It's a new academic year, with a new structure, with new sets of academic coors, with a new framework to deal with and the most exciting part is that I am assigned to a new position in school.
This Academic Year 2013-2014, I am the new Unit Head of Unit 2 (Grades 3-7) in Colegio San Agustin-Makati.
Reaction? ... Duh? What now? What does it take to be a Unit Head? With the new structure in school, it was determined that a Unit Head is already considered a principal. Oh geez! Such a big word - Principal!
Many questions and thoughts pop into my mind after "the talk" from the administrators and one of them is "Will I be able to deliver what is expected of me as a Unit Head/Principal?"
Here's one good article on NYTimes.com about "The Secrets of a Principal Who Makes Things Work" by Michael Winerip... I got snippets of insights based on the Philippine school setting
so read on!
While Ivy Leaguers in their 20s can now become principals, Jacqui Getz, 51, the new principal of Public School 126, a high-poverty school in Chinatown, came up the old way. This is her third principal position, but before that, she was a teacher for nine years and an assistant principal for four. It’s hard for principals to win over teachers if they haven’t been one.
“You’re the principal,” Ms. Getz said, “but you have to know how a teacher feels and how a teacher thinks.”
At Table 510, Ms. Getz discussed “Maniac McGee” with Beckie Zheng; at Table 500, Hula-Hoops with Annika Dalland. At Table 220, Ms. Getz spotted a second grader, eyes closed, resting his head on his arms, and brought him a box of Raisin Bran with a carton of milk. “You need to eat,” she whispered.
“He wants to meet you,” said a third-grade girl, who was holding her little brother’s hand. From where the children stood, Ms. Getz must have looked like the Eiffel Tower. She wears heels because she believes tall principals have an edge. As she walks, her bracelets clink, her heels click. Before they see her, students know Ms. Getz is coming around the corner.
“I want my people to feel I have their backs,” she said.
Last year, the city’s Education Department put into effect its 32-variable equation that looks like a chemical configuration for rocket fuel but is actually a formula concocted to rate teachers based on student test scores.
It was degrading for teachers, and Ms. Getz has signaled she is not a believer. “How can this formula tell me about the teacher in front of me?” she said. Under state regulations, test scores can count for up to 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. “These tests are so unreliable; I wouldn’t count them 10 percent, 8 percent, 1 percent,” she said. “You don’t want teachers feeling belittled; you want them to keep their dignity so they can be at their best.”
Many are the ways Ms. Getz evaluates teachers. She regularly visits classrooms. She looks at the written materials they send to families and the administration. She watches them during group planning sessions with other teachers. She studies their lesson plans and notices how they maintain their rooms, when they show up for meetings and whether they take notes. She looks to see how they organize themselves for the day and the records they keep. She listens to parents.
Ms. Getz wants to know whether teachers continually challenge themselves, have the power of reflection, make intellectual connections and are curious about the art of teaching. Some of what she’s hunting for, she can describe only vaguely: “There’s something at the core of a good teacher that kids get, and makes them feel safe and relaxed.”
The department judges them by student test scores and school progress report grades. Many nights, Ms. Getz wakes at 3 a.m. full of worries. “And then I say, I am not going to let them do this to me,” she said.
A few weeks before, the Education Department had sent principals a packet explaining the progress report grading system. It was titled, “New Templates Clarify Scoring and Metrics.” An example of template clarification: “The percent of range is the share of the comparison range covered by the school’s result, used to determine the share of points earned.”
Because of budget cuts, P.S. 126’s sixth grades have gone to 30 students per class from 20 last year, but Ms. Getz does not dwell on it. “I think of how to do,” she said, “with what I have.”
Excerpts from Ms. Getz’s list from last weekend: Start to plan Performance Assessment Tasks. Rough draft of Principal Performance Review. Plan out first-grade social studies School Study. Review fifth-grade first unit of social studies. Read and respond to GOAL sheets of all staff. Make new templates for Danielson observations .Write weekly family letter. Review professional text math book. Analyze Progress Report. Do feedback Post-its for teachers from informal visits this week.
School ended at 2:50 that day, but at 5, when Sabrina Bassett, a special-education teacher, came into the office with a question about a mapping lesson, Ms. Getz was there. And at 5:30, when Ian Lambert, a fourth-grade teacher, poked his head in to discuss a spelling curriculum he was putting together, Ms. Getz was still there.
...be adept with people,
...exhibit leadership,
...practice tough-love,
...be fair and consistent,
...be prepared and organized,
... be a visionary,
... be able to walk the talk,
... be a witness of Christ
Lord, let me be just what they need.
If they need someone to trust, let me be trustworthy.
If they need sympathy, let me sympathize.
If they need love, (and they do need love), let me love, in full measure.
Let me not anger easily, Lord but let me be just.
Permit my justice to be tempered in your mercy.
When I stand before them, Lord, let me look strong and good and honest and loving.
And let me be as strong and good and honest and loving as I look to them.
Help me to counsel the anxious, crack the covering of the shy, temper the
rambunctious with a gentle attitude.
Permit me to teach only the truth.
Help me to inspire them so that learning will not cease at the classroom door.
Let the lessons they learn make their lives fruitful and happy.
And, Lord, let me bring them to You.
Teach them through me to love You.
Finally, permit me to learn the lessons they teach.
Amen.
tulungan mo ako ha...
Mahirap...
Nakatatakot kasi...
Pero sa tulong Mo, alam ko,
magiging maayos ang lahat!
Yan ang sabi ni Manang!