I’ve written before about focusing on important, not just urgent tasks. And, for folks in leadership positions, it’s of the utmost importance to get into classrooms every week. Do not let merely urgent tasks prevent you from watching real teachers working with real students.
These regular classroom visits will inform your next steps as a leader. It’s very obvious what you need to work on when you’re watching actual teachers in actual action.
- You’ll notice, “Hmm, there’s a whole group of teachers who aren’t waiting long enough for responses. We need to work on wait time. Luckily Ian wrote about ‘wait time’ here.” 😆
- You might notice that teachers are asking questions that are confusing. Students struggle to answer because they don’t know what they’re even being asked. Phew, Ian has a whole series on asking better questions.
- Maybe you realize that a lot of classrooms need help with transitioning from one task to the next. (I played the Andy Griffith theme song. Students knew it meant to pack up and get to their seats before the song ended. I stole this from Rick Morris.)
Yes, those needs are all pretty basic. But, in my experience, that’s what teachers need help with! They need help with asking questions, managing students, and even, yeah, passing out papers efficiently. They probably don’t need to learn a new educational framework from Dr. Such-and-Such, PhD. They probably do want to know, “What do I say when a kid answers something totally wrong?”
By getting into classrooms, you can model skills. You can offer immediate feedback. You get to know students. You get to know teachers!
Beware attending conferences, hearing 17 neat-o ideas, and then bringing them to your teachers. These ideas might sound interesting, but they won’t connect with teachers’ actual needs. They add complication and work to already overworked teachers. You’ll get a reputation as one of those administrators with the untested ideas.
So, in short:
- Always, always, always start by watching classrooms.
- Note the most obvious problems. (They will be obvious!)
- Build your professional development around solving those problems.