On Thursday one of the counselors and myself were in a meeting with a parent to discuss her son’s latest behavior. Our counselor began speaking and then I continued. We tried giving the mother some time to digest what we were saying. The mother started speaking about her son’s brains and about how it controls him. Our counselor quickly jumped in and explained what was really happening to him and told her what she needs to tell him the minute he says what he says.
Category: Asst. Principal Experience
World Read Aloud Day!
On Thursday we had World Read Aloud Day at AIS. We decided as admin to read to our students. Because my day was crazy insane on Wednesday I had no time to pick a book. The KG AP shared books and I picked one at night. While I was reading the book I got an idea to act it out as well and do something different for a change for our students.
The Day in the life of an AP without your Principal!
The day has come when my principal would not be at school for 3 days. It was the day I feared most. My goodness, 2 days of trying to be in so many places at once was insane. Day 1 started at 6:30am and ended at 5:15pm. It was non stop, one thing after the other. I could only connect with the KG AP for about 10 minutes. At one point, I had to be at 3 different places at once. Between attending to teacher’s needs, to solving students behavior problems, to answering angry parents, to going into meetings, to calling home and speaking to parents, to making decisions on the spot, to seeing unexepected parents that showed up at my office was exhausting and overwhelming.
Continue reading “The Day in the life of an AP without your Principal!”
A simple yet powerful question.
A few days ago after school I was sitting at my desk and a staff member stopped by and asked, “How was your day?” I was so focused on the screen and thinking of what I had to finish that when I looked up at her I didn’t know how to answer. It took me a few seconds to understand what she was asking. Finally I answered back by saying “Come again? Sorry I was so focused on the screen I didn’t quite hear you.”
Feedback. Reflect. Action.
Few day ago, ES admin went to each grade level and got feedback from them to see how we can support them more and to find out what they need. We agreed to only listen and not to comment. We listened and wrote down what they said. Just like all schools, it’s a busy time of year so we felt staff morale was not high in energy. We wanted to see why and what we could do as admin to help them.
Balancing?!
These past two weeks were full of issues after issues. I have come to realize how exhausting it is to balance everything between my work and personal life. On top of that, I am always ensuring that I am able to stay calm in front of my staff and continue to smile and joke with them. I try not to let them know that while they are speaking, I have about 101 thoughts in my head. Being in this position for about 6 months has been a roller coaster. Obviously life of an AP is completely different to life as a team leader/teacher as I am exposed to so many things. In this role, I am behind the scenes seeing how things are run and how decisions are made. Continue reading “Balancing?!”
Compliments…Say what?!?!?!?
During the weekend my children were invited to a birthday. I dread going to kids birthdays because I am there as a parent or as the AP depending if there are parents from school or not. More than half of the time I see parents from our school there. I am not the type of mother who sends her kids to birthdays with the nanny. Therefore, I am forced to see parents because I simply can’t stop my kids going to their friends birthdays. The minute they see me they start asking questions, give me their feedback or say something negative. To hear a compliment is very rare now a days and I simply do not understand why! Continue reading “Compliments…Say what?!?!?!?”
The +1 Principle Article
I just read an article by John Wink about the +1 Principle. I find it interesting how as administrators we keep adding onto our staff’s plate without removing anything first. When I was a teacher I felt that tasks were being added left, right and center without any tasks being removed for us. However, this year the admin team are trying to remove tasks before adding anything. We meet, discuss, and see if it’s worth implementing or not. We evaluate what would be the outcomes if we do.
To send or not to send reminder emails.. that is the Question?!
I rarely send emails to my staff unless I really need to. However, when I do, I expect my staff to read it from beginning to end as there would be important information for them to know. It’s mostly friendly reminders and I tend to do them all in one email and send it rather than sending them emails every few days. A few days pass and I get the same question asked at least 2 or 3 times from different teachers. I look at them and bite my tongue and feel like saying, “Clearly you did not read my email, otherwise you would have known the answer to this.” Instead I put a smile on my face and answer their question(s). Sometimes there are instances where I ask my staff, “Where is this?” or “Did you not do this?” and their answer would be like “Oh oops, was I supposed to do give it in or do it?” Again I think to myself, “Really, did you not read my email?!” In a very hard but diplomatic way, I respond by saying “Yes, you were supposed to as I mentioned it in my email I sent yesterday.”
Continue reading “To send or not to send reminder emails.. that is the Question?!”
Parent Conferences
We just finished our two nights of parents conferences. I must say, as a teacher it had a total different feeling than being an AP. As part of the admin team, we walk around, up and down, all through the hallways making sure everything and everyone is fine. Looking into classrooms and being able to read my staff’s facial expressions and giving them a thumbs up was a great a feeling. One advice my principal gave me was to keep a pen and post it with me to jot down parent’s complaints/requests. For the whole night we never sat in our offices as we wanted to be visible to the parents and staff. At one point, we got four staff members asking us to roam around their area at a specific time when those “difficult” parents came in. So we made sure we were there for them, checking in on them and making sure their conference went smoothly. I didn’t know we had so many difficult parents that staff needed us there just for comfort. Being a teacher you are not aware of what is happening in other classes or grades or how parents are except your own 23 parents. .
The first hour passed and there was not one complaint! YAAAY. My yellow post it was empty woohoo!! Then the second and third hour was just the same. Everyone was smiling, complementing and speaking highly about our staff. PHEW! Our night was a success. I didn’t sit down for 5 minutes! I was all over the place and when I would cross paths with my principal, we would check in with each other for 5 minutes to compare notes and continue walking, smiling and checking up on everyone.
Coming to work the next day with 4 interviews to do, meetings to attend and staff to check up on was truly exhausting, my goodness! Day 2 of PT conferences was another success, my post it was still empty. NO complaints!! Parents were smiling, less staff needing us to roam their hallways and all just went smoothly. To continue smiling and making small talk was hard and tiring. However, I managed and enjoyed it, despite it being exhausting and not being able to sit for more than 3 minutes before someone wanting you or calling your name. It was worth it for as long as our staff and parents were happy.
As admin what do you do during PT conferences? Are you in your offices from beginning to end? Would love to know.