The Principal’s Office | The Ohio State University

Develop Your Staff archives

Develop Your Staff describes professional development activities for teachers, principals, and school staff that have proven effective.

Top 10 Actions a Principal Can Do to Make My First Year Successful: 10 actions that a principal can take to help first-year teachers
Blogs in Our Future: Tips on how to setup and start an administrator blog, as well as ideas on how to make your blog an effective tool
Carving Out Time for Professional Learning Communities: Ideas for improving activities at the start of the school day to benefit both students and teachers
Classrooms of the Future & Professional Learning Communities: Links to resources for these two programs, one to reform education through technology and one to improve understanding of Professional Learning Communities
Communicating with Parents: Offers a four-step process to foster better communication
Creating Time for Professional Development: A list of ideas to provide more time for professional development
Crisis Plan: A list of ideas on how to implement a crisis plan and important things to consider
Developing a Mission Statement (in Four Short Staff Meetings or Less!): Outlines an effective way to efficiently construct and approve a mission statement with staff members
Differentiated Instruction in the Mixed-Ability Classroom, Part 1: Prepare Yourself: Overview of differentiated education, as well as principles of a differentiated classroom and resources for learning more
Differentiated Instruction in the Mixed-Ability Classroom, Part 2: Deliver the Workshop: Includes agenda, participant packet, and activities to present differentiated instruction for staff members
Ethics Related to Testing: three questions that follow up on March Madness
New Teacher Orientation Program describes how to help new teachers get a solid grounding in the culture and processes of your school.
Ohio Department of Education Website: Highlights some of the resources available through the ODE website, focusing on math
Pave the Road to Maximum Teaching and Learning: Part 1, Prepare Yourself: How to prepare yourself for developing your own workshop for teacher development and collaboration
Pave the Road to Maximum Teaching and Learning: Part 2, Develop the Workshop: Part 2 focuses on the agenda for your workshop, as well as some of the materials you can provide for a smooth start to the school year
Pave the Road to Maximum Teaching and Learning: Part 3, Deliver the Workshop and Follow Through: How to put your planned workshop into action, as well as some ideas for making group work more effective
Planning for Parent Conferences: Student-Led Conferencing: An alternative method for parent conferences allows the student to take responsibility and ownership of his/her successes and challenges
Preparing to Deliver Virtual Learning: Standards, guidelines, and ideas for preparing teachers for teaching online
Principal Portfolios for Leadership and Learning, Part 1: How to start your professional portfolio, including organization
Principal Portfolios for Leadership and Learning, Part 2: How to select evidence and artifacts for each category
Professional Development in STEM: A sampling of Ohio State offerings for teacher development in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Professional Excellence: Leave No Teacher Behind: Explains how placing Literacy Coordinators directly in the elementary schools as teachers and coaches can improve student performance in reading and writing
Ramadan: How to deal with cultural and/or religious issues to promote understanding and inclusion
Rubric-Based Assessment: Part 1, Prepare Yourself: Defines what rubrics are, and gives ideas on how to learn more information about rubrics and use them effectively
Rubric-Based Assessment: Part 2, Deliver the Workshop: A sample agenda for a rubric-based workshop and source materials for each section of the workshop
School Continuous Improvement Plan Template for Principals: Discusses the template used by Columbus Public Schools to help principals track performance, analyze data, and make instructional strategies
Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Resources for Professional Development: Some web-based resources for teacher development.
Staff Retreat: Creates a sample agenda for a staff summer retreat
Teacher Portfolios to Guide and Support Professional Growth: An overview of National Board Standards for portfolios and how to introduce and promote portfolio creation with your staff
The World Is Flat: Professional development activity based on the book The World Is Flat
Using Technology: Ideas for using technology during opening day meetings/activities to inspire appropriate technology use among staff members

See the Subject Index to find articles organized by subject.

An annotated list with brief descriptions of the Archives contents is available (Word document).