Lead by Example

I have only had a job at this high school since January. Honestly when I took the job I told my husband I was going to take it easy. I had planned on staying home with the baby, but I was “coming out of retirement” because it looked like a good way to get my foot in the door in this school district. We had only been in our new house in this district for a few months. I wanted to teach and make a difference where my children were going to go to school, so this was a great opportunity.

I found out shortly after I was hired that the principal also wanted me to take over duties as department head. I was honored and talked with the person who had been doing many of the duties without the title for several years. Since she was going to be out much of the following year for maternity leave, she gladly said I should step in and use my experience to help the department.

I attended my first mandatory teacher training (professional development is what the title of the day implied) and left there completely frustrated. This was not the training that professional educators should endure. I left there knowing that my plan to “lay low” and take it easy was not going to work.

To say that coming in during the middle of the year as the new girl and as the department head has been a challenge is an understatement. There have been times when I thought change was not possible and times when I thought it was not worth my effort. Our school has so many positives, it is unfair to only look at the negatives. The problem is that those negatives were standing in the way of so many positive possibilities. Working with our wonderful principal (who has only been here since August) we put together two of our own professional development days. We got several faculty members to use their expertise and offered numerous workshops. Lunch was donated by our PTO, and our new school improvement specialist came and did icebreaker activities. It lasted two days and went off without a hitch.

Here is the cool thing. I watched my colleagues who were also frustrated, unmotivated, burned out, stressed out, and beat down finally turn a corner. There was real community… real morale… real collaboration. We had almost our entire faculty there on two of their summer days.

Our principal and I have several sayings… call them Mantras…

“Baby Steps”- this one is used when I want things to move faster and change quicker… I am a North personality, by the way (go getter, aggressive)

“Move forward and leave the others behind”- this one is used when we know that there are always going to be people who will be resistant to change

“Are we having fun yet?”- When frustration gets the best of me.

“EASY!”- When frustration makes me say things I might regret

Our wikispace is a wonderful collection of the day and a great contrast to the first professional development I experienced in this district. Our faculty really felt refreshed after these days. I am also going to post some of the evaluation comments. It really was a success. I am so fortunate to have great people to work with!

Please offer your comments:

Can anyone suggest other ways to increase community within a faculty?

Have you had one of these WOW experiences? Explain.

How do you cope with those who are completely resistant to change?

P.S. Our Assistant Principal has nicknamed this school the Galapagos because he says there is no place like it. I want to say that the Galapagos has volcanoes on it, and I believe we have just started rumbling things up in the bottom of that volcano.

Filed under: Rants & Raves | Tagged: community, high school, plc, professional development