Editor's Note: The Main Idea is an educational book summary service provided by Jenn David-Lang and is included with your AWSP membership. Jenn's book summaries let you get right to the main idea and provide actionable steps you can take as a leader and with your staff. Interested in learning more? Join us for our upcoming book club this fall. 

I hope you found some time for yourself over the summer.

Time has a way of creeping up on you. It’s hard to believe, but my husband and I just celebrated our 25th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we’re spending the year doing 25 new things together we’ve never done before — I’m enjoying this.

Speaking of 25 years, I summarized a classic book for you this month. Todd Whitaker recently updated his popular book from almost 25 years ago, What Great Principals Do Differently. 

Imagine if you were fortunate enough to be assigned the ideal principal mentor. This is a book that feels like a conversation with that mentor as he shares bite-sized pieces of advice from his time as a principal (and his research). The ideas are spot-on and you can implement them tomorrow. Oh, and he shares anecdotes to help you remember these tips, too.

This book puts all those pieces of advice in one place — it compiles the 20 things that Whitaker has found separates the good from the great principals.

He suggests you read it at the beginning of each year.

Idea: Why not carve out 15 minutes of your next leadership team meeting for everyone to silently read the 8-page summary and then discuss.

Here are my resources this month:

• Full 8-page summary of What Great Principals Do Differently: Twenty Things That Matter Most

• My 1-pager based on the book, “10 Ways Principals can go from Good to Great”

• Look for the podcast with Todd Whitaker soon.

Best of luck getting back to school, and I’ll return on September 15.

Jenn

PS — You may already know Todd Whitaker because he’s a leading expert on staff motivation, teacher leadership, and principal effectiveness and has written over 60 books! See my website for summaries of a few of his other books (such as Working with Difficult and Resistant Staff).

PPS — To learn more or get copies of What Great Principals Do Differently, click here.

Join us Tuesday, September 24, 2024, @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT for

Schools Can Help the Anxious Generation: A Call for K–12 School Leaders

Many of us are seeing unprecedented numbers of students struggling with mental health challenges. There ARE things we can do in schools to help. Save the date and join me for a FREE live webinar with author Jonathan Haidt of the New York Times bestselling book, The Anxious Generation.

In this edWebinar, social psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt will walk educators through the research on our urgent youth mental health crisis, present four norms for collective action, and outline what schools can do now to improve mental health for kids and teens.

Come with any questions you might have for Dr. Jonathan Haidt about the role of schools in dealing with social media, phones, and adolescent mental health issues. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Feel free to attend this edWebinar yourself or share the registration link with K–12 teachers, librarians, school leaders, district leaders, education technology leaders, and school counselors and psychologists.

Register for free here.

Classroom Routines Can Build Executive Functions

This is the time of year many of you are kicking off the school year. I remember when I started to teach middle school math in the 1990s and I was full of hope thinking of all of the math skills my students would devour.

Then I’d start to notice some of the challenges my students faced that had nothing to do with math.

One student didn’t know the first thing about time management. Another couldn’t remember anything I had taught the day before. And a third student had a black hole of a backpack — she could never find anything in there.

That’s when I realized I had to do more than teach math. I had to teach my students the types of skills to help them become successful in school, and also in life. That is, I had to teach executive function skills (so that’s what they were called!)

In his book, Executive Functions for Every Classroom, Mitch Weathers shares the types of routines that help teachers teach executive function skills. Then he goes further to suggest teaching these skills across an entire grade or an entire school. Imagine the power of developing student executive functions across the school.

Some resources for you:

• My brief BookBit of his book, Executive Functions for Every Classroom.
• Mike Doughty and my podcast discussion with author Mitch Weathers.
• Learn more about Mitch’s organization, Organized Binder.

Did You Miss Last Month’s Book Summaries On The Topic Of Belonging?

I love these books for building student and staff belonging.

Password: readtolead (all lowercase)

Jenn David-Lang

The Main Idea Jenn has worked in the field of education for over 25 years. She has had a wide range of experiences in both teaching and administration. She founded and directed Providence Summerbridge, a nonprofit to raise the academic achievement of urban middle school students; she taught both math and English; she provided professional development for teachers; and she has helped to start a number of New York City schools. Jenn received her principal’s certification and Ed.M. from the Bank Street College of Education. Through all of these experiences, she has seen firsthand that principals just don’t have enough time to keep abreast of the latest ideas in education.