How do you know your students are learning?

This question as a principal, Am I sure the students are all learning? Use to keep me up at night. 

However, then I learned that the best way to ensure students are learning is through daily classroom walkthroughs.

These walkthrough must be intentional and focused on making sure that students are not just learning but mastering the curriculum taught. 

That the atmosphere is affirming. 

That the students are engaged in the process.

That the teacher is aware of everything that is happening between the four walls of the classroom. 

While you are walking through each classroom, the validity of the information you receive through assessments and benchmarks will be affirmed. 

The first step in effective leadership is making a choice that is in harmony with our goals and desires.

I personally believe that the academic growth your students make, and the development of the teachers that lead them, will directly correlate to the effectiveness and the diligence of my daily walkthrough routine. 

Here is what I mean. 

You need to know what you are looking for. 

Can’t just look in the window, or stand in the back. 

Walk the class, Look over the shoulder, identify whether the students paper looks like the whiteboard. Do they have the right material out? Are they using any strategies? Can you tell that they understand how to structure the math problem. How to decipher the context of the problem. 

Is the teacher making sense? 

Are they going too fast? Or maybe too slow? Are they circulating the room and seeing what you see?

Are they confident in the material and instructional method? 

Are they leading the students through the learning process or are they doing all the work and the students are waiting them out?

Can you tell that they, themselves, have worked through the problem and know where the students may struggle? 

There are so many critical aspects of the walkthrough that because of “time” go undone.

How are you going to give the teacher feedback?

I like to step out and record a short video on a tool like Loom. It’s more personal and takes less time than an email. Put it on your calendar to check back in with 24 hours to ask the teacher how they thought the lesson went. What are they able to decipher on their own versus you raising their awareness. 

This is the second step in effective leadership, is making decisions that are in harmony with our choices.

Now…many principals are having the most difficult time getting into the rooms. I know because every week, during our Empowered Executives Inner Circle time, or when I am coaching them, they tell me. 

If you are the instructional leader, and the best person on campus to evaluate what is happening in the classroom, then you need to be in the classrooms every day.

Developing the adults in the building should be 60% to 80% of your day. Lead by walking around. Getting the best out of everyone on the team.  

If you are the instructional leader then be relentless with where and who you spend your time with. 

This is your number one decision daily...deciding how you will I use your time.

Being able to spend the majority of your day in classrooms won’t happen in a day or even a week.

But starting today you can make that decision what within 30, 60 and 90 days your time will improve by one hour a day.

Starting today you can begin to identify, equip and empower members of your team to do everything else.

When you can, bring them along with you on the classroom walk through so you can begin norming your walk through and feedback protocols. 

Your job as a leader is to multiply your leadership, not manage the day to day operations.

You might be responsible for it all. But in NO WAY are you required to do it all. 

If you liked this content and want to read and learn more, it’s an excerpt from my book, The 10 Indicators of High Performing Charter Schools. 

Indicator III: Focusing on the Quality Work of the School and Indicator IV: Sustained High Quality Administrative Team.

In my book I go deeper on this question and provide hundreds of school improvement strategies and resources that will raise academics, build an instructional leadership team, improve overall operations and much, much more. 

We have to make choices and then decisions that are in harmony with what we want otherwise we don't get or have what we want. 

You can get your free copy clicking the link here or fill out the form below. 

https://www.leaders-building-leaders.com/10Indicators

Once you get the book, download and share with your team. Read it together.

Watch the accompanying video lessons and take the Wheel of Success Assessment. It will provide you the information you need to begin creating a strategic plan to navigate your school from success to significance.

Watch the accompanying video lessons and take the Wheel of Success Assessment. It will provide you the information you need to begin creating a strategic plan to navigate your school from success to significance.