Bowl Leader
Related Posts
Bowl Leader
Any one register for DU event Hyd aug 5th
Pros and Cons of working at Cerner?
Additional Posts in English & Language Arts Teachers
I’m a 7th grade ELA teacher in Texas!
a High School English Teacher
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Congratulations 🎉👏
Be you! Be kind! Be caring. Be thoughtful!
Remember what it's like being a teacher. Take good care of your teachers just like you do your parents and students.
You will be great 👍🏼
Perfect advice. You’ll be awesome, Cali El
We had a new principal who met individually with each teacher. I thought that was a good way to start building that relationship, tho time consuming. I think the investment might have paid off, everyone loved her.
Bowl Leader
Thank you for the encouragement, I appreciate your insight. So many of our teaching peers have had bad experiences with admin, I want to learn from people’s mistakes 😣💪🏽
Create a culture of collaboration at your school. If you show your teachers you are listening to them and truly considering or taking their suggestions, they will be more likely to listen to and take yours.
Don’t go in and change everything all at once. Make smaller, incremental changes after the first quarter (or the first semester) and before you make a change, consider the impact on students, teachers and staff.
You are principal where you taught?
That's tough.
As teachers we naturally have closer relationships with some colleagues than others. Now that you will be everyone's boss, that might leave people looking at what you do and how you interact with all the staff.
Bowl Leader
For sure the dynamics are definitely something to monitor. Thank you 🙏🏽 for the insight.
Remember that you are now the leader; friends get the same treatment as your enemies. Do not forget what the classroom is REALLY like because your staff will turn away from you. Students need to be held accountable for their successes AND their mistakes; be firm but fair. Be humble because now you have become the least important person in your building community.
Good advice above, and I love how they put teachers first. I worked at a great, distinguished CA school with many former teachers in the admin, and alumni in many classified and certificated roles. Though we all knew some people were closer than others due to their history, the school climate was much better than in some impersonal settings I have seen. I've seen this in large urban areas as well as small towns. I am curious where you are working, as I see we're in the same state. It sounds like you are off to a positive start, which is huge.
Listening to teachers, and soliciting their needs, as well as communicating those of admin is included in the best schools I've seen. That is vital in most good relationship in general, and healthy communication structures. It is just hard to build and sustain in our real work lives at school where we usually need more time, money and energy than easily available.
Congratulations 🎊 👏 💐 get to know your staff in the building. Have once a month mornings meetings with the staff, before school begins. Acknowledge the staff monthly, based on community values: consistency, helper, mentor, etc. Be a good listener and jot down working ideas. Establish and Create a safe, and welcoming environment in the school. Take your time, it will be a working process. Be prepared to deal with dissatisfied parents.
You got this!
Don’t have “favorites” that tend to hang around your office a lot- it sets a bad tone. Always try to say something positive with a critique - you will be great because you’re asking this question!
Bowl Leader
Yes! It’s important to have that space, so others feel comfortable to approach me too. Thank you for the helpful advice!
Follow Teacher Misery on IG so you don’t turn into a D bag!
Bowl Leader
Ok will do! Right now!!! #nodbag
You already know this, but don't make changes just to seem impressive. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. Ask your teachers how they perceive things such as atmosphere, morale, need, etc., before making decisions which are obviously going to directly affect them. As a former teacher and an inquisitive person, you'll be a great principal!
Bowl Leader
Awwwww thank you for the reminder ❤️ luckily my former principal set so many foundational pieces I wouldn’t change. I agree staff feedback is key 🔑.
Thank you 🙏🏽
The teachers, not you, are doing the important work of the school. If you ding them on their evaluations, you're not motivating them to get better. You're motivating them to find another job. We can't hire replacements; we need to build up our teachers and make them better, and we can't do that by berating them. Nor should we invest in the idea that test scores tell us important things about teacher quality. We have to pay attention to the test scores. Government requires that. But we'd be poor educators if we started to believe that government policy of basing all judgements on test scores was anything but malpractice.
I just left a principal job because we got new district leadership that believed the opposite of all that.
Bowl Leader
Thank you 🙏🏽 so true, as an educator teaching to just the test was never my priority. I wanted to make sure we practiced life and grow academically. Luckily I learned from my principal how partnership looks between admin and teachers, and I want to continue with this way versus berating people. It does take a village and I honor everyone who cares and who’s a part of the solution!
Principals are ultimately support staff, just like everyone in a school that isn't a teacher. Remember that, and you'll likely do fine.
Love your teachers the way you want them to love the students. Also, hire good people then get out of the way— let them do the job you know they can do.
Remember how hard your teachers work with your ACTIONS as their administrator, NOT just with your words. Try to give back to your staff as much as possible. Our principal just spent 10 minutes at an after school faculty meeting talking about how much he appreciates us and how hard he knows we work; then turned around and is trying to eliminate our prep periods during final exam week to give us extra, unnecessary duties because we "have prep time after dismissal." The kids have a half day, but contractually we don't. Please, don't be that person.
Take advice from your teachers. If they come to you with a potential solution to an issue in the building, take their advice seriously. You may not always end up implementing their ideas, but they should feel that those ideas are valued (and do use them if they are good ideas!).
Have your teachers' backs if they have an issue with a student and/or parent. It feels terrible as a teacher to feel that your admin always sides with students/parents over you in a conflict.
Hopefully, you are moving to this position having taught for more than just a few years. Remember what it felt like to be a teacher. Remember what administrators did that made you feel unappreciated or frustrated. Don't do those things.