Ideas for Principals
- Ask your mayor to declare October 2012 as National Principal’s Month in your community.
- Hold an open house for parents and community members.
- Contact local service clubs and offer yourself or another staff member as a speaker.
- Invite local service clubs to hold a breakfast or luncheon meeting at the school. Talk with them about school leadership and invite them to visit classrooms.
- Submit an article or guest column in your local newspaper about the critical role of school leaders.
- Make a presentation at a meeting of your local school board.
- Invite members of local youth service agencies to a meeting at the school to discuss ways in which you might work collaboratively.
- Invite neighborhood police to stop by the school for coffee and an informal discussion about how you might support each other.
- Ask your superintendent to plan a joint meeting between the local school board and the city council to discuss the needs of school leaders.
- Contact the public service directors of local radio stations and ask them to air a public service announcement (PSA) announcing the National Principal’s Month.
- Invite members of the board of education, central office staff members, and/or other community leaders to shadow you for a day.
- Invite parents and grandparents to spend a day at the school shadowing you.
- Invite a local college or university to join your school in celebrating National Principal’s Month.
- Videotape National Principal’s Month activities to be aired on local cable television.
- Invite local business and community leaders to spend a day with you. (They will be surprised at the variety of things a principal does in a day.)
- Send a National Principal’s Month calendar to the mayor, city council, newspapers, and others in your area who may be interested in what is going on in your school.
Ideas for Parents, Teachers and Students
- NASSP releases Celebrate the Principalship, a research report on the importance of school leadership
- Write a thank you note for all your principal does, with specific examples of he/she has helped you.
- Better yet, have your class, your child’s class, or the whole school write thank you letters to your principal by distributing blank greeting cards with directions. The PTA could also initiate this activity.
- Set up a banner somewhere clearly visible in the school where students, parents, and teachers can write notes of appreciation to the principal. Or set up a table at lunch to do the same on thank you cards to be left in the principal’s mailbox.
- Provide a weekly treat for your principal during the entire month. For example, the first week is a hot breakfast, the second week is cupcakes, etc.
- Create a photo scrapbook for the principal with notes from the school community about why he/she is so valued.
- Plant a tree on the school campus to honor the principal.
- Together with other parents and/or teachers in your school, buy space in the local paper to celebrate principals’ every day acts by listing some of the great things going on in the school.
- Write letters to the superintendent showing support of your principal. Use specific examples of things he/she has done to make the school successful.
- Hold a pep rally for your principal. Students, parents, and teachers can perform songs, skits, and speeches to thank your principal for the hard work he/she does every day.
- Decorate your principal’s door/office in a festive way to promote a sense of celebration.
- Shadow your principal for a day and then write a report to publish in the local school AND community paper about what you learned, and how difficult a job it is!
- Read testimonies from students, parents, and teachers each week over the intercom.
- Have the art, music, and theater classes do one small group project to honor your principal.
- Designate a day, week, or the entire month when local businesses offer discounts just for principals.
- Get your local paper to secure a column each week to spotlight a local principal with a profile and photograph.