Principal's Job Posting

Opened:	01/19/2007
Posting Title:	Principal - MS
ID#:	1054
Job Family:	Principals & Asst. Principals
Salary Range:	$70,645.00 - $93,114.00
Location:	Middle Schools

Principal's Role as Instructional Leader

I feel that our principal, Jaime Espinoza, doesn't really portray himself as the instructional leader. He makes sure to place that hat on the Curriculum and Instruction assistant principal, Susan Downs. When approaching him with creating a transition team for next year, he simply told me to go talk to Susan about it since she's the one involved with the curriculum. I feel as though the principal should be the driving force behind the instruction. All of the teachers need to know his actual thoughts straight from his mouth. When Susan tells us, "Jaime said that we need to have word walls..." it takes the true importance out of the equation. If Jaime comes and tells us about it, then we know it's important and it's what he feels. When it comes from someone else, it takes the importance away. I hope that when the new school opens, he'll become the instructional leader.

4/12/07: CLASE Meetings (1.5 Hours)

For my last 1.5 practicum hours, I observed/help/facilitated the 8th grade assistant principal, David Strickland, prepare for the CLASE meeting and conference. This CLASE conference is taking place this summer through the University of Georgia. It's a conference in which teams learn strategies that help the ESOL student succeed in the regular education classroom. I helped David gather all of the documents as well as submit the application in order to be approved for this one of a kind position. We will be the only team there representing Gwinnett County.
As we met as a team, David basically let me facilitate the meeting. I passed out the information that I knew as well as discussed the housing assignments for the summer conference as well as gathered all of the documents. I like being placed in this type of leadership role. These teachers were here for a reason; they all wanted to learn the new strategies to improve student achievement. Being in a leadership position in this situation is what I would love to do; however, it's so hard to ensure that this is the position that I would get, that it still makes me leary of becoming an assistant principal. There are so many things that I have learned that I dislike about the job, that I'm almost tempted to continue to stay in teaching the rest of my career.

3/15/07: Facilitator Meeting (1.5 Hours)

Today, I observed the 8th grade assistant principal, David Strickland, at the 8th grade Facilitator's meeting. This was a meeting consisting of about 8 teachers (1 teacher from each team). During this meeting, he had an agenda and simple asked for input on the different items on the agenda. It seemed as though some of the teachers didn't respect him; they continued to argue with him until he got fed up and said "We're doing it this way, because I said so." I definitely can tell that he's still learning his role and how to deal with the many different personalities of the 8th grade teachers.
Sitting in on this meeting made me rethink becoming an AP. I really don't want to deal with all of the drama that goes on between teachers. These teachers are very hard to deal with and I personally really don't want to deal with them and their attitudes. For the most part, they only want what's best for themselves instead of what's best for their students. I am going to have to do a lot of soul searching if I am going to be an assistant principal.

2/26/07: Basketball Game (3 Hours)

Today, I observed the administrators as they were at the 8th grade basketball games. Their role and responsibility during this time is to make sure that the study body behaves appropriately. One administrator was in charge of the area outside of the gym, mainly by the concession stands and restrooms; the other administrator was in charge of the student behavior within the gym during the game. I didn't really notice or see anything out of the ordinary that they had to do. One interesting thing that I did learn was that whenever a student gets injured an administrator, must go out on the floor and check out the situation. Once again, these basketball games occur outside the normal school hours. Once again, I really think it takes time a lot of time away from your family.

2/22/07: Bus Dismissal (1 Hour)

Today, I observed the 8th grade assistant principal, David Strickland, on his bus dismissal duty. Since Lanier Middle School has so many students, (56 buses worth), there are 2 bus calls every day. In order to make sure that all buses arrive and in which order, we had to go out to the bus lane 15 minutes before school even got out. During this time, we walked around the bus lane and wrote down each bus in the order that they arrived. Buses were even lined up on Buford Highway, the main road where our school is located. After we recorded all of the buses, we then preceded to dismiss the students over the intercom. After the students exited the building, it was then our responsibility to make sure that the buses didn't start up until all students had got on their bus. Just this first load of buses took 10 minutes for all of the buses to leave. Then the process was repeated again in order to get the 2nd load of students on the bus.
I actually didn't mind bus dismissal too much; it's just very time consuming. I did learn that if you got out there at the bus lane any later than 3:45, you could never catch up. There are simply too many buses and too many students. Being in charge of bus dismissal is one of the responsibilities of being an administrator.

2/15/07: 6th Grade Dance (2.5 Hours)

Today, I learned one of the aspects of leadership that occurs outside of the normal school hours. This time, I was observing the 6th grade assistant principal, Wenda Peltz, during the 6th grade dance. This dance occurred after school from 4-6pm. Being the administrator, is definitely a lot more work than just being a chaperone, one of the responsibilities of being a teacher. As an administrator, you are responsible for everything that is going on surrounding the event. I never realized that the administrative duties revolved around: socializing with parents and members of the PTSA, chaperoning, making sure that teachers are chaperoning, cleaning up any messes that have been made, disciplining kids who are misbehaving, organizing how parents will be picking up their children, and waiting until the last student is picked up.
After doing this part of my practicum, it has made me rethink whether I truly want to be an administrator. It was great to see the teachers and kids in a different manner; however, I have realized that it takes a lot of extra time away from your own family. The worst part was having to wait until the last student is picked up (the last student was picked up 1.5 hours late); many parents who pick up their kids late don't even realize the inconvenience it puts on the administrator.

1/23: Leadership Meeting (1.5 Hours)

As part of the daily leadership routine, all of the administrators meet every day at 9:30am. I had the privilege to be able to sit in on one of these meetings. However, it was made perfectly clear that basically "What happens in this room, stays in this room." During this meeting, many things were discussed. For example, the new assistant principal asked what he could do with this special education student who was constantly getting in trouble. Each of the other AP's gave him their advice and suggested what he should do. Another interesting fact was the 7th grade AP was asking the 6th grade AP about a certain kids behavior. For example, "In 6th grade, How many referrals did Connor have? Did you have any ideas on discipline that actually worked for him? Was his mom still not supportive?" By having this open dialog between administrators, it makes it much easier to step into a Leadership position when you know you have the support of the other administrators.

1/23/07: Standarized Testing (4 hours)

Today, I was working with the Assistant Principal, Nancy Caudell, who is in charge of testing administration and special education. In order to prepare for the 8th grade Writing Test, there are many things that must be done. As I was working with her, I learned many aspects of standardized testing, that I never even knew existed.
The two most interesting things that I learned were that if teachers do not follow the standardized testing procedures, it falls back on her. She had to document everything that she says and hands out in order to cover herself in case a violation does occur. The other interesting piece of information that I learned about was the fact that special education students who are at our school and it's not their home school, their test scores are not factored into our schools' test scores; their test scores are factored into their home school test scores. With this interesting concept, she said that it's imperative that she keeps up with all of the special education students whom are at other middle school. She also needs to ensure that those teachers are doing what they need to be doing in order to ensure that we make AYP.
After working with testing and special education, I don't think it's the leadership position that I want to fulfill. There are many rules and regulations that are needed to be followed by all teachers. It makes me very leary to think that if other teachers don't do what they're told to do, then it becomes my responsibility. Overall, it was an enlightening day to let me know what I don't want to do when I get into leadership.