The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Strategy Playbook for Educational Leaders: Principles and Processes (Routledge, 2021), a new book co-authored by Neag School Associate Professor Jennie Weiner and her colleague Isobel Stevenson, director at the Connecticut Center for School Change.

The volume is a how-to resource designed for superintendents, central office staff, principals, and teacher leaders that looks to “provide leaders with a concrete framework for a strategic improvement pan, helping educators link the ‘principles’ to ‘processes’ of planning.”

“To my surprise, the tweet went viral and led to my writing an op-ed in The New York Times entitled ‘I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School.’ Since then, in addition to trying to keep my sanity, I have appeared on shows from ‘Good Morning America’ to ‘Central Time’ on Wisconsin Public Radio, spreading the message to parents that all we can do right now is our best and that’s enough,” says Jennie Weiner, an associate professor of educational leadership. “That we need to have self-compassion because it’s going to be messy, and to remember that educators, too, need our support and compassion as they attempt to be superhuman so we can feel a bit more human.”