Wouldn't it be wonderful if new principals were handed a before started their jobs? Knowing that such a resource doesn't exist, Ms. Tooms provides the next best thing: hard-earned lessons from her own experience as a rookie. TRAVIS Chavez, our school's eighth-grade quarterback, was waiting for his mother just outside of my office. He was rubbing a freshly bruised knee that he had earned during football practice. Travis, are you okay? asked. know what he grunted. No pain, no gain. invited him inside to wait, thinking that a conversation might take his mind off the knee that had now swollen to the size of a Cabbage Patch doll's head. sure have a lot of books, Doc. What are these over here? Reference books about being a replied, handing him a bag of ice. I go back and read them to help me think about principal stuff. Travis began to read the titles: Swimming with the Sharks? Thriving on Chaos? Dinosaur Brains Savage Inequalities In Search of Excellence? They don't sound like principal books to me. What are about? Well, said, they explain some of the rules for leading people and making change. Kind of like how the NFL has a rule book that explains football. Travis picked Moral Leadership off the shelf and thumbed through it. So which one is your playbook? You know, the one that explains what to do against a nickel defense or when to use the shotgun formation or when to pass the ball instead of run it? Hmm It was at that point, smack in the middle of my third year as the principal of Travis' school, that realized there was no playbook. Sure, there are tons of books that address the nobility of leadership, the challenges of reform, and the demands of the principalship. The ever- expanding libraries in both my office and my home stand as testament to all the works out there that explore everything from the memoirs of great leaders to the latest research on mentoring. But there was not one volume that spoke directly to me about, say, how to avoid being tackled by the teacher union. wanted to know when to pass the ball to the district office, when to run the ball with my participatory management committee, and what to do if my superintendent told me to run left and knew in my gut that should run right. wanted to have something that spoke to me about the real dirt of this job. What would have given for the personnel department to issue a rookie playbook to me -- a principal who was not only new to the position but new to the school and the district. Unfortunately, a playbook for rookies doesn't exist because there are no universal defensive plays to counter an offensive one. Each scenario a building administrator faces is different because each player, each school, and each district has its own personality and approach to a challenge. The majority of a new principal's learning is learning by doing. Guts, talent, and practice on the football field may result in bruises for Travis. For principals, those bruises are known as wisdom. Each bruise is a mandatory part of developing and improving. Every principal's playbook is unique. It evolves from his or her situation and is written only after living the job. Thus the irony: the rookie needs the playbook before starting the job, but it can't be written until after he or she has lived the job and earned a few bruises. The most that any rookie can hope for is to take a peek into someone else's playbook. This perspective can provide support, comfort, and a reality check. While am no longer a novice principal, can share with you some of the lessons and insights in my playbook. Each one, like Travis' bruises, was earned the hard way. Nothing Like the Assistant Principalship The first and most obvious difference between principals and assistant principals is that the buck stops with the principal. Of course, the principal still observes many of the same practices that his or her assistants do. …