendar indicated it would. The first order of business was to help get some doctoral students situated for writing their comprehensive exams. They started at 9 am and it is after 3 pm now. Several are still applying what they know to some challenging questions. Reminded me of what an important step this is on their personal and professional journeys. That's cool. Then I started digging into some end of the semester things. Made some comments and notes on a final chapter in a book that my excellent future principals from Iowa's Urban Education Network have been reading. Emailed that to them, as class time in our final meeting next Monday will be devoted to them sharing action resear...