A Leader’s Job Isn’t Giving Presentations

If I were advising folks who are new to a leadership position in education, I’d give one piece of advice:

Your job isn’t to give presentations – it’s to give feedback. Watch teachers at work and tell them what they’re doing well and what they can improve.

Slightly more specific guidelines:

• Share fewer strategies. Demonstrate more lessons.
• Less talking about teaching. More watching teachers teach.
• Instead of a book study, study actual students’ work.

Generally, you want to get your hands dirty. Get to know your teachers. Watch them teach. Let them watch you teach in their classrooms.

Can you always do these things perfectly? Probably not. But you always want to get as close to “watching a real lesson” as possible. I like to say that I learned everything I know by watching teachers teach.