Today’s Headlines:

• Successful principal dodges DC rules
• | $25 million renovation ‘defective’ at DC elementary school
• | Artistic expression promotes learning, friendship in the classroom

Successful principal dodges DC rules

Many great principals sidestep school system regulations. If a rule gets in the way of good teaching and learning, they go around it. Usually, however, they try to keep such digressions from becoming widely known.

Is that a good idea? Wouldn’t more candor from good principals help systems fix bad regulations? Or would that just get them fired?

We may soon find out. In a new book by two education experts, Richard G. Trogisch, principal of the District’s highest-performing public high school, reveals that if a rule makes no sense to him, he pretends it is not there.

$25 million renovation ‘defective’ at DC elementary school
Washington Examiner
The $25 million renovation of one of the District’s top-performing public elementary schools has left cracked floorboards, leaking ceilings and a gym where all of the insulation work may need to be redone, city officials told The Washington Examiner.

Artistic expression promotes learning, friendship in the classroom
There are social and emotional benefits of Artful Thinking, a program that uses a learning strategy of active participation in the arts to increase student engagement with, and understanding of, concepts across the curriculum, David Markus writes in this blog post. Observing the program at an Annapolis, Md., middle school, Markus writes that public creative expression among students who aren’t particularly good at it can increase subject-area knowledge, promote collaboration, create unlikely friendships and be great fun.