Why Administrators Should Teach
Posted by ejallen on October 11, 2009
The days are busy for high school administrators. We have our daily management duties, teacher evaluations, classroom walk throughs, parent meetings, and much more. Sure the days are busy. But should we be so busy that we can’t teach a class?
Disclaimer:
Admittedly, I come to this discussion as an Assistant Principal who has taught a class for each of the 15 years that I have been in this job. I also concede that there indeed may be circumstances where it is just not possible. So what I want to talk about is what I perceive to be the benefits of an administrator teaching. I welcome your opinion.
Each day, a teaching administrator who teaches one class has the opportunity to be what they are at heart, a teacher. Having the class to look forward to every day keeps an administrator in a room with students. In a room where learning needs to occur. In a room where reality meets theory.
I teach one class of vocal music. I need to be there at the same time each day. I have students who count on me to be their teacher. I am out of the office. I am not on the phone. I am not checking email. I am teaching. I love it.
As administrators, we want our teachers to embrace best practices. We want them to bravely embrace the web 2.0 world. We want them to run their classes as learning places, not teaching places. We want them to teach and model ethical, moral, appropriate and productive use of social networks. The best way to do that is to lead with example and teach.
So why should administrators teach? Because we can. Because we will want to continue to learn, which is good for our students and our teachers. Because it will make us better admins. It keeps our membership in the community of classroom teachers current. Students will see us in a different light. They see us as administrators, but if we teach, they will also consider us their teacher. Because the truth is, we are in our hearts, teachers.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
A-yep. I’m teaching a Modern Educational Theory class this year… having a blast.
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ejallen Reply:
October 11th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Chris, thanks for the comment. Sounds like a great class.
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October 11th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Knowing what we know about the role and importance of leadership in schools, effective principals are instructional leaders, not just administrative leaders. To be an instructional leader it seems to me that being able to teach and loving teacher would be a natural fit.
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ejallen Reply:
October 11th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Dean, thanks for visiting the blog! And thanks for commenting. It is a natural fit.
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October 12th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Last year, talking about teaching a class this year, I told anyone who would listen, “If I’m going to talk the talk I’d better walk the walk.” In other words I would be a more credible advocate for Web 2.0 technology if I were practicing it in the classroom.
As it turned out, I did not teach this year.
I was startled to reexamine this decision by the present post in Ed Allen’s blog, and also by almost simultaneously reading a post by Dennis Richards on Leader Talk. (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/2009/10/walking_the_talk.html)
Dennis, after years of advocating Web 2.0 as an administrator, has returned to teaching. It was interesting that he, too, uses the phrase “Walk the walk”.
I don’t think I made the wrong decision for the personal circumstances in my life and the fact that my job as Assistant Principal for Academic Affairs at a rather large school grows about 10% every year. If I sound a little wistful it is because I am.
There are two things I want to do again before I am too old. I want to train for one more marathon and I want to teach at least one more year. I guess I will have to retire as an administrator in order to have enough time to do either.
Meanwhile, I will do my teaching with the teachers in my school, that is, become a fellow learner with the teacher’s in our school’s PLN. I will “walk the walk” there for now, and look forward to “walking the walk” in a real classroom in the not-too-distant future.
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October 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
@ Ed
I don’t teach daily. I do go into each of our economics classes every year to teach our students about futures trading. I enjoy reliving my past with them on the floor of the CBOT but it is my favorite part of every year. I think next year you’ve inspired me to just go ahead and teach a section of economics. In fact I just might push all my APs to teach a class as well.
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ejallen Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Glad you liked the post Charlie. That futures thing is really cool. I don’t really understand it, but your kids sure do! Happy to hear that you are considering teaching a class full time. You won’t regret it!
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