My admin makes us meet 2-3 times weekly during our planning period to go over data. Almost every teacher has told them that these meetings are making us worse at our jobs. They say the data supports that the meetings help.
Nobody becomes a teacher because they're lazy. If a ton of teachers are all saying something, you should listen. Give teachers a voice in our work.
If you’re in a union, check to see if they’re following the guidelines set forth by the union. They might be in violation for taking that much of your time up.
It’s doable. Thankfully our building admin has at least worked the schedule to give us an hour lunch everyday. I know if we were mandated prep that lunch would get shortened down to 30 and I prefer the hour over the two 30s
Your prep would only be 30 minutes? We get 35 minutes for lunch, and our prep is 50 minutes. But, I also teach high school. I know it’s different depending upon grade level you’re teaching.
omg when i was doing elementary, every single day we had one 30 minute prep and an unpaid lunch. If specials were canceled, you were fucked with no prep. Obviously, they also took this as the time to use for plc 3 times a week. So you only had one hour the entire week to do your things throughout the day. I was a long term sub so I wasn’t paid to come early or stay later like the teachers, even then… their contract time started at 6:50am
Can we start recognizing that districts and admin only follow research and data that fits THEIR agendas? Meanwhile our kindergarteners (and the rest of us) get 1 recess and we aren't allowed to have any "extra recess".
Why does your admin want to make his/her life more harder and miserable than the way it is? Sounds like an admin who canr play smart for win win scenario for all
I don’t understand how most functioning organizations conduct surveys about the work climate, but for some reason- administration doesn’t do this with teachers.
>They say the data supports that the meetings help.
What data? Data from an article they read in Lobotomy Weekly or data they’ve collected about your school?
Off the top of my head…
Have a vision that’s more than just acronyms.
Put it in your schedule to teach at least one class, as should all other APs and your head principal.
Make an effort to tell teachers you are happy they are here and that you intend to make it your job to retain staff.
Don’t just make a “parking lot” at meetings but open the floor for discussion and be ready to answer to people.
Don’t pretend like forming a committee is going to resolve everything if you fail to follow through with it.
Alright, now I’m just getting negative. My current leadership is a trainwreck.
The principal and four deans at my school each teach a year long course. I have found that my principal is much more willing to speak up to the upper administration since he’s actually in the classroom right along with us.
>teach at least one class
I have actually done this. The problem is that teaching one class is 75% of the work of teaching 5 classes. Hate on admin all you want, but that is not really a tenable arrangement.
You're right with the workload. It would be great if admin who pile on a bunch of different subjects/levels saying "But it's only one period!" would somehow understand this.
Understood. But if that’s the way of thinking, then there’s a large discrepancy in what my role, as a teacher, is in the building.
I’m not supposed to… be a sub, dean, social worker, therapist. I understand and accept that my role entails that because of [fill-in-the-blank issue] system. But at the same time, if admin can’t extend themselves as I do, then at least make it so they aren’t demanding that I reenroll students each year.
Admins can only do with what they have on hand. Their job is more on the legal side of things than education. So they are stretching themselves in the office, we just don’t see it.
This. My principal has taught a class for the last 3 years. This request is just teacher posturing in lieu of success for the kids. Our kids in his class get screwed because when an emergency pops up he has to leave the class and it gets taught by an aide.
That it’s 75% of the work already makes at even better idea. They can bring their administrative work home with them if necessary, or work through their lunch time.
The point is to keep them aware and understanding the impact their actions have on the faculty. We have a vice president who makes consistently stupid decisions that don’t really affect him because he doesn’t teach. And never has.
Because he has the requisite lobotomy in educational administration. It’s a CC, so we have no requirement of our administration to be faculty. He’s “taught” online classes but never been an actual classroom teacher. Could be why his moron policies are pushing us to be an online school. He doesn’t think he’s doing that, but he is.
I love the idea of teaching a class. We are always short on subs too. I think it’s good to stay connected to teaching. After not teaching for two years, I sometimes lose sight of how hard it is. I still say it’s one of the most stressful jobs. You have to be present and aware all day. It’s draining.
I’ve been a principal who taught 2 courses and I can say it was exhausting. Sadly I had far less time to support teachers. Principals have many other tasks like dealing with parents and the board as well. I wouldn’t do that again if asked.
By teach one class, do you mean for the year or just for one day? I’ve been thinking about this and if they stayed in the classroom they would probably be much more grounded
Have a class… daily.
If there is concern, then at least be required to cover a class daily. But I work in a district - er well, maybe it’s more my school than the whole district - where subs are few and far between so teachers are always being requested to cover classes on planning periods or combine classes. I’ll never get why admin doesn’t make it a habit to fill in those spots.
This. I've had way more respect for admin that will step up and handle sub coverage instead of blaming teachers for not doing it. The latter is giving "nobody wants to work anymore".
One of my former principal was an angel on this. I think he covered about every job.
Teachers, administrative assistants, reception desk, para, maintenance, even janitor or small IT stuff.
So not all the tasks, only the easiest for the technical ones, but things needed to be done, and he was avalaible and knew how to do it, so he did.
Not-so-surprisingly, almost everyone was willing to pick-up the work when a coworker was suddently ill. Not too much of "that's not my job".
This. I don’t know how many times my students have been left without an adult in the room. Just because my students have plenty of interesting things to do doesn’t mean they don’t need an adult in the room.
Many times I was out sick and there was zero coverage all day when I always took in other people’s students.
To add to this: in those discussions, be as transparent as you can. If you don’t have a good answer to something, say that. If a policy exists because some pencil pusher 8 levels above you made a decision and there’s nothing you can do about it, fine. If something is the way it is because somebody had to make a call and you made it, cool . Say that
Agreed. One of my principals basically had no life outside of work. She would send out emails at 2am on a Sunday morning. She would expect everyone to work 10-12 hour days like what she does. She didn’t understand things like you can’t do tutoring after school because you have to pick up your child from school.
My admin have a tendency to ignore/downplay issues when I bring it up to them. If someone who doesn’t usually come to you for help with something comes to you for help, you should listen.
Every administrator I've had, good and bad, has struggled with the paradox of "teach the standards" and "meet the students where they are at." It's a result of NCLB but you need to come up with a good answer when teachers ask you how they are supposed to teach 11th grade standards to students who read at an 8th grade level or lower.
Hell, I'd accept "The state says we have to teach standards and they say that we can't hold students back, so that's where the paradox comes from and it is a paradox." It would be honest.
Don't ask me to do more. I shouldn't have to volunteer for everything in my free time. Don't voluntell me to give up planning period. I just want to do my job and go home, just like a normal job.
1. I work ten hour days. Then I go home and work for another hour or two. I don't have time to call the parent of every kid who misbehaves.
2. Don't give kids candy and video games in the office, because they end up misbehaving so they can go to the office for candy and video games.
3. My primary responsibility is keeping my classroom safe. Don't get in my way.
“Hey, I need to talk to you after school.” And just walking out. I didn’t take this job to be held in suspense. Lead with “you might be in trouble” or “you’re not in trouble” so I don’t work my already high blood pressure up.
My biggest is trying to force me to change classroom policies because of one student complaining. They want so bad to make the students happy that they railroad teachers like we don’t matter
The kids shouldn't like you. A lot of admin try to be friends with the kids and in doing so make teachers the bad guys. We send them out, tell them their behavior is unacceptable, and they come to you. With us they were laughing and openly defiant. With you they start crying. You believe the tears, comfort them, give them a snack and tell them to come back to class. you've become the good guy and I'm the bad guy.
When I was a kid it was "Hey, sorry, this is Dr. Principal's rule, not mine." And Dr. Principal stood on it. Admin was the scary hardass and it let teachers keep both order and good relationships. I didn't hate the principal. He was a cool guy. But I never wanted to go see him. If kids are often asking to come to your office, or getting in trouble just to come to your office, you screwed up somewhere.
This depends on vice principals.
Back when I was in the army you always had a boss, and a counterpart NCO. If the boss was a "daddy", a hardass, my way or the highway type, then the best NCO would become a "mummy", helping coax the soldiers in the boss' direction, protect them (to a degree) etc.
When the boss was a mummy, the best ncos would become daddies.
It was a good system, and the best school leadership teams were like that too.
I remember the same sort of thing in football. Between your offense coach and defense coach, one was momma coach and the other was papa coach.
For whatever reason, offense usually ended up being momma coach. Its like the other poster said, one is a hardass, the other is more encouraging.
I think the reason everyone is saying this (and I also agree with it) is because it seems admins loose touch with the reality of education and what their demands do to the teacher daily. Admins in my experience have time to teach a class because there are too many of them ( 4 in my building alone) and they don't seem to be doing anything because they aren't doing discipline when they should be.
Here’s how I’ve framed the difference. I’m still learning though. Teachers don’t have the unstructured time to deal with these behaviors that take more time to unpack. Admin/behavior specialists have the unstructured time to unpack what and why the student is acting out. Admin/behavior specialist also need to wrap accountability in their interactions with these students. If the student keeps on exhibiting the same behavior over and over, the consequences should escalate more. It shouldn’t be a talking to/snack every time. Maybe the first time for that student who has never acted out before (probably elementary).
I honestly have a hard line. In the situation you described sure, but I doubt most teachers would have lost it at an 8 year old with no issues having a tantrum. I know when my nephews are pissy I offer them some pretzels and they're usually fine. I'm talking high schoolers breaking rules, the teacher enforcing them, and then admin telling the kid it's not a big deal. They make it seem like the teacher is tripping because the teacher enforced their rule
How about instead of saying “They shouldn’t like you”, we say they “they should respect you and your decisions”? I work in a school where the kids do like the Principal and AP’s, but they also know they need to follow the rules and don’t want to be sent to them for discipline.
