Wednesday, October 17, 2012
How do we as teachers support our director?
The Golden Rule Revisited: Treat Adults as You Want Them to Treat Children. When reading through the first couple of pages of this chapter, I came across this statement. I kept coming back to it and thinking about it. How do we want others treating children? Of course how we would want to be treated. We want others to treat children children with respect and guide them in their development as a young child, just like how us teachers do. We treat other adults with respect and help them when they ask for it. Viewing teachers as competent thinkers and learners is an important part of being a director, because teachers do have some insight while being in the classroom with the children. The have hands on experience, but may need to ask questions at times and learn new things as well. When reading Susan's story on page 131, it gave me an insight on why teachers should be viewed as competent thinkers and learners. Five words that describe my view of this teacher is a risk taker, brave, supportive, thoughtful, and respectful. Five things this teacher needs to learn is the framework of building a philosophy, taking action based on the reaction of the teacher's answers and responses, understand the learning standards, and defining the role of the teacher. She had some really great ideas in creating the program's philosophy, but other factors need to be addressed, such as, the community the school's are located in. The community plays a huge role in the school's philosophy and they should be accounted for in the philosophy as well. We are learning about a lot how a director supports the staff, children, and community, but how do we as a teachers support our director? - Something Revisited.
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So true Ashley! Too often we blame the director for anything that goes wrong instead of looking for a way to support her and help her solve the problem!
ReplyDeleteSome ideas you could do as staff members are:
*Instead of complaining about things behind the directors back, ask her why we do something a certain way, and if you think you have a better, more efficient way of doing something, then suggest it...the director has maybe never considered it before!
*If the director seems stressed and over loaded, ask if there is anything you could do to help....maybe something you could work on while the kids are napping.
*Also if your director is attempting to coach rather than just manage and tell you what to do, then be open to it...be open minded about ideas she suggests instead of letting it go in one ear and out the other!
*Give as much feed back about the kids and the classrooms as possible because you are in there more than the director is and it would be useful for her to be updated on important issues in the classroom!
These are just a few ideas of how staff could support their director...maybe you guys have more :)
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the there needs to be a foundation of a director supporting teachers before teachers can support a director. Further, do teachers need to support children in order for the entire system of support to be in place? What might it mean for a director to support teachers that support children? What does this support look like within the classroom and across a center?
It is interesting to hear you discuss how adults want to be treated as children are treated. Do current policies (like race to the top based in testing children in order to create a database) treat children how teachers want to be treated? Should teachers be judged on children's outcomes of standardized tests? How might accountability practices limit how children and teachers are viewed? What might be a director's role in disrupting these views?
Jeanne
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteEveryone always has something that they can improve about themselves or about their understanding. Why is it that teachers and directors don’t take some of their believes, goals and strategies that they use to serve children and apply these to their relationships with one another in their work places? One of our goals is to serve children with respect, and to guide and support their learning process. Well, in our work, we want to be respected, supported and respected, too, by the people we work with, day in and day out. We look at our job as service to the children, families and community, isn’t it? Isn’t it a service to our program and to each other, too?
How can a director develop a vision, philosophy and plan that supports and delivers high rates of success for children and staff? How will directors and staff offer best practices in the field and become valuable supporters as well as achieve competence and efficiency?
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI too kept revisiting this statement. It was quite interesting to think about. Teachers just as well as any other person should be treated with respect, we're all human. I think teachers who are well experienced, very hands-on and involved in their students progress and accepts constructive criticism and advice to better their teaching strategies; etc. should be well supported. I believe that by teachers who do practice good teaching strategies as mentioned above and so on, do support their directors. When there is a good working and learning environment for children, teachers, directors, and families...their actions and contributions to their environment do support each other...thank you for sharing and allowing me to comment on your blog...
Hello Ashley,
ReplyDeleteThe statement that you mentioned at the begining of your blog is true because if the staff is being treated with respect and fairness by the director, then the teachers will hopefully treat the children that way. As adults, we all would like to be viewed as independent thinkers and learners, but what happens when there is one person on the team that isn't on the same page as the rest of the staff? How is the director viewed if all their time is spent with this one staff member? Does that bring the moral of the team down or is it viewed as a booster because the director notices that this person needs help to keep the team moving forward? Should the teachers be prasied and encouraged when they are doing a good job? When does all the director praise get to much for the staff?
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteIn all of the lessons we try to teach our children and families, why does it seem like the large majority of the people in today’s society have forgotten about The Golden Rule? Has humanity taken a turn for the worse? Despite all of the chaos in today’s world, what are we educators doing to teach children and families to treat others the way they want to be treated? Does The Golden Rule hold more weight in certain cultures than in others (i.e. Buddhists as opposed to Muslims)?
Throughout my travels in Finland, I am pleasantly surprised to see the social equity and true sense of social justice that is innate among the Finns. It is very obvious that The Goldern Rule is alive and well in this country. Unfortunately, it seems as if the word equity is only whispered here in the U.S. What transformations would the U.S. have to undergo in order to see the Finnish-type of social equity?
Does support between teachers and directors need to be reciprocal to maintain a quality program? How about support amongst staff members? How does how we, as adults, treat each other affect the quality of the program? How does it affect the children? I was employed in a preschool program where the director didn't view the teachers as competent learners and educators. The well-experienced teachers that were new to this preschool site were usually criticized for their ideas and efforts, and were instructed to change their plans according to the director's ideas. This affected the disposition of the teachers toward the director, but it also caused the teachers to strengthen their support for each other, as they were consistently bashed by the director. This also caused the teachers to be un-supportive of the director when she asked for the teachers to take on additional roles. The program suffered greatly as the staff turn-over rate was high, which in turn, affected the children and families.One class went through three teacher's within one school year. The director clearly had a great lack of mentoring and coaching skills. She had a habit of "talking down" to people, instead of encouraging and lifting them. All this discussion about the power that director's hold, reminds me of a quote i once saw, "Strong people don't put others down, they lift them." How can director's be an effective, supportive, and understanding coach and mentor for the teachers? How can teachers best receive the coaching and mentoring of the director? You mentioned that we want adults to treat us as we want them to treat children. This brings to mind a teacher that I currently work with who constantly criticizes other teachers and makes them feel inferior, and doesn't communicate with fellow teacher's in a respectful manner, however, when she is communicating and engaging in activities with the children, she maintains respectful and positive interactions and models pro-social behavior. This completely puzzles me.
ReplyDeleteHi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteYour questions looks at the directors point of view on how the teachers can help support the directors. I find this interesting because most of is in this class including myself looked at how the director can help the staff. There should be equal support from director to teacher and vise versa.