Working with administrators that don’t understand students?

[Nancy]

This year we have a new principal that doesn’t seem to consistently follow through on student discipline. Student “A” will break a rule and just get a warning. Student “B” will break the same rule and get a severe punishment.

She indicates that her motivation for doing this is to instill fear in students. My parents see it as playing favorites. Teachers of my grade totally disagree with her methodology and in a way it makes our job much more difficult.

Does anyone have any advice with how I should approach her about this? I’m not tenured and I am worried that my criticism could threaten my job security.

[Unregistered]

Being an untenured teacher myself, I understand your anxiety about your job security. Instead of putting your job on the line, even though it shouldn't be threatened because you have the courage to ask a question, is there another teacher in your grade or school that shares your concern and is in a more secured position?

We might not want to acknowledge this but the reality is that untenured teachers should avoid controversial positions in order to protect our futures. I dislike this reality greatly as I feel that my colleagues are asking me indirectly to suppress my opinions.

All things said, we should always approach/deal with a difficult situation with tact, ethics, and professionalism.

Best of luck, I hope you find a workable solution.

[experienced teacher]

I have been teaching 37 years and have a supervisors certificate. YOu have a touchy situation. The new principal needs to find her way in establishing building discipline and you need to be careful so you get your contract renewed.

If I were you I would not approach your principal unless the whole faculty discusses it at a teachers meeting. I would try to get the PTO/PTA or a group on parents to talk with the principal. Sometimes parent pressure gets the job done.

When your parents discuss this issue with you, tell them they should talk with the principal. You have to follow the building policy.

Then I would make sure that MY students follow the rules and are not sent to the principal. In my building we have those little pretty stones that go in fish tanks and a jar. When the students behavior and show they have character we put a stone or two into the jar. When the jar is full we have a popcorn party.

Mary

[Unregistered]

As an educator for 12+ years, I think I have seen it all. I have dealt with many newly certified administrators and many great veteran administrators and the topic is always the same. The reality of the situation is that most new administrators are either used to working with only ONE set of children, be it upper level or lower level.....very few have experience with both.

I come from a PK-12 school in rural west central Texas and I have worked as a fill in for years for our principal, when he/she is out. It is a very difficult job to juggle the "bright" students' behavior and the "average" students' behavior and stay "POLITICALLY CORRECT". This unfortunately is the reality of the situation in today's public education. The children with the grades are normally the ones who have parents pushing them, and these parents are the ones that have their fingers on the pulse of the superintendent or the principal. They are the ones with the "stroke" and these are the ones that scare the tar out of the administrators....they make the phone calls and spread the rumors.

My advise is to hang in there and try to be consistant with your students and set the trend. Keep plugging alone and remember that you are a young teacher and you will work for many administrators during your career.... don't get labelled as a complainer or someone that is hard to work with.....

[They call me "Miss O"]

I have taught for 28 years in the same district, which is very concerned about its image. I have found that the only way to influence administration is through the parents. Parents, as taxpayers, have the power. Parents who don't care don't have any "rights." Pity their children. As a taxpayer in the district, a member of a strong teacher union (AFT, bless them) and a veteran teacher who is NOT afraid of losing her job, I encourage parents to take a stand. I know what I say is easier said than done. However, I do ask parents to leave me out of it. I do make my comments as a suggestion, and only if parents ask me what I think, or what they should do about any given complaint, situation, etc.

[laichan123]

:eek: :eek: What a dilemma! As I've taught for nearly 50 years I've been there, done that. I did learn that if untenured, better not to comment or suggest until you've really tested the waters. First of all: How does the new principal take criticism or respond to suggestions? In other words, does s/he have an open mind? If not, stay out, you might find yourself in a maelstrom. Secondly, wait. That kind of situation apparently is already stirring up controversy and might take care of itself. All it would need is one threat of lawsuit, the ultimate A-bomb of parents. Third, stay out of it behind scenes too. No comments to anybody that might come back at you later. Not unless you can really trust somebody, which is still a risk, or your USD opens an investigation, in which case you can testify. Finally, study your laws! Know your rights in case the volcano erupts and you get caught innocently in the ashfall.
If I'm wrong about anything here, please somebody enlighten me, and I'll appreciate it more than you know. (I tried to put a smiley here but it won't work.)

[Taniamarie]

Do tenured teachers have your same concerns? If so, ask them if they
have aproached the pirincipal about her unfairness in dealing with punishment.
If not, just be brave and ask the principal why was student A punished different than Student B when both did the same thing. If she gives you a stern look and gets deffensive, just tell her that you are worry you might be missing information on how to handle disciplinary problems in "our school".

[Unregistered]

I am a new teacher and found myself asking the same questions. Everyone should be consistent and fair. I would suggest checking out the CHAMPs system for your school. It is a positive program and one that would be viewed as a positive approach to campus health. It is a wonderful tool for classroom management and can be incorporated school wide. When a campus becomes divided, administrators versus teachers there is no positive climate for anyone.
CHAMPs A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management
Randy Sprick, Ph.D. Mickey Garrison, Ph.D. Lisa M. Howard, M.S.
My administrator sent me to a two day professional development about CHAMPs and I have a new outlook on my classroom and my campus. I also realized that my comment to my principal, "the kids are doing so much better" and his reply, "it is because you are different" was a true picture of my situation. And by the way, I teach 7th and 8th grade writing.
Think before you leap is my advice and document, document and document some more.
Hang in there. :)

[Unregistered]

Having taught for 33 years, I found there to be a wealth of knowledge put together in Dr. Ruby Payne's book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Although the title of the book may not seem to offer what you think that you are looking for, there are a lot of ideas that will help. Introduce the rest of the faculty to it. It will help you put things in perspective - what the issues are and ideas that will work that will help you out. There is language and there are questions that can be posed that will help prevent the discussion from deterioriating into a worthless waste of time. The web page is: www.ahaprocess.com.

[Unregistered]

I would definitely let the superintendent and district know about this through an anonymouis method. That princiapl could be acting racist and only punish ceratin races instead of others. This is very common.