Leading schools with courage, intention, and honesty

What can a deejay teach us about the classroom? What does a superintendent do besides decide when to close school for snow? What makes someone a great teacher or a great principal? In this collection of essays, Dr. Joe Clark answers these questions by offering a model for compassionate, principled, and student-centered school leadership. In the process, If the Dance Floor Is Empty, Change the Song offers leaders a handbook for placing kindness, community, and diversity at the heart of successful education.

Full of humor and resilience, Clark’s essays beam with as much range as they do insight. He dives right into issues like changing instructional standards, increased reliance on testing, and anxiety about social media in schools–and others–while providing collegial advice that new school leaders in particular will find indispensable. With an eye toward centering students, supporting teachers, and empowering communities, If the Dance Floor Is Empty, Change the Song never loses sight of the human needs and connections that ultimately drive learning.

This is the type of read that can rejuvenate a veteran, or give new teachers tools to keep their morale and inspiration at their peak. The lessons you learn from this book can carry over throughout the year, even when you don’t know if you can get through it. –Amber Teamann, principal of Whitt Elementary in Wylie ISD in Wylie, Texas

Woven through these pages are stories of connection, told with the candor and vulnerability necessary for promoting personal and professional growth. There is something for everyone in this book! –Tamara Letter, MEd, instructional coach, technology integrator, and author of A Passion for Kindness

It’s been said that we never know the struggles that someone is going through, so we should treat them kindly always. In If the Dance Floor Is Empty, Change the Song, Joe Clark embraces his own vulnerability to share how he reclaimed his story after a traumatic childhood and used his life experiences–and his time as a DJ and camp director–to guide his work as a school leader. This book is an often humorous, sometimes melancholy look into what teaching and school leadership are all about. It’s a tremendous read that I know you’ll enjoy. –Thomas C. Murray, director of innovation at Future Ready Schools and author of Personal & Authentic