Instructional Supervision: It Requires Time, Energy and Priorities

It was 1986 and all I had left in my degree program was student teaching. A small, local Christian school was looking for a music teacher, so I took the position to complete my student teaching requirement and start my teaching career as a first-year teacher.  The school was an independent Christian school renting space from a small local church. I was given a classroom upstairs behind the sanctuary to use as my music room. I was also given a storage closet as an office with a small 28” x 21” desk to work on. The classroom had a phone in it, but the “office” did not. To get to my classroom students had to walk through the church sanctuary, up the steps in the back of the stage and into this random room. Because the classroom was on the 2nd floor, I had to go to the kindergarten rooms with my portable “boom box” (it was 1986 after all).

Here I was, a 22-year-old kid, uncertified, first year teacher without a degree teaching Kindergarten through 12th grade. You would think in a situation like this I would have seen the principal often.  Imagine the challenge a first-year teacher faces with such a wide variety of age groups, attention spans, needs, understanding of the subject, and maturity levels. I was a teacher who needed mentoring and coached. Instead, the only time I saw the principal was when there was a parent question or complaint. I really cannot remember being observed once or remember one piece of advice or wisdom I received that year. Instead, I was left alone to figure it out for myself.

Unfortunately, this is not a rare situation. Many new teachers are thrown to the wolves to make it or break it. It is predictable in the current state of education that we will have more and more inexperienced teachers in the classroom, making proper instructional supervision more important than ever before.

It is the wise leader that recognizes that the teachers need support. No teacher wants to be micro-managed, but good teachers do not want to be left alone either. As I talk to classroom teachers, the most common frustration I hear is that their principal never visits the classroom, but will make decisions that impact the teachers without a real understanding of what is taking place in the trenches. This is why I continued to teach at least one class when I went into administration. It kept me grounded and reminded me of the sometime struggle to get lesson plans done or get my grades in on time.

Some schools are fortunate enough to have a staff position that is responsible for coaching teachers. However, for the average Christian school this is a luxury. Peer coaching is effective, but it does not really provide the administration with the information they need to do proper evaluations or develop effective PD opportunities. The bottom line is that the principal needs to get in the classroom or have a designated person who can. Classroom visits spark professional conversation and lead to better PD. Struggling teachers get the support they need in developing a personalized professional development plan.  The research clearly indicates that proper supervision increases teacher effectiveness and student learning.

To make this happen the school administration needs to make time in the classroom a priority. Schedule visits into the day and not allow meetings to interfere. Visit new teachers often and set up conference times to hear about their successes and struggles.  Plan times in the week to meet and share with experienced teachers. Mix-up the classroom visits to be at different times of the day and for different lengths of time. When a teacher who needs more support is identified, the principal needs to find time to coach or find someone who can do it for them.

This is where Leverage can help. If you are at a school where you do everything and can’t find the time to coach a teacher in need of more support, contact us and we can share with you a unique program designed to fill that void.