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Interview with an Administrator

Andrew V. Silbaugh

Department of Teacher Education and Educational Leadership, University of West Florida

EDA 6222

Dr. Aneta Walker

April 26th, 2020

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Interview with an Administrator

Often as I reflect on what led me to this point in my leadership journey, I look at the

principals I have worked under. I think about the positive characteristics that I can model myself

and I think about the areas of growth that these principals showed and how I might need to work

on these areas in order to grow myself. While I have no desire to become a principal now, I do

feel as though my current principal keeps pushing me towards it or something bigger than

myself. Being a principal is a highly demanding and stressful position, but it is highly rewarding.

Leading a great staff, helping mold young minds, and being the leader of a school and driving

everything forward, there are clearly a lot of benefits. I will often say my current principal is the

best principal I have ever worked under. She genuinely cares about all students, staff, and parents

under her supervision and leadership. During my time with my principal I asked her questions

about her position, how she manages her staff, professional development, and herself in such a

demanding, but rewarding role.

Following the Code of Ethics and Accomplished Practices

Throughout my career as an educator, I have always been held to a set of rules for

professional conduct. The Code of Ethics and Principles of Professional Conduct for the

Education Profession in Florida are the guidelines for the teaching profession in our state. This

code ensures that educators are being responsible and appropriate role models for the students in

our care. In interviewing my principal, I asked about how she adheres to the Code of Ethics and

how she ensures that her staff is adhering to the Code of Ethics. In our discussion, I learned that

leading by example is key here. To obtain the behavior you want to see, one needs to model it so

that others will follow. As a principal all eyes are on you and being that positive model is

imperative. My principal also believes in asking others on her team for advice and be open to
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criticism. As for ensuring our staff follows the Code of Ethics, my principal has others

investigate social media, particularly before hiring, and by keeping an active eye on all members

to ensure they are being responsible educators. In these situations, it is not meant to be a

“gotcha” but it is more to ensure that our staff is being responsible. My principal advised me to

investigate a situation first, before making a judgment. In any given situation, it is important to

look at who is right and what the tone of the argument or action is. I was also told to document

and follow up accordingly.

Additionally, I asked my principal about how she follows the Florida Educator

Accomplished Practices, specifically how she uses them and how she promotes them around the

building, particularly for our core leadership team. My principal believes in looking at the in-

service plan and making sure that we as a school are following it and staying true to our overall

mission. Additionally, my principal believes in offering appropriate professional development

opportunities and growing our teachers who may need help in obtaining full certification. As for

promoting them amongst her core team, she believes in having them be accountable for their

actions, consistently following through on actions, and being a positive role model across the

building. My principal also believes in allowing developing leaders to have opportunities to

show growth and provide opportunities for them to develop their leadership skills in a supportive

environment.

Developing Effective Professional Development

Professional development is a hallmark of any educational program. However, the

difference between “good” professional development and “great” professional development is

the purpose and reasoning behind it. There will always be “mandatory” professional

development, but as a leader, there is a greater emphasis on professional development that is

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relevant and engaging to staff members. During the interview, I asked what my principal is doing

to find faculty needs, specifically how she supports our staff who may need support and what our

current needs are and how she determined those needs. My principal uses our curriculum

resource teachers to find the specific content issues our teachers are having and my she employs

the experts in our building to support teachers in other areas. The overall focus is to target

specific pedagogy and develop staff members based upon what they may need and to provide the

appropriate resources for them. As for determining our school’s current needs and ways of

determining them, my principal uses multiple sources of information to plan our goals for the

year. My principal will use our annual school grade to determine the focus of the school overall

and she uses walkthroughs to determine trends across the building that teachers may be

struggling with. Additionally, my principal looks at staff input for what the staff wants to learn.

Recently, our focus has been on our ESE students and pushing for them to grow.

Part of being an effective principal involves providing resources for staff members in the

form of physical resources and time and by engaging staff through professional development.

During our interview, I asked my principal about how she involves staff members in professional

development and how she supports collaborative learning amongst her staff. As mentioned in the

previous paragraph, my principal actively involves staff members by allowing them to have a say

in professional development opportunities. However, my principal goes a step further by

allowing staff members to present professional development on topics they are either experts in

or passionate about. As for collaborative learning, my principal actively promotes collaborative

learning by using curriculum teams and grade level teams. Grade levels meet once a week in

kindergarten through fifth grade and by subject area in sixth through eighth grade. These weekly

professional meetings allow teams to plan collaboratively and effectively plan instruction.
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In a school, the overall improvement is a continuous process. What may work one year

may not work the next. It is up to the principal to be innovative and plan effective tactics to

improve the school. In the interview with my principal, I asked about school improvement and

how she seeks to improve our school. Specifically, I asked my principal how she involves staff

members in the school improvement process and how she determines what goes into the school

improvement plan. My principal actively involves staff members in the school improvement

plan. The school improvement plan is reviewed yearly, and adjustments are made based upon the

needs of the school. Once those needs are determined, staff members are asked for input or given

goals directly related to the school improvement plan. Additionally, the school leadership team

consists of multiple individuals from all grade levels and teams and the overall team provides

feedback and support on plans being implemented. As for what goes into the school

improvement plan, my principal told me that it is primarily based on data and feedback. By using

data from multiple sources, she can work with the leadership team to set goals for the coming

year.

