Assistant Principal/ Teacher...of course all administrators are teachers...not always so and the degree is so much different. Due to a change of contract (less administrator more teaching) I am teaching Art in an elementary setting and filling out my contract with administrative duties. Not what I thought I would be doing, not what I planned on doing, but hey everyone is adapting to the the rural decline of educational budgets. So happy to have a job and still have some administrative duties. So what is the blog about?
I am being convinced that teaching an actual class is very beneficial to the principal job. Why? Well the last couple of years when working with students I usually knew the few that were in the office all the time, tried to know the others, but with the amount of students many were nameless smiling faces. This year I will know each and every one. They are all in my classroom at least one out of six days. Why is this beneficial? I have one to one conversations with them. Each student seems very aware of who I am and how much I enjoy teaching. They also are fine with my other role as assistant principal and all that comes with it. I also have first hand experiences to relate if or when I need to communicate with parents, staff, or administration (other than myself). When a teacher indicates there is a problem with a students learning or behavior, they know that I also have first hand knowledge. As an administrator I am able to recommend behaviors that work for me or help develop a plan that I can assist with in the classroom. I also get to work with the grading procedures , see how the schedules are working, and discover the joy of recess (not on demand or last minute fill in) every day.
Now what is the flip side? It is very difficult running and managing a schedule that puts me in a classroom at least two to three times a day, recess duty,and then working in my office on bus discipline, testing, and administrative duties. Staff are often unsure of what my role details when visiting their classrooms. (is she wanting my students to bring glue to art or is she doing a drop by evaluation). Parents are not sure of my role so I assume the community is not sure exactly what I am doing. (Just had a student who said her dad wanted to know what my job was. She told him I do everything. )
So to conclude I think the positive outweighs the flip side. I hope to always have a classroom with students in every role I have as an administrator. Still have not figured out the meeting and schedule problem but with skype and technology I know it is possible. I will always remember that I am a teacher first and I went into administration because I love to teach.
So it there anyone else who can share the experience I am involved in this year.
(Thought this was going to be a year of making lemonade out of lemons and finding out with a little lemon juice you can make an incredible educational punch! )
