I am a teacher who would like some positive advice from directors, recruiters, and teachers regarding the following topic :
Situation= You are at an international school where the principal/director has not followed your contract (even though it is all stated in writing) or he/she has poor administrative skills, YET you wish to stay at your school because you like the country and your students.
Question= What strategies can you suggest using to "overlook" (or work around) the poor administrator until he/she leaves without loosing your cool/peace of mind
At most schools, you can close your classroom door and do whatever you like. If the contract is being violated, however, it would be cool if you posted some info on this forum telling specifically how, and naming the school and the director. We need more of that.
Adam wrote:Hello,
I am a teacher who would like some positive advice from directors, recruiters, and teachers regarding the following topic :
Situation= You are at an international school where the principal/director has not followed your contract (even though it is all stated in writing) or he/she has poor administrative skills, YET you wish to stay at your school because you like the country and your students.
Question= What strategies can you suggest using to "overlook" (or work around) the poor administrator until he/she leaves without loosing your cool/peace of mind
I do not want to name a school.I did not ask this question in order to name a school or to critique anyone.
I am seeking advice/professional strategies from recruiters/directors/teachers who may have been in similar situations (poor teaching environment/leadership/management) yet have been able to keep moving forward despite the odds and remain at their school until things improved.
How have you guys been able to do it ? PLEASE share !!
I think it is important to look at positive ways in which we can turn a bad situation around, if possible. I have not seen this being discussed yet in the forum !
Here is my suggestion. All school leaders and teachers should keep this simple statement at the forefront of everything they do:
All decisions should be based on what is in the best educational interest of the child.
Be a teacher-leader and lead by example. Remain professional. When decisions that are not looking at the students? interest first are made, speak up in a professional, non-accusatory manner asking the person if this decision is putting children first.
As a school administrator, I will ask teachers this same question if I do not believe the students interest are being put first or when policy is being reviewed or making decisions that affect students. Teachers should also be able to ask the same of the administration.
In regards to contracts not being followed, check out the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (www.ascd.org). They have excellent articles and resources that you could share with the administration. In the end, if you are competent and the administration respect you for the job you do in the classroom, sit down and have an honest chat with them. Open and honest dialogue is much more effective and appreciated.
I think a lot of this comes down to a matter of degree. I have worked in a couple of very dysfunctional situations, both as a teacher and administrator.
What I've found it comes down to is whether or not the governing board is really interested in moving the school forward, or simply maintaining the status quo. I have seen both gifted and incompetent school heads be undermined by boards, and have come to realize that very often the head of school can have less power over school change than is often imagined.
Having said that, I've found as a teacher it's much easier to focus in creating successes with students and colleagues than it is as an administrator. As a teacher, your effect can be more local, but as an administrator the closer you get to the source of dysfunction, the harder things get.
If you are having problems with your contract, the best thing I've found to do is chip away at the issues based on a prioritized list. Ultimately, however, if the situation is truly untenable, then the best thing to do is realize when it's best to call it quits.
Doing that hurts, especially if you are connected with your students. But you have to weigh what you are actually capable of doing with the challenges you face. It's not possible to be effective when overly stressed and/or burned out.
So it really comes down to what you can tolerate, and what you feel you can accomplish in the given situation. Ultimately, I've found that there are certain conditions I need to give students and colleagues my best efforts. If they aren't there, then it truly is time to move on. There really isn't a magic formula - it really has to do with what you, personally, are capable of handling.
I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but that's my input.
I am a teacher who would like some positive advice from directors, recruiters, and teachers regarding the following topic :
Situation= You are at an international school where the principal/director has not followed your contract (even though it is all stated in writing) or he/she has poor administrative skills, YET you wish to stay at your school because you like the country and your students.
Question= What strategies can you suggest using to "overlook" (or work around) the poor administrator until he/she leaves without loosing your cool/peace of mind
I had the principal from hell at a public school abroad. The contract was violated from the get go. With in two hours of getting off the plane, I was told that I was not teaching what I was contracted to do. They promised to pay my plane ticket and it took threats of legal action to get that moving. They gave me zero curriculum support. I got there was told to teach in a subject I was not prepared to teach to teach whatever the hell I wanted.
I later learned that the principal only had an associates degree, had been found guilty of defamation of a teacher, had discriminated in hiring and still kept the job. It was a really small community and there was no way to get away from work or people related to work. It got to the point where the principal had so tainted things that I looked for a reason to leave. That came when I took a sick day because I was feeling unwell and the principal told my students, with out my consent, that they would be suspended if their parents did not show up after school. The principal told the students and parents that I was planning to quit because their children were so badly behaved. It was their fault. The principal said that if I left, the seniors and juniors would not be able to graduate on time.
It was not pretty.
My lesson: Learn how much shit you can take and when you get to that point, quit because it is better for your piece of mind. In dealing with everything in the mean time, keep focused on the goal: To put the students first, to foster in them a life long love of learning, to use your subject area to help them excel. Try to do different things in the classroom and improve your own teaching skills.
