Administrative Awesomeness

I've been so busy with all these papers/presentations that I haven't had the time to report the little bit of sunshine in my teaching life. Before I share, I need to give background.

One of my pet-peeves in my classes the summer has been the frequent references to crappy administrators. By now, I think every teacher, if not everyone, knows that some schools are run by incompetant ninnies or scandalous scoundrels. In fact, this applies to any job with superiors and subordinates.

They even made a movie about them.

Don't get me wrong. An ineffective principal and/or an ineffective administrative team can do serious damage at a school. Arguably, they can do more damage than one teacher can. However, I don't see  how constantly harping on the subject does me, or importantly, my students any good. I can't control what they do, but I can control my reactions to their actions. Yet, I have been preparing myself in case things go sour.




Out of the blue Tuesday, I get an email from my CI AP* asking me how things are going. [Uhh, busy. Very busy] After getting the niceties out of the way, she informs that she is working at the school and how she would "love" to help me put together my first unit [Okayyy.] She knows that preplanning can be intense for new teachers, and she wants nothing more than for her new teachers to be successful [See the minion below for my re-enactment of my reaction.]

To unpack this, my AP invited me to work one-on-one to help me with my unit planning and lesson planning skills. Needless to say, heck yes, I accepted! I'm actually stoked to be going in a whole week and a half before PD** officially begins. Day by day, my nervousness is decreasing and my sense of purpose and excitement is increasing. If this awesomeness now by the administration keeps up and gets infectious, just think of what we can do for our students this year.

*CI: curriculum and instruction; AP: assistant principal
**PD: professional development

FYI: Several typos have been brought to my attention, and I try to fix them as quickly as possible. What can I say? I'm fallible. If you would find a typo, have a comment, or a question that you would like to ask, feel free to email me at teachingisinsanity@gmail.com. That is the point of this project after all :-) Cheers!