And Now…

As an administrator, I do still see some teachers who have the same mentality as the veteran teachers on my first team. Thankfully, it’s not as prevalent. And I have noticed that it is more veteran teachers than new teachers.

Sometimes I will work closely with a group of teachers and begin to see the attitudes toward some students shift from tolerance to exasperation. So how do we fix it and what can we do to keep teachers from reaching this level?

I honestly believe the frustration derives from compliance. Teachers have to post plans. Teachers have to manage the students in their classrooms and the students they have virtually – simultaneously. Teachers have to manage the activities with their students in class and the students at home. Teachers have to deal with large classes. Even though there is a class size amendment limiting the number of students in the rooms, I have seen multiple schools get away with non compliance so teachers are left with unrealistic expectations for management. (Spoiler alert – I am planning on evaluating the effectiveness of the class size mandates in a future article.)

So what can we do to help our teachers through this pandemic?

We can’t truly understand what someone else is going through without walking in their shoes. Even though we present Professional Development in Hybrid models, it’s not the same. We don’t have the interruption of a parent who doesn’t respect the teacher’s class time or the other students in the class. We don’t have the expectations of high engagement all of the time (frankly, sometimes our own PD is more boring housekeeping). We do have the frustration of technology issues, but we don’t have exposure to the frequency of issues because we don’t pull together for PD or meetings all day every day.

Maybe we can work as a team to find authentic ways to walk in our teacher’s shoes. I am very capable of teaching many subjects (and credentialed in many, too). I wonder if I offered to switch places with the teacher – even if it was only part of the day – the next time someone came to my office with the look of exasperation – I wonder what they would say.

I thank my teachers every day, and sometimes multiple times per day, for the challenges that they face. I can’t imagine what they’re going through. I commit to experiencing it before the school year ends.