This months’ School Administrator Virtual Mentor Program blogging/discussion prompt is on admin credibility.
As the prompt states, “In any profession, if people feel you do not understand their work, your credibility lacks, often leading to a lack in leadership.”
When I became an administrator I made a personal commitment to not turn in to one that has no connection to what is happening in classrooms. I know from experience how frustrating it can be as a teacher to have an administrator making decisions that feel like they have no idea about teaching, classroom dynamics, or even what time of year it is (i.e. an extra big task to do the same week report cards are due). As an administrator I keep this in mind as I make decisions and see myself as a filter; rolling out initiatives in small steps to not overwhelm, only adding on what is absolutely required, and passing on requests to implement programs/trainings that I don’t believe will be the best use of our time. When there is a new tool that may be beneficial for teachers/students, I try to learn about it myself so that I can help share how and why. I try to make our staff meetings/professional development sessions engaging with strategies that teachers could implement in their classrooms the very next day.
I try to keep current in teaching, by being active in classrooms to help teachers implement new technology tools or to cover classes for teachers to observe each other or if we’re short of substitute teachers. I’ve previously written about No Office Day here and here. I have also previously written about Keeping in Touch with Teaching and Learning which also includes teaching a summer school class each year. I also believe it is essentially important as a building leader to be a Lead Learner, learning along with my teachers, not just directing them to learn/implement new strategies. What is a Lead Learner? I wrote about it HERE.
Most importantly, I make sure to stay connected to the people in our school…the staff, the students and the stakeholders. I am not a supervisor sitting in an office doing paperwork, I am a leader that seeks to know everyone in our building, have a pulse on what is going on day to day and to help out in any way that I can to benefit the learners in our building.
I think this is challenging the longer you’ve been out of the classroom. It is important, though. Even more challenging is trying to stay connected while acting as a buffer for everything that might potentially overwhelm or distract teachers.
I try to stay connected with classrooms as much as possible. When we’re learning something new as a staff, I make sure to share my thoughts on my own learning. One of my major goals is to get into collaboration time more so that I can be part of the discussions