20th Annual National SAM Conference Pre-Conference Presenters

Resistance can stall strong initiatives, drain leadership time, and leave leaders wondering what else they are supposed to try. You have explained the why, provided support, clarified expectations, and followed up, yet the pushback, avoidance, defensiveness, or surface-level...

The main door to the building won’t shut completely and the facilities department doesn’t believe him. Two staff need mediation about student toileting accommodations. A parent brought a live chicken to dismissal. That’s what Jason Major means by subplots

School leadership is one of the most meaningful roles there is. And yet it is truly demanding. Every principal enters the profession with a deep sense of passion and purpose. Amid the daily demands of leading a school, it’s easy to lose sight of that original sense of purpose and energy.

You know the day that never ends: a calendar built around classroom walkthroughs, strategic team meetings, and student celebrations that gets consumed, hour by hour, by a parent concern, a discipline situation, a staffing emergency, and a fire drill.

With a unique background in both science education and theatre, Caleb Shomaker brings an analytic and empathetic perspective to speech coaching. He empowers clients to shift their mindsets and improve their skills through strategies blending humanistic psychology, business communication, and vocal anatomy.

A key goal for SAM teams is getting the principal out of the office and into classrooms for substantive observations and then face-to-face affirmation and coaching for each teacher soon afterward. In this pre-conference, Kim Marshall will unpack the key steps in mini-observations, a strategy that has far more impact on teaching and learning than conventional teacher evaluation.