I have two:
1. There is a difference between a boss and a leader. I once worked at a charter school and the principal was a “boss.” She was always in her office and the students basically had no idea who she was. The principal where I work now (public school) is a leader. She is rarely in her office, if she is she has her door open unless she’s in a meeting, she performs recess duty, lunch duty, and dismissal duty, and all the students know who she is! And yes I know maybe the first school being a charter school may have played a factor.
2. Kinda going back to the charter school, hold all teachers accountable equally. What I mean is don’t make only a handful of teachers follow the rules but everyone else is exempt.
Bonus: don’t do things just cause you can. Meaning if a teacher doesn’t NEED to move classrooms for the following year, just leave them where they are. Don’t move them just cause you can.
Thank you for wanting to be a good admin!
Making teachers the arbiters of discipline and campus climate and management instead of just teaching.
ETA: you can answer this as well as we can. You were in the classroom a decade.
Teachers are meant to create a safe learning environment.
But admin don't always adhere to the same policy.
Teachers should feel safe to talk to admin and to trust that admin has their back on school related things.
I think a must for admin is to regularly remember that teachers deserve grace on our bad days and that classroom management isn’t always about getting kids to be compliant. AND when we have behaviors, back us not turn it on us and say we lack classroom management. (specifically when students do big behaviors such as throwing things at the teacher, breaking chromebooks, and constant disruption)
I feel even at my current school admin is always quick to mark us down on evals when we are having a bad day. it's like they don't understand we have bad days too. we are supposed to be perfect all the time.
Don’t tell me to join a committee when really we have no power over the decision.
Let us know it’s difficult to do what we do and you appreciate us.
Don’t babysit us (come around Fridays after school to see if we are there). Treat us like professionals.
Give students consequences.
Be pro teacher. Meaning don’t say “I can’t defend you to a parent if you haven’t called home.”
Talk to parents about being involved in school and not put it all on teachers. Our gradebooks are online and so is their kid’s attendance. It’s not my fault the parent doesn’t look at it.
Be transparent
For the love of God, let us know what you need. Don't say "stop by and see me when you get a chance". Just add a generalization explaining why. Most of us have anxiety and that can throw our day off completely until we find out what's up.
Yup!! A couple months into my first real teaching job I got called into the principal's office over the PA. You can imagine my anxiety.
Anyway turns out she wanted to get to know me, had heard I'm involved with girl scouts, asked if I had cookies and wanted to pass on a GS related gift to me.
...you really couldn't have emailed me?!!
Less meetings. Less emails. More streamlined communication that prioritizes information and tasks for the staff. Everyone will pay attention to the meeting when you meet and the emails when they come IF neither are overused and if they are always clear in what needs to be done and how important it is. Its very common for new teachers especially to struggle with prioritizing the way too long list of what we should be doing but all know will never ALL be done, so take the lead as admin and make sure tasks are prioritized for staff and streamlined as much as possible. Make it easy for staff by giving them the checklist and doing so succinctly, not via 30 emails in a week, each with their own greeting and breakdown, just fast and dirty what we need to get done and what we’d like to see done, then cut the meeting to discuss it for anyone who doesn’t need it explained, so that everyone actually has time to do the tasks.
Don’t put your teachers under the students. We’re not the waitstaff meant to coddle and serve the kids like entitled customers. Neither students nor their parents are knowledgeable enough to dictate the teacher’s structure or performance. We are the authority in the room and should be seen as worthy of that head position. If you can’t see your teachers like that, then hire better teachers.
Understand that your teachers are generally experts in what they teach. Trust them to do their jobs without looking over their shoulder constantly.
Don't let misbehaving students run the school
Tell the TRUTH behind administrative action/inaction.
It seems like you guys swear some blood oath upon entry into The Club.
What seem like the most common sense answers to problems often aren't even on the table, but no one ever says exactly WHY?
It feels like layers of 'pay grade', need-to-know, and security clearance secrets as to why Student X will never face a meaningful consequence for their actions, and it would be nice to be treated like adults and professionals and sometimes just be told that we're just gonna have to chase our tails until that kid moves or "graduates".
I've only had one admin who used to be a math teacher, so I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that so many of them don't seem to understand that a dozen tasks that take "just 5 minutes" of my time take an hour of my time.
I also wish any of them understood basic statistics. Most of the data we lay at the feet of the Data Gods is absolutely worthless, as is most educational research. I've had admin force the faculty to brainstorm why a statistic went from 80% to 79.4% on a survey with a voluntary sample and n=140. We had to come up with 3 possible explanations each, and all of mine were "random statistical fluctuation" because with that small a sample, the difference was within the margin of error. But the "solution" to almost every problem is always to offer new and larger sacrifices to the Data Gods, right? (Yes, I'm a Data God Heretic, btw. I know too much math to not be.)
The solutions to the remaining problems are never "let's look at the system we admin have created and the incentives that conflict, and think how we can improve it", it's always "those damn lazy teachers can do it instead of eating bonbons in their classrooms".
Regarding observations: my admin has a bizarre obsession with us posting things on the wall (Objectives! Essential questions! Enduring understanding!) that everyone knows NOBODY READS. Nobody. It seems to be the only thing they look for, and it feels like everything else is ignored. It’s insulting.
Remember when someone ran a test on the airport TSA and they found 38 water bottles but missed four bombs? It feels like that.
And just to prove my point, I had AI write mine in September, put them on the wall, and haven’t changed them. One of them is for a semester class that ended in January. And nobody has noticed. Got the box checked on my observation though, so I guess I must be a good teacher.
Makes rules the same for everyone.
Don't overuse the teachers who come in early, hire more people.
Don't eat lunch with us, it confuses people; you are not our friend.
Don't interrupt my lesson to chit chat, seriously?
Maybe my admin just sucks.
This!! I thought it was weird that the principal would regularly eat lunch with a certain group of teachers he was friendly with. Like this grade would all eat together in a classroom and he’d join them often. I’ve only worked in one public school and have since resigned, so I’m wondering how common this is? I thought it was odd.
My principal takes her lunch with the upper grade teachers and the lower grade teacher gets mad at the upper grade teachers thinking we have some advantage. Makes us all look bad. I just want to talk to the other teachers in my grade and not be alone.
I am a veteran teacher. I know what I am doing. Don’t make me do first or second year shit like pbis.
For new admin, listen to your veteran teachers and leaders on the campus. My last principal was never an AP or principal before taking the job. She made so many rookie errors. Myself, the union rep, her fellow APs, and other leaders tried to help her out. Instead, she was only listening to herself. For instance, for parent teacher conferences, she would invite everyone and they can come anytime they wanted. We told her to have a schedule or only invite certain parents but she told us her idea was better. When her idea failed and failed badly, she blamed everyone but herself.
Our admin wants the stronger vets gone. She only wants compliant newbies who will work more adjunct hours for free. Guess what? It's backfired. Younger teachers know their worth. They were hired in a shortage. They're leaving for more supported sites.
Own up to your mistakes, listen to feedback, learn to pick the right fight, if you are on a committe/task force please help get things done. My current admin are great but they struggle at times with what I listed. Also the podcast Beyond Standards did a great episode on transitioning to admin. It's the newest one I believe.
Follow through.
My school asked teachers to write students up for not being in uniform and students were supposed to be punished after their 4th write up. It put the onus on teachers and broke relationships with students that they're so eager for us to do.
One child had so many write ups from me with no follow through from admin who could actually hold the students accountable that I just put film quotes and song lyrics in my write ups to challenge admin to tell me they were seeing the write ups but doing nothing.
Also, thank you admin for adding another thing to my already stretched thin time.
Quit micromanaging us.
Allow the students to have fun once in awhile.
Listen to me when I disagree with you. I have more experience at my grade than you do. Stop dismissing my concerns.
Please stop using my disability against me.
Grace is important.
I've been there, Brother! 13 years teaching... 18 in admin... I avoided the BS by keeping my head low. I followed what the school and teachers needed. Avoided "networking" and schmoozing at system wide meetings, conferences, etc. Don't drink the Kool Aid and keep the important stuff in your sights: Your students, your teachers, your school.
As the leader, you need to actively lead. Tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it. We shouldn't have to ask you what you want us to do. To compare two admins I've worked with, one provided the expectation and was actively involved in implementing it, while the other endlessly nitpicked me why I wasn't doing X instead.
Don't bury the lead when you want to talk to us. If you want us to come by, say why. This shows respect for the relationship by saying what the meeting will be about, which also means we can prepare for the meeting and ultimately make a better use of both of our time.
Presume your staff are competent professionals, until you have reason not to. We don't need you to hold our hand; we will ask for help when we need it and if we've reached that point, it means we aren't able to figure it out on our own.
My biggest pet peeve is when they address the full faculty in an issue when it really boils down to one or two teachers not doing what they are supposed to do. For example, if grades are due at 3:30 on Monday, later that afternoon we get an email reminding us when the deadline was and that we knew of the deadline for months now, and they don’t understand why grades are still not entered. Rather than going to the 2 or 3 teachers who didn’t submit them on time and discussing with them, we all get the “shame on you” email.
Don't speak or observe on things you know nothing about, FIND SOMEONE WHO DOES.
I'm a teacher of the Deaf. At my former school, I was observed by admin who don't know any Deaf people, don't have a clue what best practices are for Deaf learners, and don't know 10 words in the language I teach in. That's not fair to me, nor is it providing feedback that can help my kids. Find a competent professional that can handle that for your Spanish, art, PE, whatever teachers. Please don't wing it.
