Characteristics of an Effective School Principal

Characteristics of an Effective School Principal A school principals job is balanced between being rewarding and challenging. It is a difficult job, and like any job, there are people who are not able to handle it. There are certain characteristics of a highly effective principal that some people do not possess. Besides the obvious professional requirements needed to become a principal, there are several traits that good principals possess allowing them to do their job successfully. Each of these characteristics manifests themselves in the daily duties of a principal. A highly effective principal will possess each of the following seven qualities. A Principal  Must Exhibit Leadership This is a characteristic that every principal must possess. The principal is the instructional leader of their building. A good leader has to take responsibility for the successes and failures of her school. A good leader puts the needs of others in front of her own. A good leader is always looking to improve her school and then figures out how to make those improvements regardless of how difficult it might be. Leadership defines how successful any school is. A school without a strong leader will likely fail, and a principal who is not a leader will find herself without a job quickly. A Principal  Must Be Adept at Building Relationships With People If you dont like people you shouldnt be a principal. You have to be able to connect with each person you deal with on a daily basis. You have to find common ground and earn their trust. There are many groups of people that principals deal with daily including their superintendent, teachers, support staff, parents, students, and community members. Every group requires a different approach, and individuals within a group are unique in their own right. You never know who is going to walk into your office next. People come in with a variety of emotions including happiness, sadness, and anger. You have to be able to deal with each of those situations effectively by connecting with the person and showing him that you care about his unique situation. He has to believe that you will do whatever you can to make his situation better. A Principal  Must Balance Tough Love With Earned Praise This is especially true with your students and your teachers. You cant be a pushover, meaning that you let people get away with mediocrity. You have to set expectations high and hold those you are in charge of to those same standards. This means that there will be times when you have to reprimand people and likely hurt their feelings. It is a part of the job that isnt pleasant, but it is necessary if you want to run an effective school. At the same time, you must offer praise when it is appropriate. Dont forget to tell those teachers who are doing an extraordinary job that you appreciate them. Remember to recognize students who excel in the areas of academics, leadership and/or citizenship. An outstanding principal can motivate using a combination of both of these approaches. A Principal  Must Be Fair and Consistent Nothing can take away your credibility more quickly than being inconsistent in how you handle similar situations. While no two cases are exactly the same, you have to think about how you have handled other similar situations and continue on that same track. Students, in particular, know how you handle student discipline, and they make comparisons from one case to the next. If you are not fair and consistent, they will call you out on it. However, it is understandable that history will influence a principals decision. For example, if you have a student who has been in multiple fights and compare her to a student who has only had one fight, then you are justified in giving the student with multiple fights a longer suspension. Think all your decisions through, document your reasoning and be prepared when someone questions or disagrees with them. A Principal Must Be Organized and Prepared Each day presents a unique set of challenges and being organized and prepared is essential to meeting those challenges. You deal with so many variables as a principal that lack of organization will lead to ineffectiveness. No day is predictable. This makes being organized and prepared an essential quality. Each day you still have to come in with a plan or a to-do list with the understanding that you will probably only get about one-third of those things done. You also have to be prepared for just about anything. When you are dealing with that many people, there are so many unplanned things that can occur. Having policies and procedures in place to deal with situations is part of the necessary planning and preparation to be effective. Organization and preparation will help reduce stress when you are dealing with difficult or unique situations. A Principal  Must Be an Excellent Listener You never know when an angry student, a disgruntled parent or an upset teacher is going to walk into your office. You have to be prepared to deal with those situations, and that starts with being an exceptional listener. You can disarm most difficult situations simply by showing them that you care enough to listen to what they want to say. When someone wants to meet with you because they feel wronged in some way, you need to hear them out. This doesnt mean that you let them bash another person continuously. You can be firm on not letting them belittle a teacher or student, but allow them to vent without being disrespectful to another person. Be willing to go the next step in helping them resolve their issue. Sometimes that might be mediating between two students who have had a disagreement. Sometimes it might be having a discussion with a teacher to get his side of a story and then relaying that to the parent. It all begins with listening. A Principal  Must Be a Visionary​ Education is ever-evolving. There is always something bigger and better available. If you are not attempting to improve your school, you are not doing your job. This will always be an ongoing process. Even if you have been at a school for 15 years, there are still things you can do to improve the overall quality of your school. Each individual component is a working part of the larger framework of the school. Each of those components needs to be oiled every once in a while. You may have to replace a part that is not working. Occasionally you may even able to upgrade an existing part that was doing its job because something better was developed. You never want to be stale. Even your best teachers can get better. It is your job to see that no one gets comfortable and that everyone is working to improve continuously.

