Show Notes
Show Notes, Episode 21: Meeting the Needs of New Teachers
About this show:
In today’s episode, guest host Mara Buskey leads us through a discussion with two relatively new teachers about what they need from their assistant principals, how they view leadership, and what kind of feedback and style of coaching best meets their needs. This is an inspiring episode that may yield some surprising but valuable insights.
Notable Quotes
Mara Buskey
“I can very much remember being a student and the intense feeling that would occur when an administrator would walk in the room. It was like immediately everything was on edge”
Frederick Buskey
“I think our default is collaborative; as educators we want to help people grow and we want that dialogue. I think that we need to be more directive more often, especially with newer teachers. And I don’t mean directive in a way of ‘you have to do this’ but directive in a way that ‘oh, I see that you’re struggling with this. Here, here are some things that can help you. Let me help you with this.”
“your generation is fundamentally different in that you view feedback as something that is there to help you grow”
“we can give feedback in different ways: just saying ‘oh you’re doing a great job’ doesn’t really tell me much… the most powerful feedback is very specific”
“whether we are an administrator or a teacher, when someone makes a suggestion or has an idea, the first step is really to consider the perspective and to not say ‘oh no, that won’t work based on my perspective’ but to seek out the other perspectives”
Kemberly Merritt
“for teachers that come in, if they can have the support of someone that is going to give them a step by step guidance, it would give them a more secure feeling”
“It is more resourceful to me if you come in and express to me ‘this is what you need to do, this is how this needs to be done, this is what you can use to do better’ versus telling me at a later time or at the end of the year… if you tell me now, I can correct it now.”
“this year when [my AP] came in… he would come in and he wouldn’t even worry about me. He would talk to the students, he would sit at the table with the students… he would sit there and work with the students on what they were doing to make the students be more comfortable with him being in the classroom, and I didn’t see someone sitting in the back with a pen and paper writing, I saw someone that was engaging in the lessons with the students which made it a lot easier for me”
“you have to have a relationship with your students to have a good year. That’s one of the things that I have expounded on. I start off my first week of school building a relationship with my students and then everything else follows”
“I think all teachers are leaders because you are leading the students in your classrooms. They are looking at us as leaders, so I would say anyone that is teaching or guiding anybody I would consider them to be a leader.”
“Leadership comes in all shapes, forms, sizes, and personalities, but the leadership that is given has to be accepted so that you can grow.”
Leah Downing
“tell me the things that I’m doing great, and then the things I need to work on and I can do better on, and then finish up with another way that I’m awesome”
“one area I want to grow is looking at curriculum more big picture. What I mean by that is that I know my third grade standards, the things I need to teach them, and where they need to be at the end of the year. But I really have no clue what they do in 4th grade or what they do in 3nd grade… I know that if I have that big understanding of their math curriculum and their reading curriculum, I would be so much better able to support my students because I would better be able to pinpoint exactly where they’re learning the things that they have gaps in”
“one important thing about leadership, particularly with classroom teachers or people who aren’t necessarily in a leadership position at a school, sometimes it can just be seen that there is a need and being the person to fill it or being willing to fill it”
“its all about relationships. At the end of the day, all of us in a school building are working to build contributing members of society and relationships are at the heart of that.”
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