Marketing experts like to say that all good ideas have already been done—being creative is knowing how to add a fresh spin on an old idea. Charles Mingus says, “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

Too often, faculty evaluation means a School Head or a Division Head dropping in to observe a teacher at work in the classroom. It’s nothing more than a snapshot in time, kind of like a child taking a high-pressure standardized test. Does it really tell you what that child has learned? Does making a stop in a classroom for 20 minutes really enough? Basing a teacher’s “grade” solely on a classroom visit is truly unproductive and does nothing to enhance that teacher’s performance.

The 17-day government shutdown hit all corners of the nation hard—but another group of our “citizens” were also having a hard time.

Twitter is the place to be—if you know how it works. As in every Web community, there are rules to follow when engaging with members and sharing your interests. Twitter, unlike other online platforms, limits your character count and minimizes your profile exposure. But it’s a great community for educators linking to thousands of great bloggers and resources. In fact, Twitter has more educators than almost any other social media site.

The quality of your faculty is a major component in your school’s appeal to potential enrollees—and is critical for re-recruitment of your current families. How are you highlighting your teachers’ achievements, both inside and outside the walls of your school?

On January 1, 2014, the brunt of changes included in the Affordable Care Act will become effective. These changes will affect both the health insurance offered by your school and the health insurance offered in the individual marketplace for your school’s part-time employees. We’ve been working with client schools over the last several months to prepare for these adjustments, but, if you’re not part of the ISM insurance community, you might find yourself wondering, “What do I need to do to prepare?”

They say life isn’t always a bed of roses. In fact, sometimes it can be downright brutal. But, just because life doesn’t always flow smoothly doesn’t mean our careers can be put on hold—especially when what we do involves the lives of children. Sometimes we need to reach down into our depths, find what strength is left in our reservoir, and push on.

When recruiting potential Trustees, you may set your sights on cultivating one or two high-powered, experienced nonprofit representatives. Do not rule out tapping the Board members, employees, and key volunteers who serve smaller, less-experienced organizations. Be aware, however, of the potential risks, which may take the form of the following problems.

Q: We are a small school and cannot afford to offer health insurance for our employees. We’re thinking it will make more sense for us to let them purchase insurance in the marketplace and payroll-deduct the premium pretax. Now I’m hearing we cannot do that. What is the right answer?

With any sort of competition comes emotion. With sports, especially those with championships and awards on the line, can come a good deal of emotion, both positively and negatively charged. To insure that your students and their families, as well as school staff, uphold your values your school should have well-established policies on sportsmanship—what’s acceptable behavior at all games and matches.