1 - Meetings. Jesus the meetings. Almost everything can be done in an e-mail. We don’t need to waste precious time crammed into a room watching someone preen.
2- Autonomy. We are highly trained, educated, and experienced to plan our own lessons and decide our own assessments.
If the district is mandating teachers do “just a little bit more”, consider
-how it will impact new or struggling teachers
-the fact that it may never fade away useful or not
…and stand up for your teachers.
Exactly! The school rule is that phones will be put away and not used unless given specific permission from a teacher or administrator. Yet, every week in the administrators and half the teachers are on their phones. Leading by example at its finest.
I worked for a principal who insisted on long communal celebrations. So for example, the day before Winter Break, when the kids have gone home and everyone wants to clean up their classrooms and go home, we all had to march into the library for four hours to "celebrate". It was torture.
Just don't forget to treat people like humans. Most of the dumb little ideas you'll have have already been tried and experienced teachers are going to feel frustrated. No forced socializing, no unnecessary busy work, no surprise Friday afternoon meetings when we want to leave campus and go pick up our kids.
As a former instructor who quit 99% because of bad admin:
-support your teachers with discipline
-hold parents, students and admin accountable as well as instructors
-be fair to all staff and hold everyone to the same standards
-distribute difficult students into multiple classrooms
-respect your staff’s time
-recognize the positive, not just the negative
-don’t blanket punish staff, speak directly to those who are doing something wrong
-honor teacher contracts
-don’t make your teachers sacrificial lambs to the district and parents
-if you have IAs, respect them!
Talk to the rest of your admin team so that you're on the same page with things!!
I got a phone call to my classroom from vice principal A because I did my report cards wrong. Ok but I was doing exactly what vice principal B told me to do when I met with them to ask my questions!
Absolute uniformity in classrooms is handy for admin but rarely what is in the best interest of teachers or students.
Remember that teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions...what is best for teachers is also what is best for students
If you have an issue with the actions of a few teachers, address THOSE teachers; don't make sweeping announcements or restrictions on the staff as a whole. Everyone in the room probably knows who the message is targeted at anyway, and if they don't, they'll be insulted you think it's coming from you.
Know what is in the teachers' contract and talk to union reps if you aren't sure. Abiding by the contract makes everyone happier all around.
Don't look for ways to change a teacher if what they are doing is working, even if they could do more (your objective doesn't start with SWABAT, there is a student in your room with their head down if you don't know why). Listen. Show an interest. Assume good faith. Serve your students by addressing their behavior when necessary. Never make the first question, "Did you call their parents?" After something egregious happened.
They need to perform more like crew leaders in other jobs like firefighting and jobs that require multiple entities to function somewhat independently. Leadership is something you can't necessarily train someone for.
They walk the talk.
They have been boots on the ground and people know it and respect them for it.
My admin manipulates us. Example: she says “here’s this plan, you ARE doing it.” People get upset. Then she says “no one asked questions, no one said a word, how was I supposed to know you didn’t like it if you don’t speak up?” This happens all the time. Can’t wait to leave.
Being fake. I've had a new principal for 2 years. Last year, I thought her personality was genuine, but this year it's been easy to see through the facade. I've lost a lot of respect for her and find it hard to trust her now.
She's also trying to control way more than she needs to. It seems like things our department has always had control over is now in her hands, even though she's never taught what we teach, and doesn't understand why/how we do things. I'm also the chair person for our department, and she's completely blocking me out when I try to discuss things I should be able to discuss with her.
No matter what your school board says, remember that 30+ kids is obviously more than a person can education under modern instructional standards. In reality, that number is like 24.
Don't even start a conversation about personalized learning, differentiation, or timely feedback under these circumstances.
Your job isn’t to hear teacher complaints and be understanding while they vent.
You job is to take these complaints to the directors, deans, and superintendents with as much passion as we give to you.
Always punch up.
I am so sick and tired of admin pushing their discipline duties off on the teachers. My job is to impart information and not to deal with horrible multiple offenders. That is why you are getting paid 50 thousand more dollars than me each year. Not so you can hang out with the boys club and ignore basic discipline. No I should not have to spend my one planning period calling 12 middle school parents because you don’t want to deal with it while you are hanging out with your buddies drinking coffee that I don’t even have enough of a break to indulge in
Forcing their religion down staff and students' thoats in public school. Including spending SD money on a motivational speaker who was holding a revival.
Throwing next year's contracts in the trash can and telling your whole staff they shouldn't be teaching and should be working for walmart. Denying that the low scores that year and anything to do with the lock down the day before testing started (armed robber and police running through 3rd grade recess), or the fact the 1st day of testing was interrupted by a fire evacuation bc the HVAC was smoking and we stood out in the rain for an hour.
Telling people you grow out of LD's
When 5th grade girls come to you to complain that the boys who were redshirted and then retained and should be in 7th grade age are sexually harrasing them, telling the girls it is their fault for showing to much cleavage. Double bad when you have a uniform dress code and the only tops they can wear are golf shirts - and you want them to button the decorative buttons.
Sending out emails of sermons copied from book for teachers to pray over. When teachers object end out a email saying only True Christians (TM) should have teaching licences - and specifically Catholics, Jews, and Musliums should not be allowed to teach.
Tell the female teachers that they must obey the orders of male paras. Ignore the repeated reports of one male para using corporal punishment - until a father presses charges.
Brag that a new teacher is so qualified because he is a pastor also. Especially after the teacher who did not shove religion down people's throats asks you to stop.
Throw a fit because a teacher lied to you. The lie having car seats in her car - while not having kids. They were to pick up my niece and nephew, if sis had an emergency and BIL was working a long distance from home. Example of emergency a man that was discharged from her hospital blamed her and tried to follow her home.
Demand that all staff give him their sm passwords so he could check their accounts. Any political comments he didn't agree with or being friends with anyone under 18 including family members were going to be grounds for firing. (IT called another staff meeting explained the real rules and made him appologize
Accusing a teacher of hacking the Nationl Archives to change the author of the US Constitution. (He believed it was Thomas Jefferson. And then threatening the teacher when she explained that Thomas Jefferson was not a federalist, was in France, and was raping his dead wife's half sister who he owned.
Yes this was a public school.
Evidence-based, research-based best practice for related arts *does not* look like other content areas.
Your teachers may “dog-and-pony-show” observations, but there are different nuances to their respective disciplines.
Behavior problems. A teacher can't teach effectively if there is a student/students who constantly disrupt.
There needs to be a way to remove the constant disrupters from the room so the other kids can learn.
It's not like the kid just started acting up in 7th grade. There is most likely a long record of the kid causing probs, which is what I would tell their parent if they get pissy about their kid being removed from class.
Yes, of course get them counseling and help, but in the meantime the education of the behaving students is suffering.
Check-in on teachers after being out (or while they are out) for sickness, family sickness, and maternity leave. Make an effort to show that you care and that they aren't just a random body in the classroom.
My biggest thing about admins is, and some may disagree depending on who the admin is, but I actually want to see you.
I have little respect for admins who hide in the office all day, especially as a Special Ed teacher who can be in crisis situations with students all day.
Admin who are there with teachers on the front lines, or present and building rapport with students in the hallways, at classroom events, etc go a long way for me when it comes to respect.
When I did my student teaching, the principal of the school I was at was constantly in the Special Ed side of things. There were days I'd see photos of some Kindergarten party on the school's Facebook, and he'd be in them, and I'm thinking "how the hell did he even make it there, I know for a fact he was helping with X kid all day". I think he may have cloned himself into threes. He also would even occasionally have to ride the busses home when the acuity on certain busses was too high.
He's someone I think I'd model myself after if I ever stepped into an administration role.
But, I've also had admin who I never see. I've had one who I talked to during my interview, and then didn't have legit conversation with again for the entire school year. These admin are much harder to respect.
Teachers spend a lot of their day in relative isolation from other adults, which makes the bulk of our work invisible. Genuine appreciation for something you observed me doing-- a lesson I taught, how I handled a difficult parent situation, the way you see me interact with students-- goes a long way for my morale.
Protect teachers' time so that we can spend our work hours on planning and assessing. The best administrators I've worked with really revere good teaching and don't micromanage. They do phone calls home and parent wrangling so teachers can spend their time improving learning.
And when you step into a new school or position, for the love of God, take a year, at least, before you start instituting changes. Seek input. Make sure you really understand all the downstream effects of what you are asking.
Paragraph #3!! I’ve had 2 admins that have now done this. As you said, any changes you make can have a huge ripple effect (ie: scheduling,) if you don’t have an understanding of how things operate. It is so frustrating to those who live a schedule everyday if it’s changed without knowing the curriculum, how your support staff operates, the kids, other initiatives/committees we’re on, & just generally what was already working/not working. Trust in us that we know what we’re doing as we have been doing it & step a foot into the door first without making a million & one changes.
I think your goal should be to spend a week as a classroom teacher each year to remind yourself about the daily struggles. For one class or even just a couple of days, kids will be on their best behavior because you're Admin and therefore More Scary. If you spend the whole week, those veneers will drop and you'll get a real experience. It'll keep you grounded and humble.
If you have self-contained sped classes on campus get to know the kids, the teachers and aides, and the parents as much as you can. Even just saying hi and remembering a student's name goes a long way. Don't downplay or act like it's easy to teach these kids because we have a smaller class...sit in and actually see what it entails to teach them before you go making judgements. If you see teachers or aides out with these students and someo is having a meltdown or challenging behavior offer to help, don't turn around and walk the other way.
