A Positive Learning Environment Is A Safe, Secure Environment, Emotionally Protective, And Healthy Environment

The responsibility of preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s future involves more than orchestrating the curriculum students learn and the teachers who teach it. It involves the ability to employ the leadership styles fluently based on the everyday demands of running a school (Goleman, 2000). Informed by both research and real-world application, the Wallace Foundation identified five key functions of a successful leader: “shaping a vision of academic success for all students, creating a climate hospitable to education, cultivating leadership in others, improving instruction, [and] managing people, data, and processes to foster school improvement” (Harvey, 2013, pg. 4). To be an effective 21st century educational leader, one must cultivate a sustainable vision and school culture which are globally-minded, yet locally applicable to the community they serve.

Leaders are accountable to uphold a safe learning environment and uphold personal and professional values. They demonstrate and live these values, beliefs and attitudes to inspire others to higher levels of performance. Leaders expect others in the school community to demonstrate integrity and exercise ethical behavior. With high stakes accountability, leaders need to interpret and implement policies for the benefit of students, staff, community and themselves and do so with integrity.

The staff can collaboratively develop expectations for behavior in the common areas of the building … restrooms, hallways, lunch room, library … which will eliminate disagreements and will reduce student anxiety. The school administrator could also promote a school climate that supports positive behavior by implementing some of the ideas from the Ryan article, such as bullying prevention and intervention, character education, and creating a caring school community (p. 137). While these ideas will not eradicate all discipline issues, they will contribute to a more peaceful learning environment for students and

As principal of TWH, I feel it is vital to keep the urgency focused on academics. It is my belief that if we set students up for challenging and engaging classroom instruction, discipline issues will start to lessen. However, my teachers will feel supported and respected, and that will be communicated regularly to our students and school community. “…leaders treat others fairly, equitably, and with dignity and respect—and they establish the expectation that others in the school community act in a similar manner” (Murphy, 2006).

I believe that in order to maintain a safe classroom-learning environment I as the teacher need to create and demonstrate positive boundaries, letting the students know that I am in charge. Setting constructive boundaries prevents conflict amongst students, instead of students correcting one another they allow me as the teacher to respond to inappropriate behaviors. Also as the teacher, I will demonstrate to my students how they should respond to inappropriate behavior from their peers.

As a principal, one must be an effective leader to create a school environment that enables your faculty and staff to improve student achievement, the main objective of

Successful administrators possess the necessary attributes that help them make decisions and solve various problems. All school leaders, regardless of their title or role in a building or district, will face obstacles involving individuals, community members, staff, and students. In order to address these challenges, leaders must understand the issue, formulate and apply a solution, and then reflect on their implementation of the solution to decide whether or not it is improving the situation. By no means is this an easy task, but effective leaders must strive to make sure their students, personnel, and constituents are being led down a path that will lead to overall academic and personal success. According to Young (2008), “as such,

(Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2011, p.25) Educational leaders are held to high ethical standards because our decisions can have tremendous magnitudes on the educational outcomes of others. Effective leadership is created

Leithwood, Harris, and Hopkins state that effective leaders are responsive to the context of their environment (2008). For leaders to have success, they need to be relationship oriented and strongly believe in prioritizing the welfare of all individuals while making a genuine effort to meet the social and culturally sensitive needs of everyone involved . A relationship oriented leader is someone who is motivated by their interactions with people (Leithwood, Harris and Hopkins 2008) and has the ability to form meaningful relationships with all stakeholders. This trait allows effective communication with staff, students, and parents and creates positive interactions which allow for the development of an increased understanding of school culture

When people assume the role of a leader there are important ways that a leader should lead in order to ensure a level of effectiveness and consequently achieve success in the organization. Effective leaders have the ability to promote diversity in their schools. Therefore, the school environment should be welcoming to all students including the students who have cultural, learning, and personal differences and if not it can be very difficult for these groups of students to learn. It is a crucial part of a principal’s duties and responsibilities to promote an environment that embraces diversity. The leadership standards and indicators provided in this course serve as a guide for leaders to follow in order to ensure that they are doing their

The continuous pressure from accountability in schools is rapidly growing in the United States to ensure all students have an high quality education and that they are college/career ready. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001, school leaders and teachers are becoming more accountable in showing growth and proficiency student achievement. Therefore, schools are exploring a variety of avenues to help prepare students for their annual state assessment and accountability measures. Studies in recent years have indicated that school leaders can have both a direct and indirect impact on student achievement. There continues to be ongoing research emerging to determine how school leaders can have a significant influence towards student achievement. Though the evidence that leadership affects student achievement is primarily indirect, principal behaviors and decisions can continue to serve as a driving-force of what occurs in the classroom (Leithwood, Patten & Jantzi, 2010, p. 673).

According to Fullan (2001), the more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become. As society evolves, so must leadership. Leaders must be able to work under complicated and uncertain circumstances. At its core, I believe a great school has a strong leader. Great schools are like winning teams with leaders that have a clear, well-defined moral purpose, intimate knowledge of the skills of staff and students and an understanding of the change that will need to occur to achieve the desired outcome. All principals want their school to have successful students. Like the fans of teams who second-guess a coaching decision, teachers have wondered about the decisions of some by principals, which leads to resistance. It’s

In School Leadership that Works, Marzano, Waters, and McNulty discuss their findings of 69 studies on the effects of school leadership on student achievement. Additionally, they share the survey results of over 650 building principals. Based on these findings, they have developed a list of 21 leadership responsibilities, along with a five-point plan that will affect student achievement. Finally, they present a first order and second order of change sequence to facilitate student success.

A positive environment is good for learning and contributes largely, to the effectiveness of a school. Most schools work toward achieving a positive climate. Effective schools usually have positive climates that are conducive for the learning of the students (Cotton, 2003). A positive environment is also good, as it motivates the teaching staff to perform their duties well. The past two decades have witnessed many researchers dedicating themselves to searching for ways in which schools can improve the quality of education they deliver to students. Most teachers from different schools when interviewed admit that their schools have a positive environment. This essay seeks to discuss the positive climate in the school in which I am the principal. It will achieve this by reviewing the four primary dimensions of school climate as proposed and outlined in Tagiuri’s model.

Schools need to have a positive culture and climate to maximize learning. A principal traditional role of disciplining students who do not abide by the school’s and educators’ policies must be dealt with in a constructive way in order to maintain an orderly school. How a principal deals with student discipline has the largest impact on overall school climate(Cisler, 2013). A principal impact on student discipline is vital because the school should work as a team with the principal playing the part of a team leader, providing support to educators outside and inside the classroom. The principal first duty is to be highly visible to students serving as a reminder that they are monitoring student inactions with each other and in the classrooms across the school’s campus. A discipline plan needs to created by the school, with the administrator serving as a supervisor not an authoritarian. This is an important distinction because in order for students, parents, and teacher to buy into the discipline plan they have to be a part of its creation.