Dr. Jerry Turner

Learn from your successes.  

They lead to self-actualization.

 Present and Past Experience

• Licensed Educational Psychologist (Lic#2966)

• Director of Special Education

• Lead School Psychologist

• Graduate School Professor, teaching:

  • Special Education Teachers

  • School Psychologists

• College Professor in undergraduate psychology

• Grant Recipient for Research Studies

  • Strengths Based Interventions

• Academic Dean

• School Counselor

• Teacher

  • Middle School

  • High School

• Ph.D. - Psychology

• Post-doctoral Studies in Autism

• 2 Masters Degrees

  • Psychology

  • Education with PPS credential in School Psychology

• Private Pilot

• U.S. Marine Corps Combat Veteran

Dr. Turner’s Rules for Better School Psychology

1. Plow with the horses you have
2. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
3. Quality over Quantity
4. Effectiveness over Efficiency 
5. Turn off email notification
6. Keep an interruptions list
7. Focus instead of multi-tasking
8. Create Writing Days, Assessment Days, and Meeting Days
9. Know if it is a “won’t” or a “can’t” 
10. Create a Common Place Book – A single location for important information
11. For physical health increase sleep and exercise
12. For emotional health increase gratitude, gratefulness, and beauty
13. For mental health increase meditation, appreciation, and learning
14. When organized you save all the time you used to spend looking for things
15. Stop striving for perfection, instead strive for improvement
16. Don’t waste time
17. If what you are doing isn’t working, do something different
18. Use feedback to be more productive
19. Focus on strengths as much or more than weaknesses
20. Consider the perch – the view of a principal (the school) is different than a teacher (the classroom) and different then the school psychologist (the student).
21. Take your own advice
22. Flexibility is key
23. Balance life with work
24. Arrive early
25. Use a “to-do” list
26. The perfect solution requires perfect knowledge
27. Arrive early (worth repeating)
28. Never calendar more than ¾ of your day
29. Stay in touch
30. Even the worst meeting will end and you must be able to live with yourself
31. Fly the student
32. Keep your eyes on the agenda
33. Admit when you are wrong
34. Take responsibility
35. Taking risks is necessary for growth
36. Be courteous
37. Use good manners
38. Hold yourself to higher standards
39. It is okay to be stressed at work. It is okay not to be stressed at work.
40. What we do is a reflection of ourselves
41. Dress the part
42. Listen twice as much as you speak (you have two ears and one mouth)
43. When attending a conference find one or two take a ways and implement right away
44. Join and support professional organizations
45. Prioritize Director’s request as very important
46. Do a monthly review of all open cases and all folders laying around your office
47. Fridays are for writing and catching up
48. Stay home when sick
49. Learn from mistakes
50. Consider it your duty to be happy