JOB SHADOW #3
EOCS 7450
SUMMER 2007 COHORT
For my final job shadow, I shadowed Principal Strong as she worked on the myriad of activities that would fall upon a principal during a normal day. Mrs. Strong has been an administrator at our school for seven years; the first four she was an assistant principal, but she has served the last three years as our principal. I felt that her interpretation of the job was what I wanted to see and possibly emulate should I find myself in the position of principal of a middle school.
Mrs. Strong is usually at school around 7:45 and seems to hit the ground running as she walks in the door. On this particular day, I observed Mrs. Strong arrive at 7:50 and enter the building with an armload of books. As she walked in the door, she was informed that she had a parent waiting to see her. One of the things that Mrs. Strong has implemented in the last year is the use of a parent complaint form which allows parents to request a conference with an administrator. On this form, the parents are asked to briefly describe the situation, including student and teacher names, for which they would like the conference and asks for contact information so that an appointment can be set up. This allows the administration to gather some basic background information before walking into the conference, thus saving time for all the parties involved since the information has already been gathered rather than meeting once, talking with the parent, and then having to meet with the students/teachers involved and meet again with the parents. Once the complaint form has been completed, the administrators review it, gather their information and set up a conference with the parent. On this morning, a parent who had previously filed a complaint had a scheduled conference. During the conference, the parent explained the situation as they understood it and Mrs. Strong listened to the parent. She had spoken with both the students and teachers involved and had made notes. She referred to those notes and addressed each of the parent’s concerns, covering both what the parent understood had happened and what each of the parties involved reported had happened. Mrs. Strong was able to alleviate the concerns of the parent by addressing the issues and assuring the parent that the events that had precipitated the event would not be repeated and that all the parties involved had been spoken with and each party was satisfied with the outcome, including the parent. This conference took approximately 45 minutes.
The next item that Mrs. Strong dealt with that day was organizing the instructional calendars that had been created by each department. Dr. Jazzy, one of our assistant principals, was also in Mrs. Strong’s office, so they were working together to verify that all the calendars had been emailed to them and that they were all organized and ready for publishing to SharePoint. These calendars are important in that the teachers created them so that all the materials for the year gets covered and, while a teacher may have to opportunity to utilize their own ways of teaching, they do not have the opportunity to determine WHAT to teach. After each bench-mark test, the calendars are adjusted. In addition, Mrs. Strong and Dr. Jazzy were reviewing the Activity Plans that the departments had turned in as well. During this time, the office secretary came in and asked if Mrs. Strong had time to meet with the PTO Treasurer to go over a bill that had been received. The treasurer entered her office and the bill was discussed and the situation was handled. The treasurer reminded Mrs. Strong of their scheduled after-school meeting the following week. Once the treasurer left, Mrs. Strong and Dr. Jazzy continued reviewing the Activity Plans that had been turned in. They utilized the staff drive to review the department meeting minutes to ensure that all of the teachers had been present and were given the opportunity to provide input on both the calendars and the activity plans. Comments were recorded on some of the plans and they discussed setting up meetings for specific grade levels regarding their plans.
Mrs. Strong next moved on to planning for the GCRCT that was to be administered in April. During this meeting, she involved both of the assistant principals that deal with curriculum. Mr. Barry, Dr. Jazzy and Mrs. Strong discussed the schedule and how it might need to be adjusted from the mock CRCT that had been held earlier in the year. They revised the schedule, adding extra time, and completed the schedule on the computer for dissemination to the teachers prior to testing. They reviewed the list of teachers. They first identified any teachers that would specifically need a proctor. One teacher would be one week away from maternity leave, so the assigned a proctor to her first to ensure that if she had the baby early, testing would be covered. The next teacher identified was a teacher with health issues. They assigned a strong non-academic teacher to proctor for her in case her health issues flared up during the week of testing. The next situation identified was the classroom in which there had been a long-term substitute since October. The position had been listed, but never filled. The long-term sub has worked at our school for the last five years, but is not certified, so therefore cannot administer the test. They assigned a non-academic teacher to her classroom, as well. They next identified all of the new teachers and determined which ones would need proctors. Certified teachers were assigned to assist in the administration for these teachers. The next step was to identify small groups that would need not only classrooms, but teachers who could administer the test, as well. During this discussion, Mrs. Strong received a phone call for the system superintendent regarding a meeting that had taken place the day before and some clarification on two items that were discussed. She completed the phone call and continued in her discussion with the APs. They continued to identify proctors for testing. Once all the proctors were assigned, they looked at hall monitors for testing. They determined that the counselors would be utilized as hall monitors only in emergencies. All staff, including paraprofessionals, would be either in a classroom, on a hallway, or monitoring those few students that would not be tested. They decided, for the first year, to have the ISS teacher monitor the students that arrived late. These students would wait in the ISS room for testing to be completed; in the past, these students were held in the front office until testing was over. They discussed using the paraprofessionals to be “runners” for the trailers. They planned so that when a teacher in a trailer completed their testing for the day, they would notify the front office and the front office would send one of the runners to watch their classroom while they returned their testing materials.
