Can You Get Teachers To Love Admin?
Isn't it time you got all teachers onboard with your admin?
Teachers, like any staff member, need to be on board with the administration because they are often the ones who must implement policies. And when a teacher isn’t on board, there is a good chance that student morale will tank and even potentially lead to more disciplinary problems.
But getting an entire faculty of teachers to feel that they have shared power with administration can be tough! No one wants to feel like they are being told what to do at work.
To be sure, there are some teachers who will embrace new policies with open arms. But other teachers may not react well towards administrators at all.
So how can schools get teachers on board? Well for one thing, you need to actually ask them how they feel about the changes that you want to make and see if there is any possible way for them to feel that it isn’t about telling them what to do. Explain the reason behind the change and make it clear why it will be better for them and their students.
For example, perhaps you want to start requiring more teachers to take part in goal setting meetings during faculty meetings because this gives all teachers a chance to participate. But the teachers may feel that it interferes with their prep period, so ask them how they would feel about coming in an hour earlier or staying 15 minutes later. Perhaps they would be more open to this and even excited about it because it allows them to put in more time on planning without feeling like they are just working on something they don’t care as much about.
It is also important to remember that sometimes you will have teachers who really can’t get past their grudges with your decisions, even when you are being fair. This is where you must make the tough decision of whether or not a teacher really is too negative to be worth keeping around anymore. And if you are really in a bind and can’t figure out who to let go, it might be good to just fire all the teachers and start from scratch. But keep in mind that it is unlikely other teachers will work well with you when you do that.
So there are a few ways to approach getting teachers on board with your administration, and here are some more:
Make sure that the policies you have come up with aren’t too damaging towards their daily tasks – If they must do something that is entirely different than what they thought they were doing before, make sure it doesn’t mess up anything else that they are trying to do. Make sure the teachers have time to come up with ideas – The teachers need to be open to trying new things, so make sure they are always coming up with new ideas. If they don’t seem to be, try giving them a month off from all meetings and just let them do what they want. Maybe after that month is up, they can get some new inspiration. Meet with different groups of teachers – It might be smart to meet individually with a few smaller groups of teachers rather than meeting with the entire staff at once because it will make it more likely for everyone to feel like you are addressing their concerns.