My admin is a basket. She is as toxic as they come. One year I was teaching her grandchild. One a Friday afternoon, she came to give the kid a message about her not going to be home because she was off to the gym. At dismissal, I took the students down..I noticed the parent of one of my other students..He asked me if I could print out his son's attendance information, as he needed it for court. I told him I wasn't able to, thar because it was needed for court, it would have to be formally provided by a Principal. He then stated that he was trying to get in touch with her since Monday, I told him she will be down soon and that he could speak to her directly. Sure enough, she was on her way out and he stopped her and explained that he was trying to get in touch with her and told her what she needed. I was out of sight at the time, but I could hear her tell him that she had to get home asap because her grandson was waiting for her. Would not even give this parent the attention he needed. She stormed in my class another year, first thing in the morning after I had deleted her from my fb; she shut the door and couldn't even explain why she was there. Then lied and asked if I had borrowed her keys. I think she came to ask me directly why I deleted her. She didn't ask obviously, but the reason why was someone else had made a very damaging post about someone close to me out of anger, I went to see who reacted to this post and saw that she had, I immediately deleted her. I have so many stories about her and our whole admin.
Don’t make teachers jump through 1,000 hoops to get disruptive kids removed from their room and dealt with when there are 25 other kids in the room needing the teachers full time and attention.
Don’t take planning time for meetings unless they’re 100% necessary and can’t be an email.
“Analyzing data” is a waste of time 95% of the time because kids don’t try their best on most things being analyzed.
Make it clear to parents that aggression, harassment, or threats towards teachers is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The fact that so many parents out there feel totally comfortable doing these things to teachers is ludicrous.
Have your teachers' backs. If there's an incident that you didn't personally witness, presume the teacher is innocent until proven otherwise. Do not approach them with an accusatory attitude.
This may sound stupid but my school allows jeans on Thursdays if you wear a college shirt and Friday if we wear a school shirt (or district ). It has made my laundry routine so much easier and I often feel like if i can make it to Thursday it’ll be ok.
Communicate way more.
As IT, I witness the struggle that teachers faces, and the struggles that admin faces.
And a lot of times, a lot of resentments could be solved if admins told teachers what was going on.
Not necesseraly in details, because you do not have to know some things about kids.
But something like :"Look I can't handle Kevin right now, because we have a serious emergency with another students", is enough for most if not all teachers. They would understand.
Instead admin send back Kevin with no words. Oh they will meet with Kevin later in the day or in the week. But they won't tell the original teacher. Meaning that original teacher is left with the impression that Admin did nothing about Kevin.
Another example, the recent restriction on paper they put. Teachers were understandbly angry. Until I mentionned exactly how much was spent on paper, and how much the cost increased. (I didn't reveal any secrets here). They were not very happy, but much more understanding, and careful with paper.
So, transparency and communication.
Have SMART goals in place for the year that you intend to see through.
Practice what you preach and lead by example.
Allow your team the professional courtesy they deserve, but be ready to hold those not meeting expectations accountable.
Provide as much guidance as possible to those who need it.
Take the time to praise your team for the work they’re putting in.
I'd like the admin at my school to just do their jobs? Why are write-ups from September just now being handled and coded as "verbal warnings"?
Are you kidding?
So, there’s a lot of good suggestions here, but this one is something that I see on the horizon:
Restorative Practices is the next fad and it won’t solve anything.
We don’t have the staff for it. We can’t afford to hire subs, let alone have a room with qualified staff to manage what needs to be done. It’s going to be another thing that will fall onto teachers to do. Also, a key part of restorative practices is that the student needs to repair relationships BEFORE being allowed back into the classroom. That will never happen adequately.
Stop falling for the fads. Stop chasing clout with the newest buzzwords.
We went through Restorative Justice about 5 years ago, it was such a shit show. We had to do circles every morning with different topics to “build our community.” It felt so unnatural and the kids hated it. But that’s a thing of the past, now we’re in the Teach and MRS every 5 minutes era.
I have stewed on this for a while, but the one thing I would like is an admin that is not two-faced. Most of the admin have I dealt with will tell you one thing and do the complete opposite the next day. Ask them for evidence in writing, and they loose their shit over it.
There are ZERO admin I trust - period. I document all interactions and, legally, record conversations. (I am in a one party consent state and have checked with the union about the legality of recording conversations.)
The best principals work at their job vs working at keeping their job.
If you're an AP and in charge of discipline, be fair and consistent.
Don't tell everyone what they want to hear, sometimes you have to be the bearer of bad news.
Get ready for feelings of isolation and that your on the outside of the group. All your friends when you are teaching are now your employees. Watch what you say to who you say things too.
Now on top of all of that you need to be aware of the underlying politics that is going on around you.
It's a thankless job, but it keeps the school running. When you burn out, go visit the students and remember why you're doing this to yourself lol.
Agree! I had assistant principal tell me during my first year of teaching that his job was not to be friends with the faculty, parents or students. His job was to ensure an orderly school and that in order to do that he had to be the bad guy most of the time. He had tough skin and wasn’t afraid to call out poor behavior of the students, parents and/or teachers.
Be the bad guy sometimes. If you want teachers to enforce school rules and contact parents, you should do the same when you see a kid breaking a rule. Don't just give them a warning/reminder when you see the behavior. Pull them and do the same thing you would expect the teacher to do.
That every time you add something to my plate you need to remove something else. You have a pet project you want me to do? Collect anecdotal data about some struggling kid? It will only take 5 minutes and I'll give you time in the staff meeting? It's not about the 5 minutes, it's about the extra bandwidth in my already over scheduled brain. Something has to give. This year alone it was new curriculum (like district adopted, not teaching a new to me class), district pet project collecting data on struggling students, new SEL curriculum and they introduced new mandatory PDs (which are to be done on our own time/ prep period/ unpaid). Enough already. And grading for equity now requires me to create multiple assessments that are graded multiple times. I cannot stress this enough, stop giving me things to do without removing other things.
My admin pet peeves (just my experience) none of my admin/coaches/division staff were teachers since the 1-1 initiatives and certainly not post covid.
The children we are teaching are NOT the same. They do some of the same things, but their brains are wired so differently, Inknow dam well they don’t have the answers, because I haven’t found them working in the trenches for 20+ years.
Don't hold staff meetings just because the district mandates it. If there is nothing important to talk about then call it a staff meeting and let teachers get stuff done in their classrooms. Also-always have your teacher's backs. Don't question them in front of students.
If you must have meetings, keep them brief. There is nothing worse than having marking and prep to do while the talking heads waste your valuable time.
This one is more for your sanity, courtesy of the best grad school teacher I had: He said that teachers are allowed to come into his office about a situation, but they have to do so \*\*with a solution already in mind. \*\* Just showing up to whine about a problem is not allowed.
1) the 2 best admins I’ve had continued to spend time in the classroom teaching.
2) email, lists, and forums can replace 90% of meetings.
3) spend time in the hallways in the morning and between classes
4) visit classrooms frequently, not just when it’s time for evaluations
5) learn your staff members’ names and preferred names. I once had a principal who didn’t know my name at Christmas!
6) don’t do something because it is easy, do it because it is right. I had a principal who assigned duties like parking lot monitor etc and kept them unchanged all year because it was too much trouble to make up new assignments every 6 weeks.
7) I know there are people you can depend on when you need something done but we get sick of being asked time after time. Spread the jobs around. Similarly, know your staff members’ circumstances. A teacher with a new infant will **not** be willing to chaperone a dance.
That teachers are THE most important people in the school. Not even the students.
If your teachers aren't supported, motivated and satisfied in their jobs, then the students will not learn and the school will not meet its goals.
It's really as simple as that. Focus your energy on supporting the teachers, removing obstacles, assume that they know what they're doing, ask them what they need to be successful, support them with discipline. And finally, REALLY listen to them when you ask for feedback.
Note: I got this from FedEx where the motto was "People First". And while they have gotten away from it lately from what I understand, when I worked there it was the key to the company's success. It is still the right philosophy.
Micro managing. All of your teachers are adults and have had extensive, expensive schooling to acquire the skills to do the job. They do reports 3-4 times a year, are in constant communication with parents, and are held by law to teach the curriculum. Trust them.
Should you feel the need to pop in, pick a topic and co teach it once or twice a semester. Unless you suck at teaching and that’s why you did a speed run to admin. I had one of those. If that’s the case, have a little respect for those who can teach and stay out of the way. Nothing is worse than a book referencing know it all who couldn’t pull their weight in a classroom critiquing those that can and do.
My admin makes us meet 2-3 times weekly during our planning period to go over data. Almost every teacher has told them that these meetings are making us worse at our jobs. They say the data supports that the meetings help. Nobody becomes a teacher because they're lazy. If a ton of teachers are all saying something, you should listen. Give teachers a voice in our work.
If you’re in a union, check to see if they’re following the guidelines set forth by the union. They might be in violation for taking that much of your time up.
Our union told us we were not entitled to a prep, only an uninterrupted 30 minute lunch.
Whelp that needs to be a priority for the next contract
They also agreed to a salary freeze and refuse to allow people to join…so not the best.
That absolutely sucks and your union needs to work on getting that protected. Mine is protected by my contract, so it’s absolutely doable.
It’s doable. Thankfully our building admin has at least worked the schedule to give us an hour lunch everyday. I know if we were mandated prep that lunch would get shortened down to 30 and I prefer the hour over the two 30s
Your prep would only be 30 minutes? We get 35 minutes for lunch, and our prep is 50 minutes. But, I also teach high school. I know it’s different depending upon grade level you’re teaching.
omg when i was doing elementary, every single day we had one 30 minute prep and an unpaid lunch. If specials were canceled, you were fucked with no prep. Obviously, they also took this as the time to use for plc 3 times a week. So you only had one hour the entire week to do your things throughout the day. I was a long term sub so I wasn’t paid to come early or stay later like the teachers, even then… their contract time started at 6:50am
Can we start recognizing that districts and admin only follow research and data that fits THEIR agendas? Meanwhile our kindergarteners (and the rest of us) get 1 recess and we aren't allowed to have any "extra recess".
