What does it take to be an excellent Assistant Principal

What does it take to be an excellent Assistant Principal?

Over the course of the next few weeks, I am going to highlight what skills are necessary to be a successful assistant principal in my blog. Not all of the needed skills deal with investigations, observations, or supervision.

1) Organization.

An effective assistant principal is organized. As an assistant principal, you will deal with an inordinate amount of paper work, deadlines, meetings, duties, and discipline referrals throughout the day.

Without a system in place, you will drown and waste too much time attempting to stay afloat.

A good administrator will maximize their time. Being organized allows you to work smartly.

I attended the National Middle School conference a few years ago and listened to a gentleman speak about his organizational system he used. He had stolen the system from his father, who was a lawyer. The system was called the “Tickler”

Don’t ask me why it was called the “Tickler”. I really have no idea. d

The system is simple.

For each day of the month, you would create a file folder 1-31. Each folder represents a day of the month.

$C:\Documents and Settings\tbloom\Desktop\tickler$

At the end of each day, take the paperwork that you need to work on the next day, and place it in the next day’s folder. If your boss gives you an assignment and asks you to attend a meeting on the 17^th, you would place that information in the folder of the 17^th.

If you prepare notes for a meeting and do not need them until the 12^th, you can simply place the notes in the folder for the 12^th. The morning of the 12^th, when you open your folder, the notes will be waiting for you.

I have made an adjustment to the Tickler for paperwork that I do not know when I want to see again. My birthday is April 22^nd. If I do not know when I want to see it again, I always put the materials in the folder of the 22^nd.

“The Tickler” allows me to stay organized. Being organized allows to me to be effective with my time.

Do you have a system of organization that you use each day as an administrator? I would love to hear from you.

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