Actually, they understand you. Not only do they understand you but they understand all the music teachers that came before you. That's who trained your supervisors as to what music teachers are all about.
For a second, let's pretend that the teachers of music that came before you were different than you.
How did they behave? What did they demand? Did they make the life of your admin better or worse?
Before you even get to the content area of music, there is the projection of professional character and ability that your previous musical incarnations imprinted on your admin. Your supervisors have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to teachers.
Depending upon the culture of your school or school district, the mindset of music teachers can run the gamut from great to terrible, from passive to combative, from resourceful to needy, and from helpful to downright lazy. That makes an impression on admin.
Teachers come and go. Reputations last forever.
Music Department Heads
Yes, it's true that in many school districts, music department heads don't have a whole lot of experience in music. Then again, look at their assignments.
In the last school district where I taught, the music department head was also in charge of the math department as well as the STEAM Department as well as one other department that I can't seem to remember at this point.
How would you like to be the proprietary owner of that multi-department head’s email inbox?
Would you like to be responsible for a math department when you were trained to be a music teacher?
I wouldn’t give their troubles to a monkey on a rock.
Admin look at communications from staff and measure them on their own professional Richter scale. The more seismic intensity contained in the email, the faster they respond. Nine out of ten times, they just don't care. Why? Because you've got a thunder shower going on in your world while they're dealing with Krakatoa in the math department.
I have heard music teachers suggest that we should instruct department heads and principles in the finer arts of music.
Seriously? As in have admin come into their music classes and play rhythm sticks and play bean bag note identification on the rug?
The only thing that strategy will achieve is that the people in charge of your purse strings will just draw them a little tighter when they see you coming.
Don’t take the bait and pretend you are the department head at music meetings even if you are working on a master’s in admin leadership. Living in a world of faux leadership just leaves a bad impression with your peers. Remember: they ARE your peers. If you choose to assume administrative duties on regular basis without pay, you are giving away valuable hours and commitment to your 16.5 hour business day. Plus, no one likes a suck-up and that’s how you’ll be perceived by your peers and admin alike.
Principals
Over the decades I've had a few great principles and a lot of bad ones.
My “Great Principals Hall of Fame” (in alphabetical order)
Dr. Constance Ames
Jack Jadach
Nikki Jones
Max Harrell
Beth Howell
Doug Timm
What makes a good principal?
For starters:
Someone who can remain laid back 85% of the time.
Someone who's smart and understands the comprehensive nature of education, especially early education.
Someone who knows the best roads out of Krakatoa when the lava is flowin’ hot and things are getting shaky.
What makes a bad principal?
Someone who is running away from the classroom and toward a bigger salary.
Someone who eschews leadership but craves more power in their life.
Throw in some insecurities, vanity, nepotism, cronyism, fragile ego, lack of people skills, and no understanding of how the Arts fit into a comprehensive curriculum.
Oh, and they can be real jerks, too. Can you say “personality transplant”?
I’ve never trusted a principal who was a bad teacher in a formal professional life.
I've had a few principles where I had to go above their head and document issues with their supervisors, sometimes all the way to the office of the head of school or superintendent. That never gets pretty and often will lead to hurt feelings – never mine, always theirs. They will tell you all this stress and responsibility is the reason they make the big bucks.
Did I mention that their idea of “conflict resolution” is often transferring you to another school?
Or firing you?
All in a day's work.
In Defense of Principals
There are not enough Martin guitars on this earth to bribe me to become a principal. It's just not worth it. The juice is not worth the squeeze. I’ll make my REAL money during my 16.5 hour business day, thank you.
Teachers work at a 7.5 hour job. Principals don't. Their job is 24/7, always on call. In the early days of cell phones and GPS, my district office often used the tracking device on district-issued cell phones to track where their principals were at all times just in case there was an administrative fire they had to put out. That seems just a bit intrusive, don’tcha think?
Just the cavalcade of “Miss Lonelyhearts” issues that trickle over their office transom would drive me nuts. All these staff people, even ostensibly the ones the principal has personally hired, show up not so much with questions about their professional or classroom work but rather about personal problems - some valid, some infantile.
At one time or another, everyone has a family member in medical crisis and needs to leave time, which is very understandable. I was one of those people so “guilty as charged”. With sub-standard substitute teacher pay, it’s becoming harder and harder for a principal to simply put a full team on the field each work day.
But just as in Nathaniel West's aforementioned novel, the issues dissolve from the serious to the mundane. If the principal is lucky, they have an assistant principal or a student advisor who's adept at teacher observations, crowd control, and student behavior because the principal's desk is simply piling up with more and more data concerning standardized test reports and quotas that they must meet.
But wait. There’s a knock on the principal’s door. It’s the music teacher showing up with a request for new autoharps or a banjo or a set of bagpipes and Boom Wackers. And they need them TODAY! Yeah, that music teacher is just the professional oasis that principal has been looking for.
I’ll look at amelioration techniques, the solution, and bottom line for building bridges with your admin in “Fifth Reality Check: “Our department head/administrator isn’t a musician, let alone a music teacher. He/she doesn’t understand that teaching music is different than other subjects.” – Part Two."
