Before you got into leadership, did you expect you'd be doing so much speaking? It seems you're always talking--in faculty meetings and one-on-one evaluations; in PD sessions and department meetings; at parents' night and awards ceremonies; to colleagues, supervisors, and the school board; and in front of dozens or hundreds or just a webcam and a…

The conversations that take place in a school reveal a great deal about its culture. What educators say is a powerful indicator of the values and beliefs that form their school's culture.The School Culture Evaluation Exercise from "Breaking Ranks: A Field Guide for Leading Change" is a tool developed by the Center for Secondary School Reform that…

"Conversations With Principals: Issues, Values, and Politics," is a unique compilation of interviews with principals at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels. This book allows the readers the unusual opportunity to experience the inner voice of principals as they discuss the many decisions they make and the multitude of people they must…

Over 600 insightful, witty nuggets to motivate and inspire you... and everyone else at your school. Teachers--display these quotes in your classrooms! Administrators--insert them into your faculty memos and share them at staff meetings! Why is this book unique? (1) it includes over 100 original quotes from internationally acclaimed speaker and…

Rather than being trained and supervised, graduate teaching assistants in rhetoric and speech should be taught and advised. Teaching assistants, or graduate instructors, should be considered colleagues, not merely cheap labor to teach courses the rest of the faculty does not want to teach. The first step in establishing an effective teaching and…

The battle for communication skills has already been won; the task ahead is to get teachers in the trenches to teach them, either in separate units or in their subject areas. Nine references are listed, and a list of resources for implementing instruction in speaking and listening is provided. (Author/DCS)

To examine the current status of speech and theatre departments in small (1000 to 3000 students) U.S. liberal arts colleges, 24 colleges in the Midwest and Great Lakes areas were surveyed. The survey revealed that the colleges organized speech and theatre in one of four ways; they either (1) combined departments, (2) split the two into separate…

The job of the school business official entails accurately preparing financial statements; understanding their implications; and interpreting the salient points to the superintendent and the board of education. Offers guidelines for reporting fiscal news to a board of education. (MLF)

In the last few years a variety of questions have arisen in the school context concerning the legal rights of persons seeking to record conversations. Guidance concerning the law governing these situations is based on the following conclusions: (1) neither the common law nor any federal law generally prohibits the tape recording of conversations…

In general, because of varying federal and state legislation and a paucity of court decisions, the law governing the recording of conversations is in considerable flux. School personnel desiring to record conversations in school without the consent or knowledge of all parties involved must proceed with considerable caution. (Author)

It is essential that a person in an influential position make communication skills a priority. Lists some specific ways to become a more effective communicator through nonverbal behavior and speaking, listening, and writing skills. (MLF)

A case study is presented that used the methods of Generic Design Science to conduct strategic planning for the Department of Communication at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Applied in the context of an academic environment, the methods yielded a comprehensive management and planning design for focusing administration and faculty…

Young people entering post-secondary institutions or seeking employment generally require senior high school diplomas. There are few jobs available that do not require advanced levels of many kinds of literacy and most employers will consider only those applicants who have completed senior high school, even for entry-level positions. When English…

Divided into two sections, this report describes research on the range and degree of assessment of students' communication skills in colleges and universities and includes the following findings: (1) of the 384 respondents from college speech communication departments, 45 reported using large-scale, uniform testing of students; (2) these…

Recent surveys have shown that the basic speech communication course, designed to introduce students to the discipline and to meet their basic proficiency needs, is alive and growing rapidly. While this is generally good news, a more critical examination reveals a variety of issues in need of resolution. A significant amount of course time is…