About: Jon Konen

Jon Konen is a high school principal and freelance writer in Columbia Falls, Montana. He has been a superintendent and has taught most all grade levels K-6, and has been an instructional coach. In addition, he has been an elementary and middle principal. As a 5th grade teacher, in 2010 he won the Presidential Award for Elementary Math and Science Teaching (PAEMST). As a principal, his school won the 2012 Blue Ribbon Award. In 2018, he won the National Distinguished Principal Award (NDP). In 2019 he won the National No Kid Hungry Breakfast Hero Award. He is the author of three guides published on teacher.org: An Educator's Guide to Combat Bullying & Bully Prevention; Teacher Evaluation: A Transition Guide to Exemplary Performance; and You are the Wild Card: Infusing Fun Back into Curriculum. He has authored a children's picture book that was released January 2019 titled Benjamin’s Visit to Principal Reads Office…again! (available at www.archwaypublishing.com)

Recent Posts by Jon Konen

Positive Phone Calls Home: 8 Steps to Start a Praise Program

smiling child with arms outstretched standing in a sunlit green wheat field
Positive phone calls home can be organized as a schoolwide system rather than left to individual good intentions. One principal's approach: ask every teacher for praise comments each quarter, have one person make the calls, and track the count. Eight steps show how it worked in his building. [xyz_feat_school] Do you spend more time calling…
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5 Components to a Great Weekly Lesson Plan

teacher writing lesson notes at a desk with a notebook, planner, and cup of coffee
One practical framework for the components of a lesson plan uses five parts: state standards, a clear objective, materials, assessment, and how it fits the week's overall structure. Madeline Hunter's well-known model lists seven steps, but this five-part version covers the same ground with less paperwork. [xyz_feat_school] What are the five most important components of…
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Why School Culture Matters: 9 Reasons Culture Trumps Strategy

Four young adults in casual clothes crouched in a sprinter's starting stance on a white studio backdrop
School culture matters because it can strongly influence whether a teaching strategy takes hold. Culture is the shared set of beliefs and norms behind how a school operates, and research associates it with student achievement, teacher retention, and staff morale. A strategy that cuts against the culture tends to struggle, however sound it looks on…
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9 Alternatives to Taking Away Recess as Punishment

Arial view of playground at an elementary school
Alternatives to taking away recess include playground zones, adult-led "practice recess," short, timed check-ins, and consequences administered in the classroom rather than outside. In one teacher's experience, these address behavior directly rather than removing physical activity altogether, though what's allowed varies by state and district policies. [xyz_feat_school] Withholding recess as a punishment has come under…
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Tracking Student Behavior: Intensity, Duration, and Frequency

Adult hand pointing a finger at a young student standing with hands on hips, frowning
Three useful ways to measure student behavior are intensity, duration, and frequency. Tracking student behavior along those dimensions turns a vague complaint into data you can act on: how severe it is, how long each episode lasts, and how often it happens. Use those numbers to decide whether an intervention is working. [xyz_feat_school] One of…
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Why Technology Is Important in Schools: 4 Arguments

Boy at a laptop with a giraffe and tiger coming out of the screen, framed by floating math and science symbols
Why technology is important in schools comes down to two things: students already live digitally, and digital skills are important in many occupations. Good instruction still comes first. The argument here is that device access and coding belong alongside solid teaching, not in place of it, and that schools have been slow to adjust. [xyz_feat_school]…
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5 Teacher Professional Development Trends From a Principal

Smiling woman in glasses holding a tablet in front of a blue chalkboard with chalk-drawn flexed arms behind her
Principal Jon Konen identifies five teacher professional development trends from his own schools: bottom-up edcamps, teacher leaders, school culture, problem-solving, and multiple delivery formats. Each one, in his experience, shifts some control toward the staff doing the learning rather than the office scheduling it. [xyz_feat_school] In my experience, professional development of a teaching staff is…
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212 Degrees of Customer Service in Education

Group of elementary students crowded together in a classroom, smiling and giving thumbs-up to the camera
Customer service in education is how everyone in a school treats the students, families, and colleagues who walk through the door. Watching five interactions gives you an initial impression of a building's temperature: student to student, teacher to student, teacher to staff, administration to teachers, and administration to families. [xyz_feat_school] Dr. Bill Daggett preaches, “Culture…
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Teaching Patience in the Classroom: 5 Strategies That Work

Older man in a sun hat and canvas creel bag casting a fly rod into a narrow, grass-lined creek
Teachers build patience in students the same way they build any skill: model it, name it, and give students repeated chances to practice. Wait time, unhurried listening, and positioning yourself alongside rather than over a student, where that suits the student, all teach patience by demonstration rather than instruction. [xyz_feat_school] Can you teach patience? I…
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Buddy Classroom Activities: 19 Ideas for Cross-Grade Pairs

Two elementary-age students smiling and clasping hands in a buddy handshake
Buddy classroom activities pair an older class with a younger one for regular sessions built around a shared task: reading, art, science, or school routines. The 19 ideas below run from no-prep partner reading to school-wide fundraising. Most work best when the same two classes meet on a fixed schedule. [xyz_feat_school] Back to the main…
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