Principals! If you haven't started walkthroughs in your school, it's time to start now! Walkthroughs are an effective strategy for getting in touch with what is really happening in your school on a daily basis, can be a powerful vehicle for reinforcing effective teaching, and have a positive impact upon the culture of your school. Here are 8 strategies for starting walkthroughs at your school.

1. Let your staff know. If your staff is not used to you being in their classrooms except during formal observations, they will be intimidated. Let them know that you really want to see all the wonderful things they do on a daily basis. Teachers are starved for recognition. Now you have an opportunity to see the great things happening in your school.

2. Schedule time in your day for walkthroughs. You know how it is...the busses are late, three kids got into a fight, and Mrs. Jones wants to pull her child from Mr. Smith's classroom. You have to make walkthrough time "sacred" time. Do this by putting it in your planner and letting your office staff know that you are unavailable during this time.

3. Start with brief visits. Plan for about 5 minutes in each classroom. If you have 20 classrooms at your school, you'll be able to drop in on every classroom in about 90 minutes. Once your staff is used to you popping in every day, you can extend the time you're in each classroom.

4. Walk through at different times. Unless you want to see the same spelling drill day after day, schedule your walkthroughs at different times of the day. You'll see a lot more variety this way.

5. Talk to kids. When you're in a room, chat with several kids about what they are working on. Kids are more than happy to share what they know (or don't know) about what's happening in class.

6. Share the positives with your staff. Start bragging about the things you observed on your walkthroughs. Again, teachers rarely get positive recognition. This is your chance to provide regular, positive feedback to your staff.

7. Keep any negatives to yourself. Unless teachers are hurting kids, use walkthroughs to reinforce positive things. If you use walkthroughs as "gotchas", teachers will become resentful, and morale will suffer.

8. Get up and go. You're the educational leader in your building. Get out of your chair and take a walk into every classroom.

Good luck! Once you begin, walkthroughs will quickly become the best part of your day.

Lisa M. Evans, M.Ed. has 18 years of experience in education and is currently serving as an assistant principal at the high school level.