Tricks of the Trade

Having been a principal for the past few years, I am gradually learning a few tricks of the trade ( admittedly, I am a slow learner) and I still have a long way to go but let me share a few tidbits. I had some parents come in Wednesday that wanted their son to be skipped a grade. For a variety of reasons, this was a non-starter so let me tell you what I did. I have an extremely small office on the west of the school and in the afternoon the temperature has to be well over 40 degrees centigrade. Frankly, it is even too hot for me and I love the heat. Since, I was coaching soccer after school, I put on my shorts and a t shirt, scheduled the meeting for the middle of the afternoon and did not put on the air conditioner.It was great! The guy was pulling out his handkerchief and wiping his brow every second and the wife was using examples of her kids work to fan herself. I asked her if she was menopausal. After a few minutes, she went storming out of the room which was, of course, the plan. When the father came back later in the day and was willing to reason with us, I did turn on the air conditioning ( which he did appreciate by the way.)

Another important lesson they never teach you in principal school is that when you hang up the phone on a parent, you have to be talking. This is easy. Just start to say something and press click. Who would believe you would hang up on yourself?

More seriously, the toughest job of being a principal is to ensure that teachers, students and parents become problem solvers in their own right. It is frankly easy to solve most problems immediately since I have the knowledge and resources to do it. The staff, money and curriculum are at my disposal so all I have to do is open my mouth to make something happen, but then what have the stakeholders learned? The hardest part of being a principal, it seems to be, is not give the quick solutions. For example, a teacher complained last week of other teachers coming late and screwing up the schedule of the school. I could and should talk to the teachers in question and make sure this does not happen again, but what would be solved, other than a quick fix which would happen again the next week or the next month. I have to figure out a way to get the teachers in question talking with each other and finding a solution to their own challenges, which, in the case of my school is easy because it is so small. We could quickly rearrange the timetable, take time from another part of the program and so on. Or, on a less creative side, simply have them talk to each other so it does not happen again.

Or... We have a really cute little four year old that is tearing the school up. He has absolutely no control. The other day, since the swimming teacher was away, I foolishly volunteered to take the kinder class. Things were really going smoothly, I thought, until this kid decided to take his life in his own hands and started to swim all over the pool or his interpretation of swimming. I grabbed his arms in a not too gentle way and told him that he had to do what he was told. When he shook his head no, I let go of his arms. When he resurfaced for air, I asked him the same question in English and again he shook his head no. I let go of his arms again with the same results. The third time, he came up shaking yes. I doubt very much whether he understood a word I said in English, but he did get the message that I wanted Si's and not no's. If only I can import a swimming pool into my office. It might solve two problems!