Accentuate the Positive

I cannot remember a time when I have had so little sleep over such a long time as I have in the past month. As many mentions as I have made over the years to coffee and energy drinks (my webpage is called “The Highly Caffeinated Educator” after all), my thoughts now do not lead me toward another paean to the power of chemistry. This time, the energy to go on came from outright terror and the anticipation of something new and good which I was responsible to make happen.

The first week of school has passed and everything is working. Some tweaks remain to be made so everything operates as smoothly as possible, but so far everything has functioned according to plan.

Except for furniture that did not arrive until 6:00 PM the night before school opened.

And late busses.

And an air-conditioning system that randomly picks a room not to cool each day.

Our motto has become, “It is what it is.”

As easy as it might be to focus on the glitches and the inordinate amount of time they take from my schedule, these best laid plans going awry have been overshadowed by the things that have gone right. The teachers have handled every glitch with grace as have the students. Teaching and learning are taking place in all the classes. The students like and value the environment designed for them. The community is proud of the program we have in place.

The glitches have been just that - glitches. None of them harmed anyone or disrupted the activity of the school. I left work each day with a smile on my face. It is really easy to focus and point out the positives with everything working as it has so far.

The outright terror I experienced for the last month that kept me awake pondering every scenario helped get the the right plans in place. Terror can be productive that way. I did not sleep much, but my attention was focused. I have a feeling that every year I am the administrator of a campus I will experience similar terror. As a teacher and counselor, the start of the school year brought long hours and anxiety, but it was nothing like that of an administrator.

The success of the year’s start excites me and has set the tone for a positive year. My goal now is to keep the positive energy going for the entire school year.

New Administrator Lessons #1: My Job

In the last few months I moved from a position as a supporting administrator to the lead administrator on a campus. Because the campus is a center affiliated with a high school, I am not technically the principal; however, I function like one at the center. I also have responsibilities for two programs in the school district spanning sixth to twelfth grades. After about a week into the job, I started noticing “ah-ha” moments when I recognized a change in thinking I had to make in order to be effective. I made notes of these moments and hope my discoveries offer insight to others making the transition or considering moving into administration.

I have always been a do-er. I jump in and make certain the work gets done - usually by doing it myself. Often I justify it by saying, “it’s faster to do it than to explain and get someone else to do it.” Doing the task is not necessarily my job anymore - especially when it involves physical labor. Making certain the task is completed in a satisfactory manner is my job now. Getting the job to satisfactory may require some hands-on supervision, but the next time, the task is completed more efficiently from the start.

Changing roles does not mean I am no longer a do-er. I am not dressed to move furniture or sweep the floors. I am responsible for making the decisions that move all of the work of the school forward. My doing has shifted from physical labor to mental labor. My doing involves building the master schedule and assembling a team to carry it out. I make decisions regarding instructional materials and strategies. I plan and map the flow of bodies through the facility.

I was raised in the country and the many physical chores of the ranch defined labor in my mind. Shifting my mindset from the idea that “real work” involved physical labor to include mental work proved challenging even though I arrive at home at the end of each day completely exhausted. It took seeing results take shape following mental work I had done before I had the “ah-ha” moment that what I was doing was actually work. My administrator training covered the roles of various staff members in a school, but my personal experiences that shaped the idea of work trumped that knowledge until I had enough experience to prove otherwise.

No one who works in a school setting (and does their job well) does not work hard. Changing my personal mindset to value the level of work that goes on from upper administrative decision making to custodial labor was the first major lesson I learned that has made me a more effective leader.