Lucky Number Seven

I wish I could point to one specific thing that went wrong that year, but when I search my memory, I don't come up with anything. Was it hard? Yep. The leadership learning curve was steeper than it looked from the safety of the sidelines. Teaching is a profession where, not only do they expect you to come in and do the exact same job that a veteran of 20 or 30 years does, but there are also extra duties that we are encouraged to accept with little or no preparation. I was managing a team of adults, in addition to my already demanding full-time job, yet I had zero management experience or training. In retrospect, I guess I should be happy it wasn't worse.

There were the usual disagreements about field trips and activities, some conflict about student schedule changes, different philosophies of discipline and consequences. Did we try to implement some consistent behavior and homework policies across the team? Maybe so; I honestly don't remember, but if we did, we were not successful. Another true thing about teaching, especially in our district, is that teachers have a lot of autonomy, especially when the door is closed, and they don't give it up easily. Once again, there were some strong personalities on the team, Leila and the math teacher often went head-to-head, but now the hands that were full with keeping the peace were mine. It turned out that I wasn't the type of leader to lay down the law and coerce my teammates to go along. I wanted consensus, and when people didn't agree with me, I was surprised to discover that I was willing to compromise.

I assume the kids that year were challenging; I know they weren't any easier than usual, but, again, nothing stands out in my mind. I do know this: One time Leila and I were discussing classroom management. She was telling me about a book she had read in which the author had described four distinct management styles. The one she was drawn to was well-defined, with rules and consequences specific and clear. Another was called "with-it-ness", or something like that, where there were minimum formal guidelines and the teacher relied on her own awareness of what was happening in the room and her subsequent judgment. "I think I'm with-it-ness," I laughed, to which Leila readily agreed, and the conversation ended there, but I wonder now if that was a clue to a big difference between us.