Monitor

Monitoring should be a continuous, multifaceted step in the instructional cycle involving an entire team of individuals. While principals have many responsibilities, monitoring must have the highest priority. As the school’s instructional leader, the principal must work with determination to ensure the success of both teachers and students.

The principal should schedule regular classroom visits and hold frequent meetings with individual teachers, teacher teams, and individual students. The goal should be to keep the school’s academic mission on focus and to encourage progress. As an added benefit, the principal may observe an effective teaching strategy while making these classroom rounds that can be shared with other teachers who may be experiencing difficulty getting the same concept across.

Weekly instructional team meetings should be scheduled for grade levels or departments. These meetings provide opportunities for teachers to share successful instructional strategies, discuss the needs of students, and discuss assessment results. The principal and other administrators should frequently attend the meetings. Their attendance at meetings reinforces the message that his is a team effort.

Benefits of monitoring:

• Ensures that everyone has a role in the learning process
• Identifies what is working and what is not (while there is still time to improve)
• Connects students and principal on a personal level
• Assures students that the principal and teachers care and that learning is important
• Helps reduce discipline problems
• Helps instruction improve when the principal recommends an effective teaching strategy\
• Reassures teachers and students that “we are all in this together”.