How to Create a Positive School Culture
by Doc Schwartz, M.Ed. | May 6, 2024 | Blog
If you're the principal of a school, the last thing you want to hear is that your teachers or students think you run a toxic school environment. G-d forbid the culture you lead creates more toxic stress than alleviates it.
But enough about the nightmare -- how do you create a positive school culture in reality?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions by principals and school leaders across the country, which is why Leaf Academy is going to walk you through a solution that works in this blog post.
This is one example of Path One to Leaf Academy's K12 expertise.
And if you want more help and join the growing community of principals in America - then you should join the Principal's Academy.
What is the Principal's Academy?
The Principal's Academy is a program designed for principals, vice-principals and other school leaders who want to follow the 21st century education research in building the schools of the future.
The fact of the matter is that you can't build a modern school, if you're stuck using the old mindset of K12 schools.
Therefore, how do you break free from the old way of doing things?
And the answer is - Join the Principal's Academy!!
If you want more help and support as a school leader, follow the link below to read the First Edition of the Newsletter for FREE!!
Step One: Creating a Positive School Culture
The first step in creating a positive environment in your school is to sit down and map out what type of environment you want to create. And you need to do this because there's no one size fits all model that will work.
Therefore, you need to know what your teachers and your students need from you before you can create and environment that works for them.
Which also means - your learning environment will probably change from year to year, depending on the teachers and students you have.
Step Two: Outline your Goals
The second step in creating a positive school environment is to outline your overall school goals. If you want to boost student achievement, then you need a specific environment that places an emphasis on student achievement.
On the other hand, if you want to combat bullying, then you need a school environment that attacks that issue head on, otherwise you're always going to feel like your climbing an uphill battle.
Therefore, step two is writing down your school goals.
What's Next?
Here's a quick checklist of 10 things you can do to help create the positive school environment you want:
1. Class rules
2. Encouraging students to make mistakes
3. Grading rubrics
4. Implement PBIS in class
5. School policy on removing students from class
6. Training staff on effective discipline strategies
7. Creating a parent communication calendar and schedule
8. Establishing a policy for grading all student work
9. Inspect your classrooms weekly for cleanliness, organization and structure
10. Encourage teachers to use "planned breaks" throughout the day
If you don't know what these 10 checklist items refer to, then you should hit the sign up button for the Principal's Academy and start receiving principal mentorship from Leaf Academy.
The problem isn't "not knowing" what these 10 checklist items are - the problem is "not finding out" the answers. As the principal and school leader - it is your job to always seek out new information, new research and new solutions. It's not acceptable for you to sit back and say, "I don't know what to do, therefore I'm just going to do what I feel is the right thing."
You have a duty and obligation to follow the research and data - therefore, if you don't know what you're supposed to do - sign up right now for the Principal's Academy and start getting the Principal Mentorship you need and deserve!
BEFORE YOU SIGN UP -- TAKE THE SAFE CLASSROOMS QUIZ!!
Leaf Academy created an easy 10 Question Quiz to help school leaders determine if the classrooms in your school meet the "Safe and Conducive" standard.
This quiz will only take 2-minute to fill out, but it will provide you with data you can use to dramatically improve the overall quality of your school. That's why more than 100 principals have already filled out this short 2-minute quiz - and you should too!!
Find out what your classroom score is today! (a score of 8 or better means the classroom is a "safe and conducive" learning environment, whereas any score below 8 means something may be wrong in that classroom and you should probably do a classroom observation immediately)
After you finish the quiz, go and join the Principal's Academy today!!
