It never changes, its always one thing or another, someone is always walking out of there shaking their head or angry. Whether it be the receiver of the discipline or the giver of the disciplinary actions, someone is usually walking of the office displeased. The Principal certainly has one of the toughest roles, he is a metaphorical teacher of the teacher. It is true, that is why as a principal his signature on the bottom of your observation makes it gold, as well as why his notes on your record will never allow you to receive another job in that board again.
I cannot seem to shake the attention of the administration at times. as a first year teacher, maybe it is normal. Being overseas where there is no human resource to get involved and go after someone for workplace harassment, maybe its normal. But my goodness, the small infractions in a school of over 200 BCT certified staff, and I am one of them who time is found to be "talked" to. I will admit our administrator has buckled down a bit and has been on the way of getting the small house cleaning tasks done but in terms of the big picture I always wonder what certain administrators are supposed to do.
I was talking with a couple of coworkers who were talking to me about us getting our masters, etc and maybe doing "big picture" things. Later that evening we spoke someone had joked that they could see me as an administrator in the near future. Really? You think so? You think that little of me? I just want to not teach, push papers, nod and smile then micromanage people granted it is similar to that of a classroom teacher just in different situations and social environments, BUT no, I don't see that. The reason I don't see myself as a principal is not for my lack of expertise in the field of education because in certain overseas schools that really doesn't matter; the reason I don't see myself as a principal is because it doesn't fit as "big picture" in my books. Yes, ideally, the board wants principals and other grey-haired old dogs in the office space of the think tank we call education. In reality though, a teacher knows the students; a teacher knows other teachers; a teacher takes the time to know the school's environment. A principal may know the school will seldom times know the true students. That is the nature of the beast, it is only natural, true principals will know most students, all teachers and most parents. That is what their job is in my books, not to mention running the school and committees, etc. But big picture to me, is the curriculum, yes in the case of a principal who knows the school, the students and the parents, great, they certainly are working to earn that ability to see and build a big picture but most times you get desensitized, and close minded individuals working on the toilet paper we call curriculum often times. For the most part as time goes on (depending on the province or country you live in), the curriculum gets better but why can't it just be all around great?
Simply put, the individuals often times picked for curriculum development in these more developed countries are golf buddies and individuals who haven't seen the inside of a classroom in far too long. If our curriculum documents were really up to date, they would not still be worded vaguely or missing the integration of technology into the classroom. Don't get me wrong, I hate that students are glued to their devices but with the amount of resources in the world and schools today, there is no reason a teacher should need to spend their class time everyday disciplining a class for even the most remote mistake of moving your cellphone from one pocket to the other. Nor in the documents is it made clear that students should be taught how to be accountable for their learning. The burden of learning does fall upon the shoulders of the educators as it should but, we have grown our society into one with a wealth of knowledge at the slightest touch of a screen, as important as knowledge is, the use of it is what we need to stress. Why is it important to know how to write a story, understand what happens when magnesium is super heated.
Things need to change and if big picture is built by people who simply lived long enough to outlast the rest, then we will be struggling with issues in schools until the end of time, if a social construction is created and new monkey is thrown into it, that monkey will adopt the necessary traits to be successful in that population along with the other monkeys.
-C.B.
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