Leading with Purpose

  Restorative Practices: Leading With Relationships, Not Just Rules Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about restorative practices in schools. At first, I assumed it was just another discipline program—something to add on top of all the other policies we already have. But the more I’ve learned, the more I realize it’s really about relationships, repair, and community . It’s a mindset as much as a set of strategies, and it can completely change how schools respond to conflict and behavior. I watched a video from ASCD called Research Matters: Does Restorative Justice Work? and it really stuck with me. Educators shared stories about students taking responsibility, repairing harm, and rebuilding trust—not just receiving consequences. It made me pause and think: What if our leadership focus shifted from punishment to connection? ( Watch the video here ) Why Restorative Practices Matter for Leaders Restorative practices aren’t something teachers can just implement on their own—they requ...

  Attendance as Leadership: Why Being Present Matters for Students and Schools There’s one issue that always comes up when I’m talking with teachers and administrators: attendance . It’s easy to think of it as “just taking roll,” but over time I’ve come to see that attendance is a mirror of school climate, relationships, and leadership. When students aren’t present, they miss more than instruction — they miss connection, community, and opportunity. I recently came across a video from PBS’s ncIMPACT series that looks closely at how schools are approaching the attendance crisis. The piece, School-Based Strategies to Address the Attendance Crisis , shows how chronic absenteeism isn’t just a data point — it’s a lived experience for students, families, and leaders trying to make school a place students want to come to every day. ( pbs.org ) Why Attendance Is a Leadership Issue When I first started my administrative coursework, I assumed attendance problems were mostly a “teacher or fa...