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Lots of teachers thrive in the classroom and find deep fulfillment there. Leadership isn’t the “next step” for everyone, it’s totally OK to want to stay hands-on and focus on teaching itself.
There’s a huge push in my district this year for teachers to take on more leadership roles (cover for admins inability to do their jobs). It feels like they’re asking me to take on the work of someone who makes twice my salary. I’m not subscribing to it. I love being a classroom teacher and that is where I’ll stay.
I have been teaching for 10 years and my response to people asking, if I want leadership is rather crass no. Since is a public post I will not harm you with my string of vulgarities. Needless to say you can give a student detention, put them out of your class, and or pass a difficult parent to admin but as admin, to borrow Truman's quote, "the buck stops here. In other words the umm Pokémon rolls uphill. I can't give a parent a detention, and all the challenging students get sent to my office. There are also twice as many meetings as a teacher and I have WAY TOO MANY as it is.
It is a completely different career track? A promotion isn’t going from a teacher to a principal or admin. Yes, it’s usually a preferred teaching experience, but there’s a lot more to it.
That's what some seem to think. I fall more in the category of those who wouldn't want to be an administrator if you offered me Jeff Bezos money. I would either end up in prison or an asylum after about 14 minutes of being a principal or anything in the central office. Everything about the job seems dull, tedious, and extremely unpleasant.
I think people look at it like working your way up in a large corporation, which makes sense to a certain extent because that's where the real bread is at. That being said, it's not necessary a natural progression. Admin takes a different mindset and different skills. Just like being a good player doesn't necessarily make you a good coach, being a good teacher wouldn't necessarily make you a good administrator.
I hear many teachers get their CAGS and become administrators late in their careers to bump up their salaries and pensions.