One of the last things we have to do as Principals before we leave is turn in our master schedule for the following school year. In my district there are two campuses like mine. We are very similar in make up with the exception of the Hispanic population. I have more due to the fact that I am the bilingual campus.
The month of June is extremely busy for administrators due to the fact that there is many things to do to shut down a building for the summer. I am not going to bother or bore you with a list. Let's just say that there is a lot of things to do. Anyway, back to building the schedule.
There are many questions that go into building a schedule.
1. How many kids do you have in the grade level?
2. Looking at your testing scores which areas need the most support?
3. Based on that information how many sections of each class do you need to offer to support
support your needs?
Now I am going to jump out on a limb here. Let me give you a scenario and see what you would do? Let's say when you looked at your testing scores you noticed that your math scores, while good, were the lowest group of scores. Specifically your Hispanic population you noticed were low. WHAT CLASSES DO YOU NEED TO OFFER MORE SUPPORT TO? Survey said.....MATH....ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,....you got the number one answer.
Now what do you do? You can do many things.
`. Offer more sections of math- you can do this by having more people teach math. Teachers
have more than one subject to teach.
In my case I have my ESL teacher teaching one math class a day to my ESL learners. Basically they will be working on building their math vocabulary so that they will understand WHAT they are being asked to do. Many times the kids know how to do the math but they don't know what the problem is asking them to do..
The problem I am having is that the principal at the other campus does not get how to make a schedule. Her answer to everything is more time. She has a problem thinking outside the box. The district has encouraged her to meet with me because our campuses are very similar in make up and our scores continue to improve and theirs are not. Well they are but not very quickly. This pains her to no end because in her mind she is doing everything she can. In reality she is doing everything she can think of......see the difference. So now I have to meet with her and basically do a "Scheduling 101" class with her.
I feel I know what the real problem is and until they get THAT fixed it won't matter how good of a schedule they come up with.
THAT- being two things-
First, is the overall culture of their building. I am not over there so this is total rumor. The teachers do not trust the administration of the building. I have heard this from teachers who are good friends with my AP. Again, you don't know if this is the whole staff or just a handful of people. I did have this happen though. I had a teacher transfer over to my building from the other campus and I point asked her..... Why do you want to come over here? She grinned and did not know what to say. I followed up by saying that it was the same curriculum, same district, same district philosophy. Why here? Why now? She said, she felt that in her current position she felt building leadership was always out to get you or catch you doing something wrong where as she had heard several good things about working with me and how much the teachers respected how I treated them. She is thinking of administration in the future and all she had learned from current administration is what NOT to do. So maybe there is some truth to the rumor? If teachers believe in the direction the leadership is taking they will do anything for you. But they have to BELIEVE and know that you CARE about them and that you are going to take care of them. That's my philosophy anyway.
Second, The AP at the other campus is not pleasant to deal with. Well she is okay as long as you agree with her. In the past I have had dealings with this person due to the fact that we share some staff members. When discussing what is best for teachers let's just say we don't agree. Well when I point out holes in her system and she can't find anything to come back with she get's mad and down right SNIPPY! The principal of the campus has deferred to her so much that this AP has quite the big head and it has turned into the TAIL WAGGING THE DOG!
I told my supervisors that I would meet with the principal and would gladly help with the scheduling of the other campus but with permission to speak freely I told them that until they get those two things fixed it won't matter how good of a schedule they have. Luckily they agreed and I still have a job.
No comments:
Post a Comment