Bad Socks and Shocks vs Sandals and Success

“Our Best Always” – Step One.
I loved the way that Matthew looked at me with his thumbs up, that knowing look that kids give you when they are sure they are safe with you, it had been a long journey with Matthew, the kind that you never think will see any fruit from the tree. He struggled with home, he struggled with studies, he struggled with other kids and most of all he struggled with himself. It’s exhausting teaching. Everyday is a myriad of personalities, expectations and experiences that culminate into a classroom of children who want you to lead them to learning. It’s not a picnic at times. However if you love teaching, the exhaustion envelopes you in a kind of warm hum at the end of the day.

“It’s our best always” Matthew recounted sharply to a new classroom recruit, (referring to the school logo on his shirt and to the boy who was largely doing what he had been doing several months before) THAT was the point I knew that Matthew had realised his place and value, he had been accepted and was starting a journey for his future because he knew he could. These moments, such as with Matthew, energise you to take the next step and make it all worthwhile.

I firmly believe that every individual needs to continue to take steps to honour themselves to recognise their worth even if it is the pure joy of starting a new journey that motivates you, we all need to grab the reigns and take off from time to time and see where we will land.

Bad Socks – Step Two
So I grabbed the reigns. Fear is always a factor when you start out with a new idea. My idea? Spurred on by the enthusiasm of my principal and others I dipped my toe into the water and made an appointment with the employee advisor, I wanted to be a principal, after all I had the same short lived anxiety stepping into a classroom for the first time, and I think that I have travelled pretty well from that first step!

I wonder if they will think that this is really a bit of a jump for me? I nervously waited in the foyer. I spun the idea around in my head… could I really be a principal, do I have what it takes? Would I be leaving a great job for something that I may not enjoy? BUT I may enjoy it? LETS SEE! I had a list (and I mean a LIST) of questions. What is a principal I thought? When I searched my primary school memory banks I came up with a fairly grim picture of a man in pretty bad socks and a face that would turn various shades of red when children of cunning were not meeting the criteria he was looking for, I remember being on parade and a hush following him because he was revered… that wouldn’t be me!

Luckily the employee advisor had the time and patience to sit and listen and talk. I knew that I didn’t want to stop teaching. How about a teaching principal, she advised. A spark… yes I could do that….what do I do?

Paddling in the Pool – Step Three
The Acting Pool. I realised that now I had started the journey, I had put my hand up and for me, it wasn’t an option to change my mind. I applied to the “acting pool” telling the department what I thought my leadership qualities were and the life experiences that I had pocketed that would stand me in good stead. I sincerely hoped that they realised “acting” wasn’t a literal meaning entirely, how do you do something you have never done before without some role play first?

I realised that everyday a teacher is a leader. Time Management, Inter-personal Relations, Financing, Delegation, Knowledge Building, the list goes on. What I didn’t realise is the diversity of the role of a teaching principal, the job list was HUGE and the scale of a classroom was now diminished by the fact that I had to respond to a whole school!
A few things in a teaching principal’s day would include:
1. Teaching – the core business
2. Parents, community and negotiation
3. P&C Functions and fundraisers
4. Finance and Budgets
5. Documents and Policies
6. Staff and Workplace relations
7. Planning and Assessing
8. Promoting and planning
9. Data Interpretation
10. Communication
to name a few!

So WHY do it? I asked myself, well one of the reasons would be to have a say in how I could improve a school, how could I direct all those unsurmountable ideas I seemed to have in staff meetings to some peoples annoyance when they just wanted to get home, how could I help a school build direction for children’s learning and support other teachers to do the same….I wanted to know if I could and I wanted to experience it, and as I had always been told you never know until you try!

BOUY oh BOUY – The Teaching Principal’s Life Raft – Step Four
A job! A contract already! Amazingly four weeks ago this was a dream and now it was becoming a reality. I was to go to a country school for a short period of time to back fill for a principal who was taking a promotional step due to another principal being ill.. I never thought about leaving my classroom and I felt guilty, Matthew, my new fledgling student had just laced up his trainers and arrogantly I thought he couldn’t do it without me!

The day arrived. The first day. The day where, people will see me as their principal. I had no socks on but a pair of sturdy sandals! One day to discuss what needed to be done in a handover and then……it was just me. The P&C Meeting. Arms Crossed along with cross words…why was this principal who had done so much leaving us, they questioned? “Gulp” this was going to be harder than I thought! Talk, share and be honest. It worked. A few uncrossed arms a few smiles and even a nod from one of the most perplexed…and besides I could always ASK people for advice…..WHO??

Luckily there was an answer, members of “The Aspiring Leadership Course”. This really has been a lifesaver in terms of offering support, guidance and also friendship from people who are experiencing the same changes and challenges to their career, with the advice of EQ staff with expertise and knowledge…I wonder how I would have coped without this reprieve of shared information and guidance that this course had to offer. Small school principals are often in isolated areas and you really are dependant on that close network of principals to see you through .on-the job training is what country principalship is all about and I guess by doing we are learning however just knowing that others would be asking the same sorts of questions that others may take for granted was comforting, knowing that others had the same doubts and aspirations was, comforting as well.

Digging Up Dirt – Step Five
Another weekend that isn’t mine, but was it before? A rather large spider crossed over my foot as I took another shovel full of dirt and placed it in the barrow. For two years the P&C at my tiny country school had been chasing funds, time and people to complete a garden at the front of the school. When you have a bugbear like that you have to fix it, so this is why I was digging. A teaching principal is not only on board between the hours of 9-3, every good teaching/principal knows this. It becomes your life, work colleagues are your extended family and you bond with children in your class as if they are yours to some extent (when you think about it we do spend more time with children than their parents do in an average day) Some people see this as a complaint, I see this type of working environment as a positive. I worked in a cloistered office environment for seven years, seeing a clock tick by on the wall wondering when it would end, but in this job I don’t have time to think about the clock, and there are days when I am disappointed that it has ended and I know that every day when I come to this school I can make a difference. That is the importance of doing this job, this is why people become principals in small schools, when they know that the workload is enormous, the pressures are large and that sometimes dirt is not only dished out on your shoes!