Mentor

My job is amazing... In the course of a day I get to interact with students, teachers, and parents.... Those interactions range from exchanging pleasantries as I walk into school at 6:30 a.m. with the other early arrivers... to meeting with teachers to go over what their lesson plans include for a class I am going to observe... to having students come to me and our their hearts out about their lives.... to meeting with a parent who inadvertently condones the behavior for which her child is in terrible trouble...

As I have mentioned, my one fear about transitioning into this job was that I would be too removed from students... I am so relieved that it hasn't proven to be true. In some ways I feel like I know kids better... Each week I have four meetings 1 - Monday kick off meetings with the principal, both asst principals (APs), the school resource officer (SRO), the social worker, the special education coordinator, the head of guidance, our school completion dude, and the athletic director, 2 Wednesdays I meet with staff and administrators about students in a specific program (some of the saddest circumstances of kids) 3, Truancy meetings, where we (school completion officer, principal, both APs, and all the guidance counselors)   discuss kids who are not attending school, the reasons, and the possible remedies... and 4, Friday wrap up... which is just the principal, the other asst. principal and me... So... through all of these meetings I hear various information about specific students... I learn some of their history and as I get to know the kids use that information to shape how I communicate with the kids.  So not only am I knowing the kids as students, I am knowing so much more about them...

The stories we hear, the information we know about kids would make people think we were making it up...material that could be used on crappy talk shows... and they make me wonder how the hell those kids have even made it to high school.  Seriously.  Kids are parenting their parents... kids are parenting themselves... and there are so many things that kids are faced with... facebook and twitter are insane... the amount of distraction it causes during the day is amazing.

Today  I had a kid come to my office... a kid with whom I have had minimal interactions... called him down to check on a couple of attendance issues and have talked to him a couple times in the halls... today he came to me because he feels like his world is falling apart... ended up listening to him, having him meet with a social worker who called a family meeting (crazy complicated family tree) where one of the parents came in and it seemed like her agenda was to let us know how smart and articulate she is and how her child has not lived up to her... who at the end of the conversation she said, she knew from the moment she saw me at open house, she liked me, liked my sincerity... ironic... since I was thinking that if I were her son I would perhaps want to poke my eyes out with a fork.  It's one of those situations... in which to help this kid... I have to help the kid... where he is at... without a lot of parent involvement... just gotta get to him... it's a big year for him... he has to make it successful... and so... he is another project...

One of the people I work with, our school completion specialist... is awesome.  The way he sees things is amazing.  He is the one who told me about the ways in which schools uninvite students to come to school... today he sent out an email to the staff... a challenge... to our teachers... to look around and identify one student with whom they have yet to connect and make a strong effort in the next two weeks to connect, to build a dialogue, to find inroads... and use their role as a teacher to get to those students... I thought about a student who HATES me right now... absolutely hates me... and after tomorrow will hate me even more... she is a student who has multiple identifications, disabilities, mental health, etc...my goal with her, within the two weeks... is to get her to make eye contact with me and to have an exchange where she doesn't yell, "I'm done talking about this!" That will be progress...

One of my friends said to me that he always has thought of me more as a mentor than a teacher... and I feel that my current role aligns well with mentoring... but... at the root of a good mentor... is a good teacher...

I did have an experience today where I felt like a mentor... Part of my job is evaluating teachers... one of the teachers for whom I am responsible, met with me today, and she is very young... and I felt like I had something to share with her, advice, wisdom perhaps... and I look forward to watching her evolve in her teaching and confidence... I have had a couple of teachers come to me and say that they are considering moving into administration at some point and have asked if I could meet with them sometime to share my experience and transition to administration with them.  I like that.  I like being in the role where I can encourage people to hone their crafts and also make sure they are helping kids.  I am starting to do classroom observations of teachers and am seeing some interesting things... I am so happy that I am in a district that holds teachers accountable, that follow the evaluation process to ensure that the students are getting quality lessons from quality teachers... there will be some tough conversations had about some of what I have seen.

This week I did have to address an issue with teachers who did something that was against a directive I had given to the entire staff... and commented to someone that it was better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.  While I understand that thinking, and agree, at times, it is appropriate, this was not.  It was a cowardly move and because they were both in class I sent an email, not scathing, but direct and expressed my disappointment... within moments, they were begging to meet with me... we met... and it was a good conversation... tough conversations are going ot happen, but they are easier when I keep my focus as what is best for kids.  That is the bottom line.

Oh... I also attended an interesting meeting this week... meeting is used loosely here.  The meeting was at a pub... and the attendees were all assistant principals from area schools.  It was men and women, people who are new and people who have 30 plus years of experience.  The meetings are designed to talk about hot topics and I liked it a lot.  I had recently attended a similar meeting for women administrators in the area and this was much better.  One of the men at this meeting is a man I took some of my graduate classes with.  He too is in his first year as an asst. principal.  It is going to be nice to go through this process with someone I know.  He too is feeling like life is hectic, but also loving it.  He has an added layer, he has a family and is finding the balance difficult.  It is nice to network a bit and perhaps at some point, create some social opportunities with some of these people.  I don't feel like I can socialize with my staff yet... we'll see if that changes...that's a topic for another night...

Anyway... at this point I am rambling, but did need to empty some things out of my brain... I have been pretty focused on the job and am starting to feel like I can begin having better balance... life outside of my job.  I am going to take steps to re-connect with friends and hopefully meet some new people along the way.

Good Night!