Saturday, September 14, 2013

We Can't All Be the Principal!









photo credit: cliff1066™ via photopin cc


  1. So very true!! I still remember one of the questions asked during my initial interview 8 years ago: "Where do you see yourself ten years from now?" I thought that was odd. I see myself teaching. Of course, the big bad boys of DOE are making that harder and harder each year, but I would like to have time to teach, and not have to do other stuff. Seems a lot of folks get frustrated because they can't do "other stuff", because they "have to" teach...

    1. Yeah, you would think they would want you to still be teaching. It's as if staying in the classroom is a bad thing.

  2. I absolutely agree that I want a principal with more than 3 years experience in the classroom. My elementary principal taught 3 years in a really small town at the high school level and he has no idea what it really takes to be an elementary teacher. I think that it should be a requirement to have been an elementary classroom teacher to be an elementary principal. It is a whole different world between managing a high school classroom compared to an elementary classroom.

    I also agree about those that join committee after committee. I have no interest what-so-ever in being on committees. Anything that takes my energy away from teaching is not something I want to do. I have been asked to be on school improvement committee and go to different trainings over the years and I always decline because I don't like missing school and being out of the classroom. My principal looks at this as a negative. I told him that my #1 job is to be in the classroom every day that I can so that my students have uninterrupted learning. To me, that is a good thing. I see different teachers missing a lot of days of school for different trainings, etc...and I don't think that is good for the class. No matter how good a substitute teacher is, it pretty much is a wasted day of learning when the regular teacher is gone. (in my opinion)

    1. High school and elementary are two different worlds! :)
      I don't mind being on a committee, as long as it's productive. Too often, they are just something that was forced on the staff and they serve no purpose. Any training that provides me with something that I can take and use in my classroom is great to me too. Unfortunately those trainings are few and far between.

  3. Yes- I thought so too. Everyone one wants to be a principal.. its all about status and money.