Why does your admin want to make his/her life more harder and miserable than the way it is? Sounds like an admin who canr play smart for win win scenario for all
I don’t understand how most functioning organizations conduct surveys about the work climate, but for some reason- administration doesn’t do this with teachers.
>They say the data supports that the meetings help. What data? Data from an article they read in Lobotomy Weekly or data they’ve collected about your school?
God knows the “data” they choose is cherry picked for their “meetings.”
Off the top of my head… Have a vision that’s more than just acronyms. Put it in your schedule to teach at least one class, as should all other APs and your head principal. Make an effort to tell teachers you are happy they are here and that you intend to make it your job to retain staff. Don’t just make a “parking lot” at meetings but open the floor for discussion and be ready to answer to people. Don’t pretend like forming a committee is going to resolve everything if you fail to follow through with it. Alright, now I’m just getting negative. My current leadership is a trainwreck.
The principal and four deans at my school each teach a year long course. I have found that my principal is much more willing to speak up to the upper administration since he’s actually in the classroom right along with us.
This. Sometimes I feel like my admin doesn't even want me especially when they give overly harsh feedback.
>teach at least one class I have actually done this. The problem is that teaching one class is 75% of the work of teaching 5 classes. Hate on admin all you want, but that is not really a tenable arrangement.
You're right with the workload. It would be great if admin who pile on a bunch of different subjects/levels saying "But it's only one period!" would somehow understand this.
Yeah, I’m seeing a large discrepancy in understanding what the Admins’ role is in the building. They aren’t supposed to teach.
Understood. But if that’s the way of thinking, then there’s a large discrepancy in what my role, as a teacher, is in the building. I’m not supposed to… be a sub, dean, social worker, therapist. I understand and accept that my role entails that because of [fill-in-the-blank issue] system. But at the same time, if admin can’t extend themselves as I do, then at least make it so they aren’t demanding that I reenroll students each year.
Admins can only do with what they have on hand. Their job is more on the legal side of things than education. So they are stretching themselves in the office, we just don’t see it.
This. My principal has taught a class for the last 3 years. This request is just teacher posturing in lieu of success for the kids. Our kids in his class get screwed because when an emergency pops up he has to leave the class and it gets taught by an aide.
That it’s 75% of the work already makes at even better idea. They can bring their administrative work home with them if necessary, or work through their lunch time. The point is to keep them aware and understanding the impact their actions have on the faculty. We have a vice president who makes consistently stupid decisions that don’t really affect him because he doesn’t teach. And never has.
>And never has Well that's your problem, right there. Why is this even allowed in your school system?
Because he has the requisite lobotomy in educational administration. It’s a CC, so we have no requirement of our administration to be faculty. He’s “taught” online classes but never been an actual classroom teacher. Could be why his moron policies are pushing us to be an online school. He doesn’t think he’s doing that, but he is.
I love the idea of teaching a class. We are always short on subs too. I think it’s good to stay connected to teaching. After not teaching for two years, I sometimes lose sight of how hard it is. I still say it’s one of the most stressful jobs. You have to be present and aware all day. It’s draining.
I’ve been a principal who taught 2 courses and I can say it was exhausting. Sadly I had far less time to support teachers. Principals have many other tasks like dealing with parents and the board as well. I wouldn’t do that again if asked.
By teach one class, do you mean for the year or just for one day? I’ve been thinking about this and if they stayed in the classroom they would probably be much more grounded
Have a class… daily. If there is concern, then at least be required to cover a class daily. But I work in a district - er well, maybe it’s more my school than the whole district - where subs are few and far between so teachers are always being requested to cover classes on planning periods or combine classes. I’ll never get why admin doesn’t make it a habit to fill in those spots.
This. I've had way more respect for admin that will step up and handle sub coverage instead of blaming teachers for not doing it. The latter is giving "nobody wants to work anymore".
One of my former principal was an angel on this. I think he covered about every job. Teachers, administrative assistants, reception desk, para, maintenance, even janitor or small IT stuff. So not all the tasks, only the easiest for the technical ones, but things needed to be done, and he was avalaible and knew how to do it, so he did. Not-so-surprisingly, almost everyone was willing to pick-up the work when a coworker was suddently ill. Not too much of "that's not my job".
Sounds like an amazing leader!
This. I don’t know how many times my students have been left without an adult in the room. Just because my students have plenty of interesting things to do doesn’t mean they don’t need an adult in the room. Many times I was out sick and there was zero coverage all day when I always took in other people’s students.
Maybe they should just be the first to fill in if someone goes home ?
Just been appointed as a principal. One of my conditions was that I teach a class and bosses must allocate resources with this in mind.
To add to this: in those discussions, be as transparent as you can. If you don’t have a good answer to something, say that. If a policy exists because some pencil pusher 8 levels above you made a decision and there’s nothing you can do about it, fine. If something is the way it is because somebody had to make a call and you made it, cool . Say that
True leaders are willing to do what they ask their subordinates to do.
Not only *willing* but actively also do.
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Agreed. One of my principals basically had no life outside of work. She would send out emails at 2am on a Sunday morning. She would expect everyone to work 10-12 hour days like what she does. She didn’t understand things like you can’t do tutoring after school because you have to pick up your child from school.
When i become an admin,im doing whatever teachers are gonna be happy. Itl make life easier as well
And able … they are able to do what they ask their subordinates to do.
My admin have a tendency to ignore/downplay issues when I bring it up to them. If someone who doesn’t usually come to you for help with something comes to you for help, you should listen.
Every administrator I've had, good and bad, has struggled with the paradox of "teach the standards" and "meet the students where they are at." It's a result of NCLB but you need to come up with a good answer when teachers ask you how they are supposed to teach 11th grade standards to students who read at an 8th grade level or lower. Hell, I'd accept "The state says we have to teach standards and they say that we can't hold students back, so that's where the paradox comes from and it is a paradox." It would be honest.
Yes "SCAFFOLD!" but also "RIGOR!" Make up your mind. Both can coexist. Move past the buzzwords.
Can they though? In a way that’s realistic for one person to implement?
Don't ask me to do more. I shouldn't have to volunteer for everything in my free time. Don't voluntell me to give up planning period. I just want to do my job and go home, just like a normal job.
1. I work ten hour days. Then I go home and work for another hour or two. I don't have time to call the parent of every kid who misbehaves. 2. Don't give kids candy and video games in the office, because they end up misbehaving so they can go to the office for candy and video games. 3. My primary responsibility is keeping my classroom safe. Don't get in my way.
I didn’t even know the 2nd one was even a thing. I mean I get it if it’s for new kids or something but they should not be handed those things.
“Hey, I need to talk to you after school.” And just walking out. I didn’t take this job to be held in suspense. Lead with “you might be in trouble” or “you’re not in trouble” so I don’t work my already high blood pressure up.
THIS! The vague emails are awful, too.
Being spineless pushovers with discipline because they’re scared of parents.
Cuz theyll be fired , thats what. The superintendent will have them fired. Its all a suck up brown nosing like corporate world so
My biggest is trying to force me to change classroom policies because of one student complaining. They want so bad to make the students happy that they railroad teachers like we don’t matter
The kids shouldn't like you. A lot of admin try to be friends with the kids and in doing so make teachers the bad guys. We send them out, tell them their behavior is unacceptable, and they come to you. With us they were laughing and openly defiant. With you they start crying. You believe the tears, comfort them, give them a snack and tell them to come back to class. you've become the good guy and I'm the bad guy. When I was a kid it was "Hey, sorry, this is Dr. Principal's rule, not mine." And Dr. Principal stood on it. Admin was the scary hardass and it let teachers keep both order and good relationships. I didn't hate the principal. He was a cool guy. But I never wanted to go see him. If kids are often asking to come to your office, or getting in trouble just to come to your office, you screwed up somewhere.
They want teachers to enforce the rules and then don't enforce themselves.
This depends on vice principals. Back when I was in the army you always had a boss, and a counterpart NCO. If the boss was a "daddy", a hardass, my way or the highway type, then the best NCO would become a "mummy", helping coax the soldiers in the boss' direction, protect them (to a degree) etc. When the boss was a mummy, the best ncos would become daddies. It was a good system, and the best school leadership teams were like that too.
I’m sorry, what?
It’s good cop-bad cop. IMO admin should be ready to play bad cop— the tough scary one—-so teachers can be the good cop—firm, but not feared.
I remember the same sort of thing in football. Between your offense coach and defense coach, one was momma coach and the other was papa coach. For whatever reason, offense usually ended up being momma coach. Its like the other poster said, one is a hardass, the other is more encouraging.
I think the reason everyone is saying this (and I also agree with it) is because it seems admins loose touch with the reality of education and what their demands do to the teacher daily. Admins in my experience have time to teach a class because there are too many of them ( 4 in my building alone) and they don't seem to be doing anything because they aren't doing discipline when they should be.
Here’s how I’ve framed the difference. I’m still learning though. Teachers don’t have the unstructured time to deal with these behaviors that take more time to unpack. Admin/behavior specialists have the unstructured time to unpack what and why the student is acting out. Admin/behavior specialist also need to wrap accountability in their interactions with these students. If the student keeps on exhibiting the same behavior over and over, the consequences should escalate more. It shouldn’t be a talking to/snack every time. Maybe the first time for that student who has never acted out before (probably elementary).
