A school administrator is much like the plate jugglers I used to watch on the Ed Sullivan show when I was growing up. You’ve probably seen one. A guy (usually a guy) has some long, flexible poles and he starts spinning plates on top of the poles. More and more plates go up as the audience gasps. As one plate starts to slow down, the juggler vibrates the pole and the plate regains its momentum to stay in place for a little while longer.
Administrators juggle the plates of student behavior, central office demands, NCLB, school safety, budget concerns, happy and irritated parents, and a host of other things that make the school function steadily on a daily basis.
Occasionally, the administrator has to add a plate for problems related to teachers.
For the purposes of this blog post, I would say there are three types of teachers. The first type confines himself to his room and does his job every day. He offers very little input on the running of the school or academic programs. His focus is on the 25 to 30 kids in his classroom at any given time.
The second type takes a broader approach to education. She looks around and sees how things could improve on a wide range of topics within the school. She talks about those things in an attempt to flesh out her ideas or gain support for change. She tries to engage other teachers in a dialog that could bring significant improvement to the school, to education, to kids, parents, and even other teachers. Her interests are wide and sometimes all-consuming. She sees how classroom management could improve, lunch room behavior could be calmer, teaching strategies could be transformed. The list is long.
The third type of teacher likes to be “in the know.” He really doesn’t have any ideas of his own. But he listens to everything that goes on in the classroom, the teachers’ lounge, the sidewalks, bus duty, and casual conversations at the mail center. He really has no usefullness for his knowledge other than being able to tell people that “he knows.” He knows public stuff, personal stuff, private stuff, and sometimes even confidential stuff. He is a wealth of knowledge if you want to know who comes to school late or leaves early, what group of teachers are getting together after school hours, or which teachers just can’t stand each other.
The administrator is busy juggling plates. While his “teacher” plates are wobbling, needing some attention, the administrator has to choose which pole gets juggled to keep that teacher aloft. The question becomes, “Which type of teacher is most important to the administration of our school?” You can tell by the ones that get the personal, private time.
As a future administrator, I hope I set my sights on the second.
Oh wait, my Spring Break plate needs a little adjustment. I’ll be back soon.