Principal, The Leader of the School
For everyone in the school, including the professional staff, creating and maintaining a happy and healthy teaching and learning environment is one of the principal’s essential responsibilities. This article’s goal is to investigate the ways in which principals affect teachers’ professional growth and learning in their institutions.
A school learning community cannot be created or be successful without the leadership of the school principal in the area of teacher professional development. The school principal always influences the structure, academics, and mission to achieve student excellence.
Since it “enriches the environment of the school and transforms it into a place of excitement, energy, and direction,” principals strive to integrate life-long learning into the routines of both students and instructors. Hence, the principals “help create conditions that enable staff to develop so that the school can achieve its goals more effectively.” strive to integrate life-long learning into the routines of both students and instructors. Hence, the principals “help create conditions that enable staff to develop so that the school can achieve its goals more effectively.”
To effectively operate the school, principals have used a variety of strategies. The Principals have dedicated their time to the SMC, Parents, Panchayat meetings, visits to the DIETS, NGOs and SCERT, and door-to-door outreach. They maintain warm relationships with a variety of contributor representatives, local authorities, businesses, and social workers. This has made it easier to raise money for school expansion.
12 Essential Characteristics of a School Principal
There are numerous crucial traits of a school principal that are required for success. School principals deal with a wide range of emergency situations and must be prepared to respond at a moment’s notice. Keep these top five qualities in mind when looking for a principle.
- The stewards of the school who value learning and are always committed to their daily work understand the strong and weak points of the school and take decisions so that the students can excel in their lives. Hence, the principal is the guardian of the school.
- The role model of the school : If you truly want to assess a school’s quality, you must first examine what the principal does. Without a doubt, rather than serving as merely spokespersons, school principals have a significantly greater impact on the attitudes and behaviours of their teachers. Principals that “walk the talk” have motivated, diligent students. By what they focus on, what they do, and what they reward, they make learning the centre of their practise and determine the pace, course, and standards for learning in the classroom. Both teachers and students establish personal learning objectives for themselves. They actively participate in staff development at their school, serving as examples of the values they uphold. As a result, the administrator needs to make decisions quickly so that they can benefit the kids’ growth.
- Knowledge of the Work: Principals must possess specialised knowledge and abilities in a variety of fields, including adult learning, information technology, human growth and development, motivation theory, school change, uses of technology, assessment, and cognition and learning theory. Expertise is crucial, yet it is insufficient. For all students in their schools, the learning environment must be created, supported, and improved. This requires principals to put their professional knowledge into practise.
- Instrumental in imparting practical knowledge: The principal is the key factor in imparting practical knowledge to the students and teachers. So, the principal needs to be practical while making pedagogical decisions to boost the learning level of the students.
- Excellent Communicator: Communicating ideas always plays a vital role in the learning process, and hence the principal should be comfortable in LSRW (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) and must try to improve these communication skills through different training sessions. For example, I have seen many principals who lack these skills and who always depend on other teachers to communicate their views to the students and administration. Principals have high standards for student performance and professional conduct. Helping teachers, both individually and collectively, develop trust in their abilities as professionals is crucial in this reform era, when the public, aggressive policymakers, and the media frequently depict teachers as contributors to the educational crisis rather than as the hope for better schools. Principals have a special organisational role that gives them several chances to communicate with parents, students, school board members, and the broader public about the goal, makeup, and effects of teacher professional development. The administrator should make the students feel as though they are being heard. Whether the individual is a kindergartener or the head of the school board, this is true.
- Team Leader: The school is a team, and the leader always matters when taking learning initiatives for the students and teachers. The principal is the administrative and pedagogical leader of the school, but that doesn’t mean that he will always compel the teachers to implement his own ideas. As a result, the principal should lead the school team like a commander, but in an autocratic manner.
- Listening to Dissent: In any democracy, listening carefully to the dissent matters, but in some schools, the principals feel that the chair has immense power, and they try to misuse that power in different ways. They don’t care much about each person’s opinion, and sometimes a person’s opinion is new and creative. In these cases, the principal should listen to the disagreement so that everyone can learn more.
- Supportive Nature: The principal provides support for the learning process in the school, and hence, the principal should be supportive in solving the teachers’ and students’ problems in learning as well as providing financial aid to arrange the teaching aids needed to improve the learning environment in the institute. When principals foster a learning atmosphere where teachers can take chances, try out novel concepts and methods, and use their creativity, they are providing yet another type of assistance.
- Capable Manager: The successful learning environment requires hard work and highly effective management, and the principal must know the techniques of management like a manager of a big company who always takes decisions for the growth of the organization, and the same is the case with the principal. Thus, the principal must be capable of coordinating, teaching, and improving learning through cooperation among teachers, managing finances, and visiting the classrooms to check the development of learning among students.
- Capable of Solving Problems: Various issues can arise in a school. A principal must be able to handle a wide range of concerns, from kids who have behavioural problems to facility management requirements. The principal should be capable of quickly analysing the issue, coming up with a suitable solution, and putting it into practise using the resources at hand. Additionally, the principal needs to be able to collaborate with others to find solutions to issues. For instance, in order to address disciplinary and criminal concerns, a school principal may need to collaborate with the police resource officer assigned to the school.
- Excellent Interpersonal Skills: Strong interpersonal abilities are yet another quality that a principal of a school should possess. Working with teachers, support staff, the school board, the state department of education, parents, students, and the community all require the school principle to be at ease. There can be individuals from various cultural origins in these groups who have different viewpoints on how the school should be run. To create a productive working environment, the principal must consider everyone’s feedback.
- Setting Objectives: According to the Wallace Foundation, one of the most significant attributes of a principal is having a vision and a plan to fulfil that objective. Principals can set clear goals and expectations for their students while holding themselves accountable for their activities. Teachers and students shall adhere to the standards established by their school leaders, fostering an environment of excellence that recognises and promotes positive accomplishments.
A determined principal may establish a tidy and appealing learning environment. As a result, principals play a significant role in supporting teachers’ professional growth. They shouldn’t be seen as the gatekeepers of teachers’ learning, any more than teachers are the gatekeepers of student learning. There is always a risk that principals will become indispensible as agents of teacher professional development if they exert substantial influence using their knowledge, influence, and resources. Finally, principals must guarantee that their staff and pupils have the necessary tools, training, and resources.