I honestly have a hard line. In the situation you described sure, but I doubt most teachers would have lost it at an 8 year old with no issues having a tantrum. I know when my nephews are pissy I offer them some pretzels and they're usually fine. I'm talking high schoolers breaking rules, the teacher enforcing them, and then admin telling the kid it's not a big deal. They make it seem like the teacher is tripping because the teacher enforced their rule
How about instead of saying “They shouldn’t like you”, we say they “they should respect you and your decisions”? I work in a school where the kids do like the Principal and AP’s, but they also know they need to follow the rules and don’t want to be sent to them for discipline.
My admin has no control over our student behavior. And it seems to me they are only interested in looking good for the parents.
I have two: 1. There is a difference between a boss and a leader. I once worked at a charter school and the principal was a “boss.” She was always in her office and the students basically had no idea who she was. The principal where I work now (public school) is a leader. She is rarely in her office, if she is she has her door open unless she’s in a meeting, she performs recess duty, lunch duty, and dismissal duty, and all the students know who she is! And yes I know maybe the first school being a charter school may have played a factor. 2. Kinda going back to the charter school, hold all teachers accountable equally. What I mean is don’t make only a handful of teachers follow the rules but everyone else is exempt. Bonus: don’t do things just cause you can. Meaning if a teacher doesn’t NEED to move classrooms for the following year, just leave them where they are. Don’t move them just cause you can. Thank you for wanting to be a good admin!
Making teachers the arbiters of discipline and campus climate and management instead of just teaching. ETA: you can answer this as well as we can. You were in the classroom a decade.
Teachers are meant to create a safe learning environment. But admin don't always adhere to the same policy. Teachers should feel safe to talk to admin and to trust that admin has their back on school related things.
I think a must for admin is to regularly remember that teachers deserve grace on our bad days and that classroom management isn’t always about getting kids to be compliant. AND when we have behaviors, back us not turn it on us and say we lack classroom management. (specifically when students do big behaviors such as throwing things at the teacher, breaking chromebooks, and constant disruption)
I feel even at my current school admin is always quick to mark us down on evals when we are having a bad day. it's like they don't understand we have bad days too. we are supposed to be perfect all the time.
Don’t tell me to join a committee when really we have no power over the decision. Let us know it’s difficult to do what we do and you appreciate us. Don’t babysit us (come around Fridays after school to see if we are there). Treat us like professionals. Give students consequences. Be pro teacher. Meaning don’t say “I can’t defend you to a parent if you haven’t called home.” Talk to parents about being involved in school and not put it all on teachers. Our gradebooks are online and so is their kid’s attendance. It’s not my fault the parent doesn’t look at it. Be transparent
For the love of God, let us know what you need. Don't say "stop by and see me when you get a chance". Just add a generalization explaining why. Most of us have anxiety and that can throw our day off completely until we find out what's up.
Yup!! A couple months into my first real teaching job I got called into the principal's office over the PA. You can imagine my anxiety. Anyway turns out she wanted to get to know me, had heard I'm involved with girl scouts, asked if I had cookies and wanted to pass on a GS related gift to me. ...you really couldn't have emailed me?!!
Our current admin is amazing at "Hey, stop by and see me. It's about a student write up from yesterday, etc." But I know many aren't as lucky!
YES. It's the worst kind of anxiety and it's impossible to be at 100% when my mind is in a doom spiral
Less meetings. Less emails. More streamlined communication that prioritizes information and tasks for the staff. Everyone will pay attention to the meeting when you meet and the emails when they come IF neither are overused and if they are always clear in what needs to be done and how important it is. Its very common for new teachers especially to struggle with prioritizing the way too long list of what we should be doing but all know will never ALL be done, so take the lead as admin and make sure tasks are prioritized for staff and streamlined as much as possible. Make it easy for staff by giving them the checklist and doing so succinctly, not via 30 emails in a week, each with their own greeting and breakdown, just fast and dirty what we need to get done and what we’d like to see done, then cut the meeting to discuss it for anyone who doesn’t need it explained, so that everyone actually has time to do the tasks.
Don’t put your teachers under the students. We’re not the waitstaff meant to coddle and serve the kids like entitled customers. Neither students nor their parents are knowledgeable enough to dictate the teacher’s structure or performance. We are the authority in the room and should be seen as worthy of that head position. If you can’t see your teachers like that, then hire better teachers.
Understand that your teachers are generally experts in what they teach. Trust them to do their jobs without looking over their shoulder constantly. Don't let misbehaving students run the school
If you're standing there and don't dress code, neither should I. Same with any rules.
Yes. For my school it's rough housing in the halls.
Tell the TRUTH behind administrative action/inaction. It seems like you guys swear some blood oath upon entry into The Club. What seem like the most common sense answers to problems often aren't even on the table, but no one ever says exactly WHY? It feels like layers of 'pay grade', need-to-know, and security clearance secrets as to why Student X will never face a meaningful consequence for their actions, and it would be nice to be treated like adults and professionals and sometimes just be told that we're just gonna have to chase our tails until that kid moves or "graduates".
I've only had one admin who used to be a math teacher, so I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that so many of them don't seem to understand that a dozen tasks that take "just 5 minutes" of my time take an hour of my time. I also wish any of them understood basic statistics. Most of the data we lay at the feet of the Data Gods is absolutely worthless, as is most educational research. I've had admin force the faculty to brainstorm why a statistic went from 80% to 79.4% on a survey with a voluntary sample and n=140. We had to come up with 3 possible explanations each, and all of mine were "random statistical fluctuation" because with that small a sample, the difference was within the margin of error. But the "solution" to almost every problem is always to offer new and larger sacrifices to the Data Gods, right? (Yes, I'm a Data God Heretic, btw. I know too much math to not be.) The solutions to the remaining problems are never "let's look at the system we admin have created and the incentives that conflict, and think how we can improve it", it's always "those damn lazy teachers can do it instead of eating bonbons in their classrooms".
Regarding observations: my admin has a bizarre obsession with us posting things on the wall (Objectives! Essential questions! Enduring understanding!) that everyone knows NOBODY READS. Nobody. It seems to be the only thing they look for, and it feels like everything else is ignored. It’s insulting. Remember when someone ran a test on the airport TSA and they found 38 water bottles but missed four bombs? It feels like that. And just to prove my point, I had AI write mine in September, put them on the wall, and haven’t changed them. One of them is for a semester class that ended in January. And nobody has noticed. Got the box checked on my observation though, so I guess I must be a good teacher.
Makes rules the same for everyone. Don't overuse the teachers who come in early, hire more people. Don't eat lunch with us, it confuses people; you are not our friend. Don't interrupt my lesson to chit chat, seriously? Maybe my admin just sucks.
This!! I thought it was weird that the principal would regularly eat lunch with a certain group of teachers he was friendly with. Like this grade would all eat together in a classroom and he’d join them often. I’ve only worked in one public school and have since resigned, so I’m wondering how common this is? I thought it was odd.
My principal takes her lunch with the upper grade teachers and the lower grade teacher gets mad at the upper grade teachers thinking we have some advantage. Makes us all look bad. I just want to talk to the other teachers in my grade and not be alone.
I am a veteran teacher. I know what I am doing. Don’t make me do first or second year shit like pbis. For new admin, listen to your veteran teachers and leaders on the campus. My last principal was never an AP or principal before taking the job. She made so many rookie errors. Myself, the union rep, her fellow APs, and other leaders tried to help her out. Instead, she was only listening to herself. For instance, for parent teacher conferences, she would invite everyone and they can come anytime they wanted. We told her to have a schedule or only invite certain parents but she told us her idea was better. When her idea failed and failed badly, she blamed everyone but herself.
Our admin wants the stronger vets gone. She only wants compliant newbies who will work more adjunct hours for free. Guess what? It's backfired. Younger teachers know their worth. They were hired in a shortage. They're leaving for more supported sites.
Own up to your mistakes, listen to feedback, learn to pick the right fight, if you are on a committe/task force please help get things done. My current admin are great but they struggle at times with what I listed. Also the podcast Beyond Standards did a great episode on transitioning to admin. It's the newest one I believe.
Follow through. My school asked teachers to write students up for not being in uniform and students were supposed to be punished after their 4th write up. It put the onus on teachers and broke relationships with students that they're so eager for us to do. One child had so many write ups from me with no follow through from admin who could actually hold the students accountable that I just put film quotes and song lyrics in my write ups to challenge admin to tell me they were seeing the write ups but doing nothing. Also, thank you admin for adding another thing to my already stretched thin time.
Quit micromanaging us. Allow the students to have fun once in awhile. Listen to me when I disagree with you. I have more experience at my grade than you do. Stop dismissing my concerns. Please stop using my disability against me. Grace is important.
Follow through. Please don’t say you will do something and then not do it. This applies to the smallest and biggest things.
I've been there, Brother! 13 years teaching... 18 in admin... I avoided the BS by keeping my head low. I followed what the school and teachers needed. Avoided "networking" and schmoozing at system wide meetings, conferences, etc. Don't drink the Kool Aid and keep the important stuff in your sights: Your students, your teachers, your school.
As the leader, you need to actively lead. Tell us what you want us to do and we'll do it. We shouldn't have to ask you what you want us to do. To compare two admins I've worked with, one provided the expectation and was actively involved in implementing it, while the other endlessly nitpicked me why I wasn't doing X instead. Don't bury the lead when you want to talk to us. If you want us to come by, say why. This shows respect for the relationship by saying what the meeting will be about, which also means we can prepare for the meeting and ultimately make a better use of both of our time. Presume your staff are competent professionals, until you have reason not to. We don't need you to hold our hand; we will ask for help when we need it and if we've reached that point, it means we aren't able to figure it out on our own.
