The Principal Talks
The Responsibilities of the Administrator
What a first day for Nellie. There is no wonder that she wants to go home, to cry, and to call her mother. Forget about grading those papers: the students that she has in class do not know enough Latin to write a sentence, let alone a paper. Plus, Latin does not translate very well into “What I Did last Summer.” However, this scene could have been avoided with some simple planning by the school’s administration.
One of the most important jobs that I have as an administrator is to find the best teachers and to place them into situations in which they can be successful teaching our students. A correlate to this is retaining these teachers once we get them. As any administrator, I would love to hire teachers like Vera. They have the experience; they have the techniques, honed by practice and by repetition, to handle the daily disruptions; they have the confidence to overcome setbacks that might otherwise serve as a distraction to the new teacher; and quite frankly, they do not require as much work and effort to get them on task and functioning as a vital member in the school setting.
New teachers are a challenge and a joy. They are a challenge because they are full of questions and they are full of exuberance. This catches us off guard. This exuberance and passion are invigorating, and need to be cultivated and refined. They serve as a reminder of how we all once felt and they provide us with the energy that we need to keep our schools focused on our mission-educating students.
The final step in the new teacher’s preparation is at the school level. Administrators who do three simple things can ease the transition of new teachers into the work place and move toward the equally important goal of retaining teachers. These three things are: a thorough orientation, a quality mentorship program, and some minor scheduling considerations.