EPR Paradox in Physics - Definition and Explanation

EPR Paradox in Physics - Definition and Explanation The EPR paradox (or the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox) is a thought experiment intended to demonstrate an inherent paradox in the early formulations of quantum theory. It is among the best-known examples of quantum entanglement. The paradox involves two particles that are entangled with each other according to quantum mechanics. Under the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, each particle is individually in an uncertain state until it is measured, at which point the state of that particle becomes certain. At that exact same moment, the other particles state also becomes certain. The reason that this is classified as a paradox is that it seemingly involves communication between the two particles at speeds greater than the speed of light, which is a conflict with Albert Einsteins theory of relativity. The Paradoxs Origin The paradox was the focal point of a heated debate between Einstein and Niels Bohr. Einstein was never comfortable with the quantum mechanics being developed by Bohr and his colleagues (based, ironically, on work started by Einstein). Together with his colleagues Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, Einstein developed the EPR paradox as a way of showing that the theory was inconsistent with other known laws of physics. At the time, there was no real way to carry out the experiment, so it was just a thought experiment or gedankenexperiment. Several years later, the physicist David Bohm modified the EPR paradox example so that things were a bit clearer. (The original way the paradox was presented was somewhat confusing, even to professional physicists.) In the more popular Bohm formulation, an unstable spin 0 particle decays into two different particles, Particle A and Particle B, heading in opposite directions. Because the initial particle had spin 0, the sum of the two new particle spins must equal zero. If Particle A has spin 1/2, then Particle B must have spin -1/2 (and vice versa). Again, according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, until a measurement is made, neither particle has a definite state. They are both in a superposition of possible states, with an equal probability (in this case) of having a positive or negative spin. The Paradoxs Meaning There are two key points at work here which make this troubling: Quantum physics says that, until the moment of the measurement, the particles do not have a definite quantum spin but are in a superposition of possible states.As soon as we measure the spin of Particle A, we know for sure the value well get from measuring the spin of Particle B. If you measure Particle A, it seems like Particle As quantum spin gets set by the measurement, but somehow Particle B also instantly knows what spin it is supposed to take on. To Einstein, this was a clear violation of the theory of relativity. Hidden-Variables Theory No one ever really questioned the second point; the controversy lay entirely with the first point. Bohm and Einstein supported an alternative approach called the hidden-variables theory, which suggested that quantum mechanics was incomplete. In this viewpoint, there had to be some aspect of quantum mechanics that wasnt immediately obvious but which needed to be added into the theory to explain this sort of non-local effect. As an analogy, consider that you have two envelopes that each contain money. You have been told that one of them contains a $5 bill and the other contains a $10 bill. If you open one envelope and it contains a $5 bill, then you know for sure that the other envelope contains the $10 bill. The problem with this analogy is that quantum mechanics definitely doesnt appear to work this way. In the case of the money, each envelope contains a specific bill, even if I never get around to looking in them. Uncertainty in Quantum Mechanics The uncertainty in quantum mechanics doesnt just represent a lack of our knowledge but a fundamental lack of definite reality. Until the measurement is made, according to the Copenhagen interpretation, the particles are really in a superposition of all possible states (as in the case of the dead/alive cat in the Schroedingers Cat thought experiment). While most physicists would have preferred to have a universe with clearer rules, no one could figure out exactly what these hidden variables were or how they could be incorporated into the theory in a meaningful way. Bohr and others defended the standard Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which continued to be supported by the experimental evidence. The explanation is that the wave function, which describes the superposition of possible quantum states, exists at all points simultaneously. The spin of Particle A and spin of Particle B are not independent quantities but are represented by the same term within the quantum physics equations. The instant that the measurement on Particle A is made, the entire wave function collapses into a single state. In this way, theres no distant communication taking place. Bells Theorem The major nail in the coffin of the hidden-variables theory came from the physicist John Stewart Bell, in what is known as Bells Theorem. He developed a series of inequalities (called Bell inequalities), which represent how measurements of the spin of Particle A and Particle B would distribute if they werent entangled. In experiment after experiment, the Bell inequalities are violated, meaning that quantum entanglement does seem to take place. Despite this evidence to the contrary, there are still some proponents of the hidden-variables theory, though this is mostly among amateur physicists rather than professionals. Edited by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.