For a second, let's pretend that the teachers of music that came before you were different than you.
How did they behave? What did they demand? Did they make the life of your admin better or worse?
Before you even get to the content area of music, there is the projection of professional character and ability that your previous musical incarnations imprinted on your admin. Your supervisors have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to teachers.
Depending upon the culture of your school or school district, the mindset of music teachers can run the gamut from great to terrible, from passive to combative, from resourceful to needy, and from helpful to downright lazy. That makes an impression on admin.
Teachers come and go. Reputations last forever.
Music Department Heads
Yes, it's true that in many school districts, music department heads don't have a whole lot of experience in music. Then again, look at their assignments.
In the last school district where I taught, the music department head was also in charge of the math department as well as the STEAM Department as well as one other department that I can't seem to remember at this point.
How would you like to be the proprietary owner of that multi-department head’s email inbox?
Would you like to be responsible for a math department when you were trained to be a music teacher?
I wouldn’t give their troubles to a monkey on a rock.
Admin look at communications from staff and measure them on their own professional Richter scale. The more seismic intensity contained in the email, the faster they respond. Nine out of ten times, they just don't care. Why? Because you've got a thunder shower going on in your world while they're dealing with Krakatoa in the math department.
I have heard music teachers suggest that we should instruct department heads and principles in the finer arts of music.
Seriously? As in have admin come into their music classes and play rhythm sticks and play bean bag note identification on the rug?
The only thing that strategy will achieve is that the people in charge of your purse strings will just draw them a little tighter when they see you coming.
Don’t take the bait and pretend you are the department head at music meetings even if you are working on a master’s in admin leadership. Living in a world of faux leadership just leaves a bad impression with your peers. Remember: they ARE your peers. If you choose to assume administrative duties on regular basis without pay, you are giving away valuable hours and commitment to your 16.5 hour business day. Plus, no one likes a suck-up and that’s how you’ll be perceived by your peers and admin alike.
Principals
Over the decades I've had a few great principles and a lot of bad ones.
My “Great Principals Hall of Fame” (in alphabetical order)
Dr. Constance Ames
Jack Jadach
Nikki Jones
Max Harrell
Beth Howell
Doug Timm
What makes a good principal?
For starters:
Someone who can remain laid back 85% of the time.
Someone who's smart and understands the comprehensive nature of education, especially early education.
Someone who knows the best roads out of Krakatoa when the lava is flowin’ hot and things are getting shaky.
What makes a bad principal?
Someone who is running away from the classroom and toward a bigger salary.
Someone who eschews leadership but craves more power in their life.
Throw in some insecurities, vanity, nepotism, cronyism, fragile ego, lack of people skills, and no understanding of how the Arts fit into a comprehensive curriculum.
Oh, and they can be real jerks, too. Can you say “personality transplant”?
I’ve never trusted a principal who was a bad teacher in a formal professional life.
I've had a few principles where I had to go above their head and document issues with their supervisors, sometimes all the way to the office of the head of school or superintendent. That never gets pretty and often will lead to hurt feelings – never mine, always theirs. They will tell you all this stress and responsibility is the reason they make the big bucks.
Did I mention that their idea of “conflict resolution” is often transferring you to another school?
Or firing you?
All in a day's work.
In Defense of Principals
There are not enough Martin guitars on this earth to bribe me to become a principal. It's just not worth it. The juice is not worth the squeeze. I’ll make my REAL money during my 16.5 hour business day, thank you.
Teachers work at a 7.5 hour job. Principals don't. Their job is 24/7, always on call. In the early days of cell phones and GPS, my district office often used the tracking device on district-issued cell phones to track where their principals were at all times just in case there was an administrative fire they had to put out. That seems just a bit intrusive, don’tcha think?
Just the cavalcade of “Miss Lonelyhearts” issues that trickle over their office transom would drive me nuts. All these staff people, even ostensibly the ones the principal has personally hired, show up not so much with questions about their professional or classroom work but rather about personal problems - some valid, some infantile.
At one time or another, everyone has a family member in medical crisis and needs to leave time, which is very understandable. I was one of those people so “guilty as charged”. With sub-standard substitute teacher pay, it’s becoming harder and harder for a principal to simply put a full team on the field each work day.
But just as in Nathaniel West's aforementioned novel, the issues dissolve from the serious to the mundane. If the principal is lucky, they have an assistant principal or a student advisor who's adept at teacher observations, crowd control, and student behavior because the principal's desk is simply piling up with more and more data concerning standardized test reports and quotas that they must meet.
But wait. There’s a knock on the principal’s door. It’s the music teacher showing up with a request for new autoharps or a banjo or a set of bagpipes and Boom Wackers. And they need them TODAY! Yeah, that music teacher is just the professional oasis that principal has been looking for.
I’ll look at amelioration techniques, the solution, and bottom line for building bridges with your admin in “Fifth Reality Check: “Our department head/administrator isn’t a musician, let alone a music teacher. He/she doesn’t understand that teaching music is different than other subjects.” – Part Two."
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