April 29, 2024
Teachers cannot do their jobs alone. It takes a full support staff to help them. Among this group are administrators who walk a fine (or maybe shakey) line between help and hindrance. Most administrators recognize the value of having a collaborative relationship with teachers. They remember what it was like as a teacher in the classroom. Some, however, don’t.
Consider the following scenarios. For both the new and the veteran teacher, there is joy in teaching!
YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
(but you can use it to make your day)
A Handbook for New Teachers (or not)
“Is this all you want to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is this all you want to do — be a teacher?”
She knew this meeting was going to make her day. It was an innocent question — except that it was being posed by a neophyte administrator to a veteran teacher after a classroom observation and evaluation. The implication in this question was that classroom teaching is not really of much value. Surely, every teacher must aspire to administration. Yes, this meeting was going to make her day. If only she had Clint Eastwood as her backup .
After twenty years of observations that offered administrators and supervisors little more than a look-see into the world of the classroom, Edie was about to explode. Horan had been a vice-principal for all of three months and had one year of teaching experience before receiving the promotion (thanks to a well-placed aunt who was owed a favor). But how unobservant could anyone be? She contemplated reaming him out – what had she to lose? On the other hand, why waste her breath? He just wouldn’t get it. So, she filed it away for a better day.
“Ye-e-e-ah! Ye-e-e-ah! This is it, Horan,” she said and silently left the office with one more useless observation/evaluation report to tuck in her file and humorous thoughts of one more useless administrator stumbling his way towards retirement — in about 35 years.
“What should I do?” she wondered. “Leave teaching and sit in an office all day?”
And where else could she get the entertainment everyday activities offered?
Stepping out into the halls, she was gripped by an eerie feeling.. The slamming of lockers and the pounding of Top 40 Teens Tunes were absent – it was strangely quiet — for the middle of ninth period.
The sign on the wall proclaimed the rules in simple language:
No Profanity.
No Food.
No Drinks.
No Hats.
No i-Pods
From far away, Richard looked quite peaceful walking down the hall. Only when he got closer, could the earbud wire be seen sticking out of his black knit hat.
Noticing it, Edie moved to tell him to make it disappear. But she paused when she saw Mr. Santonio following purposefully ten yards behind. She stepped back and watched it unfold.
The vice-principal called to him when he noticed the bulge around Richard’s ears. Ignoring him, Richard continued on. The vice-principal did, too.
“Richard…RICHARD!”
Richard was oblivious and now he started to sing along. The song must have had a driving beat and a catchy melody. Unfortunately, the words were not good at all.
“Richard…RICHARD…I heard that!” The vice-principal picked up his pace and caught up with Richard just as he hit the refrain. His voice was quite melodious.
“Shut the f— up, shut the f— up, b—-! Shut the f— up, shut the f— up, b—-!”
“Richard, that is inappropriate language to an administrator!”
When he felt the heat of the vice-principal’s hand about to grab his shoulder, Richard ran. In his pocket, the open Wild Cherry Coke can spilled onto his jelly donut. Later, the trail of scarlet red drops would be mistaken by some for blood, but for Richard they were the trail of doom. He was in the main office hallway and did not have a prayer for escape, even if he knew one. As he approached the office in full stride, the door swung open and Richard smashed into it. From behind the door walked Officer McElroy, the campus policeman/security monitor.
No Profanity.
No Food.
No Drinks.
No Hats.
No i-Pods.
No Richard…for at least nine days.
Entertainment – no charge!
In the world of education, administrators are a permanent fixture. The ones you deal with will be supportive and helpful – for the most part! They have either enjoyed or endured the classroom experience and worked their way into administration after several years of working with kids – for the most part. When you interact with them about academic matters, they will offer a perspective different from yours, something every classroom teacher needs – for the most part. Their goal and job is to make a better school by making you a better teacher – for the most part. They know what the classroom teacher faces each day and they have the skills to observe and evaluate your performance and offer suggestions for improvement; they are your partners – for the most part. Beware and be ready for that other part that is not the most. At some time in your career, you will be faced with an administrator who is incompetent – and doesn’t know it.
This person is different from the administrator who knows his or her weaknesses and makes a sincere effort to seek help and does not fear asking (even a teacher) for advice. The incompetent vice principal probably owes his or her position to some form of nepotism – a perfect example of it not being what you know but who you know. Thus, the incompetence is irrelevant, an important fact to keep in mind when you have to interact with this person.
How do you deal with the type of arrogance, or ignorance, shown by the administrator who asks a successful, experienced teacher the question, “Is this all you want to do?” Should you wonder what is going through his head, or should you wonder where he was in Administration 101 when they went over positive reinforcement?
Your first impulse might be to voice the thoughts of the teacher in the scenario related. It would make you feel better. Think though, of the person sitting across from you. Why is he or she there? Somebody important likes him or her. Whether you are a new teacher or an experienced one, a comment like that would do two things: set yourself up for charges of insubordination and lower you to his or her level. If you are a teacher, you don’t want to have to defend against the first one, and you don’t want to experience the deep freefall of the second one.
How do you deal with it, then? Smile, sign the observation, and leave. A no comment says it all.
The second part of the scenario in the hallway with “Richard” may not occur in as timely a manner for you, but chances are that before your day is done, you will find some entertaining event that will remind you of why you wouldn’t be anything but a teacher.
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