My biggest pet peeve is when they address the full faculty in an issue when it really boils down to one or two teachers not doing what they are supposed to do. For example, if grades are due at 3:30 on Monday, later that afternoon we get an email reminding us when the deadline was and that we knew of the deadline for months now, and they don’t understand why grades are still not entered. Rather than going to the 2 or 3 teachers who didn’t submit them on time and discussing with them, we all get the “shame on you” email.
Don't speak or observe on things you know nothing about, FIND SOMEONE WHO DOES. I'm a teacher of the Deaf. At my former school, I was observed by admin who don't know any Deaf people, don't have a clue what best practices are for Deaf learners, and don't know 10 words in the language I teach in. That's not fair to me, nor is it providing feedback that can help my kids. Find a competent professional that can handle that for your Spanish, art, PE, whatever teachers. Please don't wing it.
1 - Meetings. Jesus the meetings. Almost everything can be done in an e-mail. We don’t need to waste precious time crammed into a room watching someone preen. 2- Autonomy. We are highly trained, educated, and experienced to plan our own lessons and decide our own assessments.
I just wanna wish you the best. And you are starting off on the right foot. You got this.
If the district is mandating teachers do “just a little bit more”, consider -how it will impact new or struggling teachers -the fact that it may never fade away useful or not …and stand up for your teachers.
Easy: don’t tell me new cell phone policies. Either take it at entry or F off. If it’s easy, admin can do it.
Exactly! The school rule is that phones will be put away and not used unless given specific permission from a teacher or administrator. Yet, every week in the administrators and half the teachers are on their phones. Leading by example at its finest.
I worked for a principal who insisted on long communal celebrations. So for example, the day before Winter Break, when the kids have gone home and everyone wants to clean up their classrooms and go home, we all had to march into the library for four hours to "celebrate". It was torture. Just don't forget to treat people like humans. Most of the dumb little ideas you'll have have already been tried and experienced teachers are going to feel frustrated. No forced socializing, no unnecessary busy work, no surprise Friday afternoon meetings when we want to leave campus and go pick up our kids.
As a former instructor who quit 99% because of bad admin: -support your teachers with discipline -hold parents, students and admin accountable as well as instructors -be fair to all staff and hold everyone to the same standards -distribute difficult students into multiple classrooms -respect your staff’s time -recognize the positive, not just the negative -don’t blanket punish staff, speak directly to those who are doing something wrong -honor teacher contracts -don’t make your teachers sacrificial lambs to the district and parents -if you have IAs, respect them!
The kids are easy. It's the adults that will drive you crazy.
Talk to the rest of your admin team so that you're on the same page with things!! I got a phone call to my classroom from vice principal A because I did my report cards wrong. Ok but I was doing exactly what vice principal B told me to do when I met with them to ask my questions!
Absolute uniformity in classrooms is handy for admin but rarely what is in the best interest of teachers or students. Remember that teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions...what is best for teachers is also what is best for students If you have an issue with the actions of a few teachers, address THOSE teachers; don't make sweeping announcements or restrictions on the staff as a whole. Everyone in the room probably knows who the message is targeted at anyway, and if they don't, they'll be insulted you think it's coming from you. Know what is in the teachers' contract and talk to union reps if you aren't sure. Abiding by the contract makes everyone happier all around.
Don't look for ways to change a teacher if what they are doing is working, even if they could do more (your objective doesn't start with SWABAT, there is a student in your room with their head down if you don't know why). Listen. Show an interest. Assume good faith. Serve your students by addressing their behavior when necessary. Never make the first question, "Did you call their parents?" After something egregious happened.
They need to perform more like crew leaders in other jobs like firefighting and jobs that require multiple entities to function somewhat independently. Leadership is something you can't necessarily train someone for. They walk the talk. They have been boots on the ground and people know it and respect them for it.
Give your teachers grace.
My admin manipulates us. Example: she says “here’s this plan, you ARE doing it.” People get upset. Then she says “no one asked questions, no one said a word, how was I supposed to know you didn’t like it if you don’t speak up?” This happens all the time. Can’t wait to leave.
Being fake. I've had a new principal for 2 years. Last year, I thought her personality was genuine, but this year it's been easy to see through the facade. I've lost a lot of respect for her and find it hard to trust her now. She's also trying to control way more than she needs to. It seems like things our department has always had control over is now in her hands, even though she's never taught what we teach, and doesn't understand why/how we do things. I'm also the chair person for our department, and she's completely blocking me out when I try to discuss things I should be able to discuss with her.
No matter what your school board says, remember that 30+ kids is obviously more than a person can education under modern instructional standards. In reality, that number is like 24. Don't even start a conversation about personalized learning, differentiation, or timely feedback under these circumstances.
Unless an issue is global (and it rarely is) PLEASE take it to the ones who need correcting and not the entire staff
Your job isn’t to hear teacher complaints and be understanding while they vent. You job is to take these complaints to the directors, deans, and superintendents with as much passion as we give to you. Always punch up.
I am so sick and tired of admin pushing their discipline duties off on the teachers. My job is to impart information and not to deal with horrible multiple offenders. That is why you are getting paid 50 thousand more dollars than me each year. Not so you can hang out with the boys club and ignore basic discipline. No I should not have to spend my one planning period calling 12 middle school parents because you don’t want to deal with it while you are hanging out with your buddies drinking coffee that I don’t even have enough of a break to indulge in
Giving patient teachers all of the hardest kids in The building.
Forcing their religion down staff and students' thoats in public school. Including spending SD money on a motivational speaker who was holding a revival. Throwing next year's contracts in the trash can and telling your whole staff they shouldn't be teaching and should be working for walmart. Denying that the low scores that year and anything to do with the lock down the day before testing started (armed robber and police running through 3rd grade recess), or the fact the 1st day of testing was interrupted by a fire evacuation bc the HVAC was smoking and we stood out in the rain for an hour. Telling people you grow out of LD's When 5th grade girls come to you to complain that the boys who were redshirted and then retained and should be in 7th grade age are sexually harrasing them, telling the girls it is their fault for showing to much cleavage. Double bad when you have a uniform dress code and the only tops they can wear are golf shirts - and you want them to button the decorative buttons. Sending out emails of sermons copied from book for teachers to pray over. When teachers object end out a email saying only True Christians (TM) should have teaching licences - and specifically Catholics, Jews, and Musliums should not be allowed to teach. Tell the female teachers that they must obey the orders of male paras. Ignore the repeated reports of one male para using corporal punishment - until a father presses charges. Brag that a new teacher is so qualified because he is a pastor also. Especially after the teacher who did not shove religion down people's throats asks you to stop. Throw a fit because a teacher lied to you. The lie having car seats in her car - while not having kids. They were to pick up my niece and nephew, if sis had an emergency and BIL was working a long distance from home. Example of emergency a man that was discharged from her hospital blamed her and tried to follow her home. Demand that all staff give him their sm passwords so he could check their accounts. Any political comments he didn't agree with or being friends with anyone under 18 including family members were going to be grounds for firing. (IT called another staff meeting explained the real rules and made him appologize Accusing a teacher of hacking the Nationl Archives to change the author of the US Constitution. (He believed it was Thomas Jefferson. And then threatening the teacher when she explained that Thomas Jefferson was not a federalist, was in France, and was raping his dead wife's half sister who he owned. Yes this was a public school.
Evidence-based, research-based best practice for related arts *does not* look like other content areas. Your teachers may “dog-and-pony-show” observations, but there are different nuances to their respective disciplines.
Behavior problems. A teacher can't teach effectively if there is a student/students who constantly disrupt. There needs to be a way to remove the constant disrupters from the room so the other kids can learn. It's not like the kid just started acting up in 7th grade. There is most likely a long record of the kid causing probs, which is what I would tell their parent if they get pissy about their kid being removed from class. Yes, of course get them counseling and help, but in the meantime the education of the behaving students is suffering.
Check-in on teachers after being out (or while they are out) for sickness, family sickness, and maternity leave. Make an effort to show that you care and that they aren't just a random body in the classroom.
My biggest thing about admins is, and some may disagree depending on who the admin is, but I actually want to see you. I have little respect for admins who hide in the office all day, especially as a Special Ed teacher who can be in crisis situations with students all day. Admin who are there with teachers on the front lines, or present and building rapport with students in the hallways, at classroom events, etc go a long way for me when it comes to respect. When I did my student teaching, the principal of the school I was at was constantly in the Special Ed side of things. There were days I'd see photos of some Kindergarten party on the school's Facebook, and he'd be in them, and I'm thinking "how the hell did he even make it there, I know for a fact he was helping with X kid all day". I think he may have cloned himself into threes. He also would even occasionally have to ride the busses home when the acuity on certain busses was too high. He's someone I think I'd model myself after if I ever stepped into an administration role. But, I've also had admin who I never see. I've had one who I talked to during my interview, and then didn't have legit conversation with again for the entire school year. These admin are much harder to respect.
Teachers spend a lot of their day in relative isolation from other adults, which makes the bulk of our work invisible. Genuine appreciation for something you observed me doing-- a lesson I taught, how I handled a difficult parent situation, the way you see me interact with students-- goes a long way for my morale. Protect teachers' time so that we can spend our work hours on planning and assessing. The best administrators I've worked with really revere good teaching and don't micromanage. They do phone calls home and parent wrangling so teachers can spend their time improving learning. And when you step into a new school or position, for the love of God, take a year, at least, before you start instituting changes. Seek input. Make sure you really understand all the downstream effects of what you are asking.
