Unforced Errors
- It is time to put away your summer clothes and put on collared shirts, ties, dresses, and professional footwear.
- Parent-teacher conferences will be online again this year but teachers are required to be in the building to conduct them. This will avoid possible disturbances from pets and children.
- Make sure to sign in when you get to the faculty meeting.
- Turn in your certificate of participation for the conference or you will not get professional development hours.
School administrators make mistakes all the time. They are tasked with making hundreds of decisions every day. They might be told that there are no paper towel in the 4th floor girls bathroom and in the next moment be told that there is a bullying and sexual harassment situation that involves ten students. Confronted with the sheer volume of decisions large and small it is inevitable that administrators will make mistakes. Given that mistakes will be made it is crucial that administrators work to eliminate unforced errors.
Unforced errors in tennis are the ones that are not caused by your opponent but by you. Unforced errors in administration occur when administrators insert themselves where they are not needed OR decides to create or enforce a rule that doesn't do anything to improve student learning.
Don't wear jeans, etc. These type of edicts are dead on arrival and immediately turn everyone against you the administrator. The people who wear jeans all the time don't change their behavior and the people who have never thought about wearing jeans to work feel that you don't appreciate them as professionals. Instead of delivering a message to all teachers that they shouldn't wear jeans talk to the teachers who you feel are dressing a bit unprofessionally. I did this with two teachers and the both responded positively. They asked if wearing shorts was prohibited. I said no, but I thought it was not appropriate for high school teachers. They didn't agree but both of them stopped wearing shorts.
