When I first visited Richard J. Daley Elementary Academy the week prior to the beginning of the school year, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the front office team and Assistant Principal invited me to “make myself at home”. Principal Kamilah Hampton was en ro...

It’s practically common knowledge by now that great leaders are open and emotionally available with their teams. Most excellent school leaders I’ve worked with have learned to skillfully and diligently admit mistakes, seek input on decisions, and go out of their way to...

It’s Principal Appreciation Month and one of the most impactful ways we can support Principals is by helping them focus on the core responsibilities of their work. In the countless beginning of year meetings I’ve had as Fulcrum has launched school partnerships in the 2...

We’ve heard all of the sayings. We’ve felt the sting of their actual meaning play out in our daily work. We accept it as part and parcel of the job. Being a school leader is lonely.

In many ways, it is an inevitability. (There’s a reason why adages and quotes about the...

Being a school principal is rife with challenges in even the most predictable of circumstances. Transitioning into the principal seat in between school years to lead a staff you haven’t yet met, can layer on even more obstacles to the already difficult work.

Lauren Norw...

We like to accumulate wins. We need to accumulate wins. The satisfaction of crossing something off of a list, marking it complete, adding it to our professional tool belt is thrilling. And volume seems to be the name of the game in education these days. The more priori...

Take a moment and think about your day today - start to finish - and pay specific attention to anything (multiple things, people, issues, calls, etc.) that threw you off or distracted you.

A distraction, by definition, prevents you from giving your full attention elsewh...