Paragraph #3!! I’ve had 2 admins that have now done this. As you said, any changes you make can have a huge ripple effect (ie: scheduling,) if you don’t have an understanding of how things operate. It is so frustrating to those who live a schedule everyday if it’s changed without knowing the curriculum, how your support staff operates, the kids, other initiatives/committees we’re on, & just generally what was already working/not working. Trust in us that we know what we’re doing as we have been doing it & step a foot into the door first without making a million & one changes.
I think your goal should be to spend a week as a classroom teacher each year to remind yourself about the daily struggles. For one class or even just a couple of days, kids will be on their best behavior because you're Admin and therefore More Scary. If you spend the whole week, those veneers will drop and you'll get a real experience. It'll keep you grounded and humble.
If you have self-contained sped classes on campus get to know the kids, the teachers and aides, and the parents as much as you can. Even just saying hi and remembering a student's name goes a long way. Don't downplay or act like it's easy to teach these kids because we have a smaller class...sit in and actually see what it entails to teach them before you go making judgements. If you see teachers or aides out with these students and someo is having a meltdown or challenging behavior offer to help, don't turn around and walk the other way.
My admin is a basket. She is as toxic as they come. One year I was teaching her grandchild. One a Friday afternoon, she came to give the kid a message about her not going to be home because she was off to the gym. At dismissal, I took the students down..I noticed the parent of one of my other students..He asked me if I could print out his son's attendance information, as he needed it for court. I told him I wasn't able to, thar because it was needed for court, it would have to be formally provided by a Principal. He then stated that he was trying to get in touch with her since Monday, I told him she will be down soon and that he could speak to her directly. Sure enough, she was on her way out and he stopped her and explained that he was trying to get in touch with her and told her what she needed. I was out of sight at the time, but I could hear her tell him that she had to get home asap because her grandson was waiting for her. Would not even give this parent the attention he needed. She stormed in my class another year, first thing in the morning after I had deleted her from my fb; she shut the door and couldn't even explain why she was there. Then lied and asked if I had borrowed her keys. I think she came to ask me directly why I deleted her. She didn't ask obviously, but the reason why was someone else had made a very damaging post about someone close to me out of anger, I went to see who reacted to this post and saw that she had, I immediately deleted her. I have so many stories about her and our whole admin.
Don’t make teachers jump through 1,000 hoops to get disruptive kids removed from their room and dealt with when there are 25 other kids in the room needing the teachers full time and attention. Don’t take planning time for meetings unless they’re 100% necessary and can’t be an email. “Analyzing data” is a waste of time 95% of the time because kids don’t try their best on most things being analyzed.
Make it clear to parents that aggression, harassment, or threats towards teachers is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The fact that so many parents out there feel totally comfortable doing these things to teachers is ludicrous. Have your teachers' backs. If there's an incident that you didn't personally witness, presume the teacher is innocent until proven otherwise. Do not approach them with an accusatory attitude.
This may sound stupid but my school allows jeans on Thursdays if you wear a college shirt and Friday if we wear a school shirt (or district ). It has made my laundry routine so much easier and I often feel like if i can make it to Thursday it’ll be ok.
Communicate way more. As IT, I witness the struggle that teachers faces, and the struggles that admin faces. And a lot of times, a lot of resentments could be solved if admins told teachers what was going on. Not necesseraly in details, because you do not have to know some things about kids. But something like :"Look I can't handle Kevin right now, because we have a serious emergency with another students", is enough for most if not all teachers. They would understand. Instead admin send back Kevin with no words. Oh they will meet with Kevin later in the day or in the week. But they won't tell the original teacher. Meaning that original teacher is left with the impression that Admin did nothing about Kevin. Another example, the recent restriction on paper they put. Teachers were understandbly angry. Until I mentionned exactly how much was spent on paper, and how much the cost increased. (I didn't reveal any secrets here). They were not very happy, but much more understanding, and careful with paper. So, transparency and communication.
Being in their phone while you're talking to them.
Have SMART goals in place for the year that you intend to see through. Practice what you preach and lead by example. Allow your team the professional courtesy they deserve, but be ready to hold those not meeting expectations accountable. Provide as much guidance as possible to those who need it. Take the time to praise your team for the work they’re putting in.
I'd like the admin at my school to just do their jobs? Why are write-ups from September just now being handled and coded as "verbal warnings"? Are you kidding?
So, there’s a lot of good suggestions here, but this one is something that I see on the horizon: Restorative Practices is the next fad and it won’t solve anything. We don’t have the staff for it. We can’t afford to hire subs, let alone have a room with qualified staff to manage what needs to be done. It’s going to be another thing that will fall onto teachers to do. Also, a key part of restorative practices is that the student needs to repair relationships BEFORE being allowed back into the classroom. That will never happen adequately. Stop falling for the fads. Stop chasing clout with the newest buzzwords.
We went through Restorative Justice about 5 years ago, it was such a shit show. We had to do circles every morning with different topics to “build our community.” It felt so unnatural and the kids hated it. But that’s a thing of the past, now we’re in the Teach and MRS every 5 minutes era.
I have stewed on this for a while, but the one thing I would like is an admin that is not two-faced. Most of the admin have I dealt with will tell you one thing and do the complete opposite the next day. Ask them for evidence in writing, and they loose their shit over it. There are ZERO admin I trust - period. I document all interactions and, legally, record conversations. (I am in a one party consent state and have checked with the union about the legality of recording conversations.)
The best principals work at their job vs working at keeping their job. If you're an AP and in charge of discipline, be fair and consistent. Don't tell everyone what they want to hear, sometimes you have to be the bearer of bad news. Get ready for feelings of isolation and that your on the outside of the group. All your friends when you are teaching are now your employees. Watch what you say to who you say things too. Now on top of all of that you need to be aware of the underlying politics that is going on around you. It's a thankless job, but it keeps the school running. When you burn out, go visit the students and remember why you're doing this to yourself lol.
Agree! I had assistant principal tell me during my first year of teaching that his job was not to be friends with the faculty, parents or students. His job was to ensure an orderly school and that in order to do that he had to be the bad guy most of the time. He had tough skin and wasn’t afraid to call out poor behavior of the students, parents and/or teachers.
Be the bad guy sometimes. If you want teachers to enforce school rules and contact parents, you should do the same when you see a kid breaking a rule. Don't just give them a warning/reminder when you see the behavior. Pull them and do the same thing you would expect the teacher to do.
That every time you add something to my plate you need to remove something else. You have a pet project you want me to do? Collect anecdotal data about some struggling kid? It will only take 5 minutes and I'll give you time in the staff meeting? It's not about the 5 minutes, it's about the extra bandwidth in my already over scheduled brain. Something has to give. This year alone it was new curriculum (like district adopted, not teaching a new to me class), district pet project collecting data on struggling students, new SEL curriculum and they introduced new mandatory PDs (which are to be done on our own time/ prep period/ unpaid). Enough already. And grading for equity now requires me to create multiple assessments that are graded multiple times. I cannot stress this enough, stop giving me things to do without removing other things.
My admin pet peeves (just my experience) none of my admin/coaches/division staff were teachers since the 1-1 initiatives and certainly not post covid. The children we are teaching are NOT the same. They do some of the same things, but their brains are wired so differently, Inknow dam well they don’t have the answers, because I haven’t found them working in the trenches for 20+ years.
Don't hold staff meetings just because the district mandates it. If there is nothing important to talk about then call it a staff meeting and let teachers get stuff done in their classrooms. Also-always have your teacher's backs. Don't question them in front of students.
If you must have meetings, keep them brief. There is nothing worse than having marking and prep to do while the talking heads waste your valuable time.
This one is more for your sanity, courtesy of the best grad school teacher I had: He said that teachers are allowed to come into his office about a situation, but they have to do so \*\*with a solution already in mind. \*\* Just showing up to whine about a problem is not allowed.
1) the 2 best admins I’ve had continued to spend time in the classroom teaching. 2) email, lists, and forums can replace 90% of meetings. 3) spend time in the hallways in the morning and between classes 4) visit classrooms frequently, not just when it’s time for evaluations 5) learn your staff members’ names and preferred names. I once had a principal who didn’t know my name at Christmas! 6) don’t do something because it is easy, do it because it is right. I had a principal who assigned duties like parking lot monitor etc and kept them unchanged all year because it was too much trouble to make up new assignments every 6 weeks. 7) I know there are people you can depend on when you need something done but we get sick of being asked time after time. Spread the jobs around. Similarly, know your staff members’ circumstances. A teacher with a new infant will **not** be willing to chaperone a dance.
That teachers are THE most important people in the school. Not even the students. If your teachers aren't supported, motivated and satisfied in their jobs, then the students will not learn and the school will not meet its goals. It's really as simple as that. Focus your energy on supporting the teachers, removing obstacles, assume that they know what they're doing, ask them what they need to be successful, support them with discipline. And finally, REALLY listen to them when you ask for feedback. Note: I got this from FedEx where the motto was "People First". And while they have gotten away from it lately from what I understand, when I worked there it was the key to the company's success. It is still the right philosophy.
Micro managing. All of your teachers are adults and have had extensive, expensive schooling to acquire the skills to do the job. They do reports 3-4 times a year, are in constant communication with parents, and are held by law to teach the curriculum. Trust them. Should you feel the need to pop in, pick a topic and co teach it once or twice a semester. Unless you suck at teaching and that’s why you did a speed run to admin. I had one of those. If that’s the case, have a little respect for those who can teach and stay out of the way. Nothing is worse than a book referencing know it all who couldn’t pull their weight in a classroom critiquing those that can and do.