The summer of 2020 brought with it, my first opportunity to complete administration internship hours in a school level outside my own.
High school. Yikes.
I am an elementary level Special Education teacher. So, while excited for the opportunity to learn in this manner, I am not sure the task could have felt more intimidating on day one. I was ready to hear more than once: no, that’s not how we do things in high school. In addition to completing these hours at the high school level, I also opted to complete them in a different county.
The main task of the work: master schedule for the 2020-2021 school year. You know: the school year where there are different options. Some students will be in school a couple of days a week. Some students will choose 100% distance learning. These (still hypothetical) students and families were referred to often as the “away” team in my summer experience. “Away” but absolutely no less important to the school community than the “home” team.
I love that analogy. This is not easy for anyone.
We are going to find a way to include all students and their families in this community. Away, home. It’s ONE community. One family. One game. We are still in the middle of a global pandemic. Parents and families have some choices. However, there are 1600 students in this school and we’re creating a master schedule or three…
Where do you even begin the work?
You begin with a phenomenal leader and the administrative team around him. Clearly someone who knows how to train a future administrator in a different level from their own.
On day one: here’s a task for you. It’s extremely important, and here’s why…. and it’s your responsibility. Let me know if you need any help, but off you go.
I wasn’t sure how the learning for the summer of 2020 was going to go.
One year ago, I reached out to the principal to conduct an informational interview and ended up with the opportunity to complete my required 40 hours at his school. My eldest son attended there over 10 years ago. We were in touch exactly once since that time.
When I first reached out: the principal remembered my son. He remembered me as the parent. Here’s my 2 cents of advice in the field… and this is what I can offer by way of support. Come work with us to complete your high school hours. I didn’t expect that.
In June of 2020, a full year later, I reached out again to follow up on the actual hours. I had an email in my inbox within an hour. YES! Thank you! We would LOVE to have your help. Here’s our summer schedule and we appreciate your help in advance. Come by any time.
What? You are doing ME a favor.
No. You are doing US a favor and thank you.
That’s leadership.
Fast forward to my last day of the summer internship. My goal was to complete one half of my required hours this summer and the remaining half, during the school year when students are back in the building.
There’s still lots of work to do, but here is what I learned. Every single kid in that school is valued and important. By name. More than once, we were looking up individual kids and their schedule requests. More than once, we made adjustments for ONE kid.
Every single staff member and teacher in that school is valued and important. More than once, we made schedule adjustments for ONE teacher.
Every single member of the administrative team supported my learning in one way or another from day one. We worked in teams of two for the most part. Always different teams. Different people. Different personalities. The same common objective.
As I was learning, they would all ask. Okay.. that’s right. But WHY is it right. Explain it.
Oh, the pressure!
On my last day, I was teaching someone else how to do it.
Yes. When you can teach it to someone else, you have truly LEARNED it.
I sat in on leadership meetings and staff meetings, introduced by the principal at every turn. My input and perspective was asked for, more than once. I never once heard: no, that’s not how we do things in high school. I intended to use these leadership/staff meeting experiences to observe, but ended up participating as much as anyone around the table. We talked about social-emotional supports and learning, yearbook distribution ideas for the class of 2020, summer graduation. Streamlining community information between the various levels of schools in the pyramid. What can we do to make this all a little easier for parents and families? Simplify. Pattern. Train. Let’s talk. Let’s figure it out.
We talked about the realities of the health crisis facing us. Sobering, personal stories of illness, suffering, students and staff who have been impacted. All so close to home. We have to keep going, acknowledging the suffering. Caring. Loving. Leading through it.
Everyone shared a story of personal, unexpected opportunities, experienced as a result of school closures and all that time at home because of COVID-19.
Yes, we all sat 6 feet apart. All wearing a mask. Many joined us virtually. However, it is still the most “normal” professional activities since March 2020. Nothing can replace the in-person experiences. Nothing.
We all connected over a mutual love of 80’s music as we worked through the components of the master schedule process. Name the artist. Name the year. Name the soundtrack. No checking Google!
The work was admittedly tedious, but strangely, it was fun too. This came up several times by several different people throughout the process.
Why is this “fun?” this year? This is not a fun job.
Maybe it’s because we all had a chance to meet new people, be in the same room, listen to some music and work collaboratively to get a job done.
Maybe the most important but sometimes tedious work is something we all take for granted. Maybe that is something we all learned in quarantine. No one was complaining.
Maybe it’s a new dawn, a new day.
Maybe the difficulties of this year changes the game forever.
This summer of 2020 experience in administration and leadership learning is going to be hard to top.
