Today was my first day back at work. Students aren't on campus yet, so we get to spend the next four fun-filled days in back-to-back meetings. Some of these meetings are important, for example, we met our new principal, who seems great, and it was good to know what his goals, attitudes, and expectations are.
Over the past seven years I've taught I've had five, now six, different principals. There are people who think this is a very big deal, but to be quite honest, in a high school setting, it's really not that big of an issue. Elementary teachers may have a different experience because the school is so much smaller, but at a high school the principal tends to serve as a facilitator, and the school can manage without him or her at the helm. Now, I've only worked at two schools, but this has been my experience.
It's always a little dicey for the first couple weeks, sometimes months, with a new leader. Are you going to chafe at his or her leadership style? Is he going to listen to? What kind of baggage does he bring with him?
Well, my principal earned my instant admiration today. We started with a three-hour meeting on nuts-and-bolts issues this morning. Yes, not everything was totally fascinating (I know how to take attendance, for Pete's sake), and the lunch-table benches got a little painful after a while. But most of us sat quietly and listened to person after person who was trotted out in front of us to tell us yet another thing we had to know (like I'm going to remember any of it tomorrow.)
Most of us sat quietly. Most. There was a contingent in the back who insisted on talking pretty much the whole time. I don't mean a quiet comment once and awhile to your partner; I mean full-on, off-topic conversations.
My new principal took the microphone and said to the back table: "I'm serious about honoring your time here. Please be serious about honoring our agenda. Stop talking."
It was amazing. I have never had a boss be that direct. His actions might sound rude, but they were really appropriate at the time. It is amazing to me that the very same people who do not tolerate any kind of off-task or rude behavior in their classrooms are the very same people who perpetrate it in meetings. It's so rude and it has driven me crazy for the past seven years. I'm sure it will still drive me crazy in the future, but it was so refreshing to have a boss assert himself.
My students come into my classroom with an idea of how "grownups" should act. And I feel bad for them sometimes when they realize that some adults behave as badly, if not worse, than their teenage students. I'd like to think I've grown up in the past 11 years since I graduated high school, but I'm not sure how much that is true. Sure, I don't talk during meetings, but I'll admit to stomping my feet a couple times when I don't get my way.
Hey, maybe being "grown-up" is overrated.
1 comment:
I will never forget how appalled I was when a particular class I attended was full of chatty college students. I could hardly believe that a group of people would have so much disrespect.
I stood up and said something. I don't know that it helped, but it made me feel a little better.
I don't care how boring something is; don't ruin it for everyone else by talking.
Now I will step off my soap box.
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