B. Set specific goals.

You have decided on your focus areas for the first six weeks. You are keeping the Ten Rules in mind. Now you need to think seriously about your goals. What exactly are you going to do? Here are some examples of six-week goals:

By the end of the first six weeks of school, [insert date], I will have achieved the following:
1. Be able to recognize, call by name, and know one important thing about every staff member.
2. Have met with each of the school's leaders (administrators, department chairs, cluster leaders, committee heads, etc.) to hear their interests, goals, concerns for the year.
3. Assessed the co-administrators' strengths, interests, and goal areas; assigned them as much as possible where they can build on their strengths.
4. Held one (or 2, or 3, or 4) lunch time meetings with students to share what is important to them.
5. Every Friday before leaving school, reflected on the state of the school, what I learned that week, what I would do the following week.
6. Held a meeting with every school group (all staff, department chairs, leadership team, student council, PTA, Site Council, etc.) to establish with them how meetings would be conducted and how communications would run.
7. Got into every teacher's classroom at least one time.
8. Read the School Site Plan, Accreditation report, assessment data, and other important school and district documents.
9. Established the calendar of activities and meetings for the whole school year (if it is not already in place).
10. Became familiar with school routines: attendance, tardies, progress reports, counseling, student placement, discipline, library services, special education, student activities, supervision assignments, evaluation processes, communications,use of technology, etc.
11. Refrained from telling people how things should be done based on my experience at a different school with different personnel.
12. Other
The only way to come close to meeting your own goals (in the midst of the school's day to day operations) for your new role is to always have a plan in the back of your mind. Know your focus. Know your goals.