Giving Compass' Take:

• Education administrators need to be constantly working on their professional growth in order to move schools forward sustainably. 

• How can educators work in collaboration with school administrators to make sure things are running smoothly? 

• Read about the importance of trained school administrators. 

The journey of an administrator is rarely linear – often, one runs in circles just to meet the needs of the day. In my ten years of administrative work, I’ve done my own share of running around: mentoring, “dean”ing, complying with regulations – the list goes on.

No matter how seasoned or dedicated the administrator, something almost always falls through the cracks, taking away from our real job: nurturing our entire community. The wheels keep spinning and the cycle begins again, but they don’t have to: focusing on professional growth is one way to become a more efficient and effective administrator for the coming year.

To move our schools forward sustainably and efficiently we must also consider our own professional growth as administrators. Professional development is not a compliance-driven practice for educators nor should it be for administrators.

  • Re-committing to our core values. Each school has a set of core values, but spending time to solidify what these values look like in action make them both concrete and actionable and ensure that we are putting our proverbial money where our mouth is.
  • Planning support. Support includes reaching out to trusted mentors and collaborators who push me to be more of an active listener when teachers or parents express concerns, rather than wanting to fix the problem immediately.
  • Commit to leveling up in at least one new area. Sometimes reflection on our core values pushes us to try something outside our comfort zone. A value of empathy and compassion can be made more concrete by observing and documenting student, staff, and faculty behavior.
  • Asking for (and taking) feedback. As principals we often lean towards perfectionism: we want acknowledgement for the hard work we do and how it immediately impacts students but we don’t want to acknowledge our struggles in the process.

Read the full article about being an education administrator by Amy Rodriguez at Getting Smart