Building School Culture One Week at a Time: One Week at a Time

Use Friday Focus memos to motivate and engage your staff every week, and help create a school culture focused on the growth of students and teachers.
Easy to understand and implement, Friday Focus memos offer an effective and efficient way to improve student learning, staff development, and school culture from within. Written by educational consultant and former principal of two award-winning schools, Jeffrey Zoul, these memos focus on topics such as active learning, high expectations, gratitude, test preparation, and more. Zoul provides 37 teaching and learning memos, one for each week of the school year, for principals and other administrators to reproduce and circulate among their staff.
Zoul prefaces each memo with stories from his experiences as a teacher, coach, and assistant principal in the K-12 levels. You can also write your own memos, with guidance on possible topics and teacher takeaways. Other memo topics include:

The heart of coaching
A community of leaders
Homework perspectives
Response to intervention basics
Principles of great teaching

Dr. Jeff Zoul is a School Improvement Consultant with Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to serving in this capacity, Dr. Zoul served as principal at two award-wining schools, Edgewood Middle School, in Highland Park, Illinois, and Otwell Middle School in Forsyth County, Georgia. In addition to his work as a principal, Dr. Zoul has served as a teacher, coach, and assistant principal at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Dr. Zoul also served as an adjunct professor of graduate studies at North Georgia College and State University. He is the author of Improving Your School One Week at a Time: Building the Foundation for Professional Teaching and Learning, coauthor with Dr. Todd Whitaker of The 4 CORE School Success Factors, and coauthor of Cornerstones of Strong Schools: Practices for Purposeful Leadership and Study Guide: What Great Principals Do Differently: 15 Things that Matter Most. Dr. Zoul has presented at national conferences on a wide variety of educational issues. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Alabama and holds additional degrees from The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Troy University, and The University of Southern Mississippi. Jeff is married to Jill, a middle school teacher, and they are the parents of Jordyn. If you would like information about the contents of this book or about inviting Dr. Zoul to speak to your group, please contact him at jeffzoul@comcast.net or (847) 732-1936.