Taylor Connard

Education 650

Vocational Director Shadow Reflection

My experience shadowing Robert Morris was exactly what I expected it to be; chaotic,

but informative. Mr. Morris is a very unconventional director and runs the CTE Department in

his own odd ways. Mr. Morris began teaching at Clay County High School in 1988. He taught

Agriculture from 1988 until 2010 when he became Vocational Director. Mr. Morris has won

many awards as a teacher, even earning the honor of National Teacher of the Year. As a teacher,

Mr. Morris was excellent at connecting with students, which is something he brings to the

director job. You can often find Mr. Morris putting students in head locks or educating them on

the trees outside on the riverbank. I had a feeling that if I could get Mr. Morris to settle into my

shadowing experience, I would learn a lot.

On the first day of shadowing, we went over attendance. One of Mr. Morris’ many jobs is

cleaning attendance and tracking down students. At the beginning of this school year, with the

new virtual program, we had approximately 15 students that were not in person or virtual. Mr.

Morris had to make multiple attempts at contacting these students. He informed me that being a

director is all about documentation. He wanted to ensure that he documented every call he made

and the conversation that occurred. Mr. Morris also goes into WVEIS and makes sure that the

attendance matches across the board. If a student was absent in every period except for one, it is

likely that teacher just did not take attendance. Attendance being correct is huge. He informed

me that often when students go to court, the judge wants copies of their attendance. If the school

has shaky attendance records, it can reflect negatively on the school and cause issues with the

legal systems.
 On our second day together, we discussed discipline. Mr. Morris typically only is

responsible for disciplining CTE Department students. If the office gets busy, they will send

other issues down to him, but he tries to only take care of issues “in house.” He explains that

discipline is another area that needs documented heavily. He has learned the hard way that if you

do not do things to the letter and document that, it can come back to hurt you. We also discussed

how he likes to have someone else in the room as a witness on certain disciplinary cases. He

impressed upon me many times that you have to always protect yourself. He, again, reminded me

that documentation is everything.

On my third day of shadowing, we discussed all things CTE Department. Mr. Morris is,

putting it lightly, passionate about his department. He said that his only goal is making our CTE

program, “the best dang program in the state of West Virginia.” He wants to push our CTE

teachers to be the best that they can be and in turn that pushes our students as well. He puts a lot

of his focus on Agriculture, but I think that is simply due to teaching it for 20 plus years. The

other departments: Carpentry, Electric, Business, and Stem are important to him as well, but he

admits he does not know the ends and outs of those as detailed. For the CTE Department he has

to track the students that complete and the simulated work place that takes place with each

teacher’s class. He has a lot of duties, but he wishes that he had more time to work one on one

with his teachers.

Mr. Morris is unconventional, but it is his passion and flare for the dramatics that make

him so good at what he does. On the surface you see chaos, but underneath there is a director

who has an amazing CTE Department and also can teach with the best of them. He has a wealth

of knowledge and I am very thankful that I got a chance to pick his brain. The interview with
him lead me to see Mr. Morris at a different light. I hope to learn from him even more as I

continue as a teacher at Clay County High School.