Teachers (Past & Present) I Need Your Input

Sorry, but I have a few "musts" for a principal to earn & keep my respect.
In no particular order:

*Treat staff, students, and parents with respect.
*Be honest and upfront with staff...no telling us what we want to hear & then not following through.
*Back up staff 100% of the time.

Those are pretty important to me.

I taught 2nd &I kdg. For 6 years.

I taught for elementary for 13 years. 2nd grade up to 5th grade in those years. The absolute most important thing a principal or administrator could do so I could give 110% to my job is to create an environment that is safe, nurturing, positive, open-minded, flexible and compassionate. When adults and children feel they are in this kind of environment, they are free to take risks and really challenge themselves creatively, artistically, academically, and socially. It is an opportunity to celebrate successes and let the mistakes happen because that is when learning truly takes place. It is a beautiful thing.

I want the principal to support my decisions. I want to be backed up by the principal when there's an issue at hand. I have been very lucky to have worked for 2 wonderful prinipals (ladies) who treated me with respect and the professional that I was. Another 'thing' that I don't necessarily expect, ,but like, was that they shared their faith with me. When interviewing, one principal offered me a job and told me to 'pray about it.' The next interview with a different school district, the principal said nothing of the sort. I picked the school where the principal told me to pray about it. I like that she valued prayer and shared that little bit of herself with me very quickly in our relationship. It showed me that she was someone I could go to in times of stress. Another 'perk' was that one principal I worked for (different lady than 'pray about it' gal) always told us that if we were stressed or needed a chocolate 'fix' to come to her office and get some. We always knew where the stash was kept. I felt valued just at the offer of it. And when a co-worker-teacher was in the hospital with a brain tumor, she held morning prayer in her office for anyone who wanted to join. Just a few minutes where 5 or 6 of us teachers came to her office to pray for our friend. It just showed her personality, her kindness, and it was a wonderful relationship with the principal.

(Taught elementary for 5 years- 3 years in Bryan Texas, 2 years in San Antonio, all 5 years in very low-level, low-socioeconomic areas).

Both the principal & assistant must back teachers... always.

Both the principal & assistant must be educational leaders. They must be current with curriculum, best practices & legislation.

They must be firm, fair, & consistent with students.

I teach fifth grade and have for the past 10 years. For four years prior, I taught sixth grade. While sixth grade was in a middle school and I'm now in elementary, the same expectation on my part holds - that the principal has the best interests of teachers and students in mind when making decisions or mandating initiatives. Now, it is very easy for admins to say they feel this way, but often their decisions and policies say otherwise. For example, at my school, decisions are often made by the principal under the guise of "it's what's best for all", but what ends up happening is that kids AND teachers are so stressed out by the demands and expectations that they scratch their heads and wonder just why what is happening is happening in the first place. But overall, a blanket statement - I want someone who stands behind me and doesn't let me, as a teacher, stand in the line of fire if parents are upset about things that are going on that are out of my control.

Feel free to PM me if you want to vent or need more specifics. I'd be glad to share! I hesitate to do too much of that here!!

I teach at a university now, but I did teach high school for a few years. I later worked for an amazing boss in another field. There were two very definite things that my principal was lacking.

First, I never once for a moment felt like he had my back. If any student approached him about something, he took what they said at face value and assumed the worst of me without even talking to me. I'm not saying I was perfect, I was very inexperienced. But most of the teachers felt as though they couldn't even enforce the basic rules of the school because he would not back them up.

Second, when he did an evaluation, he said it was his job to tell you everything you were doing wrong. He never said anything you were doing right, and he never offered suggestions as to how you could improve. He simply criticized.

I worked in another field for an amazing boss. He encouraged and inspired. He made feel valued. And because I felt valued, I wanted to continue working hard and continue pleasing him. He had this way of making you feel like he had absolute faith in you and you could move mountains. I try to inspire my students and really make them believe that they are capable of anything they set their minds to. I teach remedial math. Many of my students have always believed that math was impossible for them. I try to make sure I do everything I can to help them believe in themselves. I always get one or two at the end of every semester who tell me that I was the first math teacher that helped them understand.

Teachers need principals who support them, inspire them and will stand beside them.

I am an education specialist and teach in a special day class & general ed intervention setting for 3rd to 6th grades.

Things I want from an administrator are reality, don't waste my time or use me as a launching pad for your career.

Reality; I am not a general education teacher in a regular classroom and my students have learning disabilities. Our classroom must have a different pace & focus. A good administrator recognizes this and doesn't push the school district agendas as rigorously as he/she does for a gen ed class.

I have mass quanities of legal documents to write and meetings to conduct, coordination with specialists and service providers. Don't waste my time with redundant paperwork, with meetings that have nothing to do with my special ed duties, and inefficient schedules.

If it works, don't fix it! Best practices evolve on their own to even better practices, with teacher collaboration. Administrators, bringing in every cutting edge idea that arrives, and asking me to embrace it is a waste of time. I don't want to be a stat on your resume, i.e. When I was at ___, I implemented such and such...

Finally in more general terms I want to be treated positively, respectfully and appreciated. I want to be heard when the need arises and I loathe being micro-managed.

Will you tell us why you're asking this question?

When I taught elementary school, the most important thing was to know that the administration supported the teachers and backed us up in every situation. There should be a level of respect between administration and teachers.

i worked for a principal who was so mean, really. but... she ran a tight ship and a safe school, and she always had our back when it came to dealing with anyone, a parent, admin, lawyer or whoever. just in private she was so nasty sometimes. but knowing that she had our backs was tremendous. especially in special ed, just cause there is so much paperwork and so many things to debate about....

-Clear, consistent rules for all (teachers and students)
-A backbone to follow up/follow through those rules
-Back up the staff at all times....especially when dealing with difficult parents of your students
-A consistent attitude about their job