One of the incentives that Mrs. Strong implemented when she became principal was a GCRCT Reward Party. The party is not based on their actual scores, but in their attendance and effort during testing week. The cards that are utilized for this purpose were reviewed to see what changes needed to be made, including the dates. They were then printed on the printer and Mrs. Strong made a note to the secretaries to copy 50 copies on yellow card stock for 6th grade, 50 copies on blue card stock for 7th, and 50 copies on salmon card stock for 8th. This was then taken out to the secretary. In addition to the cards, the three administrators looked at the calendar and selected the dates for the individual reward party. It was determined that 8th grade would have their reward party from 2:30 – 3:30 on May 14, the 6th grade on May 15, and the 7th grade on May 16. One of the sixth grade teams had already scheduled a field trip for May 16, so they had to swap the order, according to the calendar. With the dates set, Mrs. Strong made a list of the teachers that would need to be utilized during the parties for monitoring. She made a note on her calendar to email teachers during the week of testing, reminding them about the cards and how they would be utilize during the parties. She made a note of the supplies that would need to be rented or purchased prior to the parties. She appointed different teachers to coordinate different parts, based on past performances by these teachers. A copy of the list was made and given to both APs to ensure that the information would get to the appropriate people.
Mrs. Strong next got to work on verifying all the certified personnel who had turned in their contracts for the next school year. Having worked with Mrs. Strong on team assignments through the BLT the last four years, it was easy for me to follow as she filled in the teams as she perceived them for a basic look at the personnel that she would need to be looking for at the job fair which was a week and a half away. Mrs. Strong knew that the team assignments were not concrete, but she noted that she needed a starting point. She pointed out that she had several teachers who had requested, and been granted, transfers to other schools. She had one teacher retiring due to health issues and there were seven teachers who had turned in their resignations. Some of those vacancies had been filled in-house, for example, one of the academic science teachers had asked for, and been placed in, one of the Physical Education vacancies. When looking at the positions that he needed to fill, Mrs. Strong verified, with the secretary in charge of keeping copies of certificates, the certification that each teacher currently held. She had to be prepared when she walked into the job fair to know what to interview for and where those perspective teachers would fit into the assignments. In addition, Mrs. Strong needed to find personalities to mix well with the teachers that were already within the school. In addition to the four academic team teachers, she also needed to look for five special education positions, one physical education position, and one Math Connection position. Mrs. Strong was plotting what she perceived to be the vacancies that needed to be filled, but knew that she needed most of the teachers to be dual certified in case the BLT placed teachers in different positions than she had placed them in. When she had questions about placing teachers within the teams, she would consult with one of the two AP’s in charge of curriculum.
Mrs. Strong was kept very busy during the day. I didn’t include all the interruptions that occurred while she was working on all of the above duties. Throughout the day, there were phone calls to be taken, emails to be sent and read, checks that had to be signed to pay the bills, and any number of issues that had to be dealt with. Also included in those interruptions were problems that arose with teachers that had to be immediately addressed. Mrs. Strong has to be a multi-tasker with a capital M and a capital T! While it can be very hectic as a classroom teacher, it is nothing compared to the daily routine of a principal. And while the grades stop with me in the classroom, everything stops with the principal. I had observed her in many different situations in the past, but I got an even broader picture of all the things that must be dealt with and, as an administrator, you can’t always put people off until you feel like dealing with the issue.
After my day in the shadow of my principal, I came up with a couple of questions. During my planning time the following day, Mrs. Strong and I sat down and I had the opportunity to ask her my questions.
1. What is the hardest part about dealing with parents? One of the hardest parts about dealing with parents as the principal is that they are usually very upset if they have to meeting with me. Most of the time, the parents have talked with their children, talked with one of the secretaries, and talked with the teacher and are still unhappy with the outcome. When I get brought into a situation, I have to look at all sides, the student, the parents, the teacher, and the school. I have to be able to explain why we have to take the steps that are required, whether is coincides with what the parent wants or not. They most often want to believe that what their child has told them is the truth when that is not always the case. Students tend to try to put the situation in the best light for them and the parents tend to believe them. Once I have completed an investigation, based on a parent complaint, I am able to present the entire situation and try to bring the situation to a mutually agreeable ending. It doesn’t always work, but I do have to bring the situation to a conclusion that is most consistent with the needs of the school.
2. How do you decide, as a principal, what strategies to implement in the school? As you know, I am an avid reader and I work very hard to keep abreast of the research that continues in education. There are a lot of good ideas out there that are based on research, but as an administrator, you have to find the best old and new procedures that will best help your school. Some of the research based strategies that we use here at IC are based on research that I have read and some is based on what teachers have read or studied in their graduate classes. Either way, the outcome of these strategies is a better education for all the students if we implement it correctly. We have tried a variety of strategies that have worked, but we have also tried strategies that didn’t. One of the most important things about implementing new strategies is checking to make sure that it is effective in your setting. With the help of the BLT, we are able to implement the Plan, Do, Check, Act from the Total Quality Management model. We find things to try within the school and then we, as a faculty, determine if it is the proper fit for the school. One of the things that has worked is the Mary Barksdale’s 8-Steps book that we read and implemented, along with Learning Focused Schools and Differentiated Learning seminars. On the other hand, we tried to utilize several different learning communities this year and the process had begun. However, the BLT brought to my attention the fact that with the large influx of students (over 300 in the first quarter) the majority of the faculty was feeling overwhelmed and that we needed to cut something for the time being. After meeting outside of my presence, the BLT presented a plan that placed the learning communities on hold, continuing instead to meet as departments and focus on the instructional calendars and activity forms. I so appreciated the fact that my BLT felt comfortable enough to let me know what was working, what wasn’t, and plans that they had for alleviating some of the problems. So, in a way, it isn’t all about what I as a principal along feels should be implemented in the school, but what our leadership team thinks should be put in place to improve the school based on our school improvement plan.