Step One in the Granny Apple School of Leadership Coaching is to define terms. Thus, what does he mean by "late"? The school day starts at 8.00am and teachers are supposed to arrive by 7.45am to check messages, check mailboxes, sign in so that the secretary knows who is in the building and of course get to the gym, classroom, assembly hall etc before the magic moment of the first bing-bong of the day.
It seems that Jo (the tardy teacher) often misses the check-in time, often misses the secretary salutation and often goes straight to his classroom. It also seems that Jo is often later to his room, and as a result his homeroom students are waiting less than noiselessly in the corridor.
First period starts at 8.15am and by all accounts, Jo is generally on time for this but (and this is a big but) he has also been late for first period.
Yet his evaluations are otherwise Excellent; student and parent feedback is also Excellent with students rating him above the Counselor as someone with whom they would share problems; AP and state standardized test scores are at the top nation and state wide, he coaches winter and summer varsity teams which compete at state, not county, level, and one of them has grown as a club from one team to now twelve because of the status Jo has brought to the sport in the school.
He also leads faculty activities, represents the school in state independent school association activities and serves on or chairs two subject committees and has improved teaching practice and corps d'esprit across his department.
So what should my mentee do?
Step Two in the GASLC is to define the school's expectations of a teacher, an effective teacher and a colleague or team member. I asked my mentee to define ten such attributes, and then to informally rank them. Guess what. Punctuality did not feature in this list although a catchall (vix, "tbd") "professional behavior" did.
I advised my mentee that he should consider two things. Firstly, does this one aspect outweigh or overshadow all or even any of the aspects of his expectations of a teacher? If not, then perhaps he should live with it and work on messaging,
Secondly, he should consider the role of precedent. If he allows Jo to arrive when he so chooses, then should he not also allow everyone else to do the same? Do other teachers not see this as unfair? Does his noisy students affect other classes while waiting for him to arrive?
I of course cannot answer these two questions. They are up to the director, the school and the Board to resolve. My role in the Granny Apple College is to ask the necessary questions to guide decision-makers and to help them consider all angles. I will of course ask in a future session as to what Policy and Procedures decision was taken, and at point the errant educator would enter the disciplinary process.
Practically, I advised my mentee to meet with Jo and to ensure he knew (a) that he had been arriving late (b) that this had been noticed and (c) that this was having an effect. I suggested he try and find out the reason(s), and perhaps arrange something as simple as a daily wake-up call or booking a pick-up service for any children to get to school could resolve things. Perhaps removing the homer oom responsibility would help. Perhaps not scheduling him for the first period on specific days.
Ultimately, however my debuting director needs to be firm but fair and the first step to this nirvana is to have a clear and consistent Policy and Procedures statement. Few of these decisions are simple, and little in education is black and what. “There are eight million stories in the naked city; this has been one of them."
**Please leave comments or queries below.**
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