Brian M. Stack's School Leadership Blog

At least twice a week I have the opportunity to do a formal observation of the karate instructors that help my wife Erica and my two oldest boys, Brady (7) and Cameron (5), as they work towards their black belts. There are so many parallels between how their karate classes are structured and how we as administrators would like to see our teachers structure their twenty-first century competency-based classrooms. I think we can learn a lot from the karate studio environment. Here are some tips I have gleaned from countless karate classroom observations that I have completed: 1.       Embed the School’s Core Values and Beliefs Into the Classroom As administrators we spend a lot of time working with our schools to develop documents that identify our school’s core beliefs and values and student expectations for learning. These documents are usually printed with catchy phrases or mnemonic devices on eye-catching posters and banners to help our staff and...

At the end of this month, our school will engage in one of the best student activities of the year: Winter Carnival. There are so many questions to be answered. Which class will win the tug of war? Who will win the great food relay? Which class will have the best costumes? Of course, the most important question is: Which class will have bragging rights for the rest of this year and win the whole thing? When I first started at Sanborn seven years ago, I remember being in awe at how high our level of student participation was during this entire week. Just about every student in the school participated in Winter Carnival, at least in some way. Fast forward seven years later and the same hold true today. Sanborn’s Winter Carnival brings our school together in a way that is unmatched at any other point in the year. Nothing can replace the school spirit that we all feel on Friday of Winter Carnival when each class takes its seat in the gym and all you can see are seas of orange, pink...