Motivating Employees

Employee motivation and performance is a source of constant improvement at my school.

Who should be recognized and for what purpose? How do you recognize employees who do the

bare minimum, and should they be recognized? My principal goes out of her way to make sure

our staff is recognized. Along with a week of giving during the holidays, teacher appreciation

week, and numerous shout outs, my principal does her best to recognize and check in with each

staff member at least once a week. In my interview with my principal, I asked her about her

thoughts on recognizing employees for effective performance. I asked how she recognizes staff

members and how she encourages staff members to perform better. My principal told me she
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actively does staff recognition either through incentives, shout outs on the morning

announcements and/or at staff meetings, and other methods of recognition. While my principal

acknowledges that it is difficult to recognize everyone, she does her best to make sure staff

members are recognized and appreciated for their efforts. My principal also believes that if

something is working in a classroom, other teachers should be able to visit and observe that

classroom. As for encouraging others to perform better, my principal again reminded me that it is

important to lead by example. My principal told me that staff members will follow what they see,

and my principal believes that she needs to perform at a high level so that others will be

motivated to do so as well. Additionally, my principal uses recognition to motivate her staff to

perform at a higher level.

Emphasizing and Promoting Cultural Diversity

In order to serve our student populations, teachers must be set up for success to serve

them appropriately. There must be a focus on appropriate resources and services that will help

the faculty to support all students. In the interview with my principal, I asked her about how she

helps our staff prepare for our student population. I was curious about how she supports teachers

with resources and what resources she budgets to support our student populations. My principal

told me that she uses our curriculum teachers to find specific deficiencies and strengths in

resources. Based on the recommendations, my principal will investigate ways to find those

resources. As for serving our student populations, my principal will look at what needs to be

prioritized and what is genuinely lacking. My principal will also investigate our supplemental

programs and look at what can be supplemented using various funding sources.

Growing up in rural western Pennsylvania I was not exposed to much cultural diversity

and most of my peers were Caucasian. However, when I moved south, I was exposed to a
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significant amount of cultural diversity. I was surprised at how diverse schools are. For instance,

in our school, the demographics are spread almost equally. About one third is Caucasian, one

third is African American, and one third is Hispanic or Latino. Other demographics are roughly

one percent or less. Cultural diversity is an important part of our school’s identity and it is a

consistent area of improvement. Part of this continuous development is in providing culturally

relevant instruction. I asked my principal what professional development she recently introduced

to our staff to encourage culturally diverse instruction and what professional development she

recently introduced to promote differentiated instruction for our student populations. My

principal reminded me of our mental health toolkit training, which included a focus on cultural

diversity and responding to various crises. Additionally, our school was recently introduced to

Students in Poverty as a large majority of our student body lives in poverty. Our school also

conducts an International Day each year for students to learn about a wide variety of cultures

across the globe. As for differentiated instruction, my principal uses professional learning

communities to promote differentiated instruction and to highlight teachers who are actively

using differentiated instruction in their classrooms. Additionally, our school has a strong focus

on small group instruction to provide appropriate learning experiences for a wider variety of

learners that are targeted towards their ability. Small groups in our school are based on various

sources of data and the data continues to show that it is indeed working for our school.

Continuous Growth of the Administrator

As teachers, we are always pushed to continue our development and become the best

teacher possible so that we can provide greater instruction for our students. The same goes for an

administrator. Continuous development of an administrator is important because the

administrator impacts all areas of the school. During my interview with my principal, I asked
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about how my principal improves herself based on her evaluations and feedback. In our

interview, I specifically asked her to give me a specific time she used feedback and how she

consistently uses feedback to grow. She told me that in the feedback given to her during her last

evaluation, she should give more professional development to other principals. My principal has

become an effective leader in our network and our regional director believes she should be

sharing more of the positive elements that are working to improve our school. Because of this

feedback, my principal has recently been presenting at several meetings. By using these

presentations, she is growing herself in becoming an effective leader in our network and she is

working to improve instruction network-wide. As for using feedback to grow, she told me that

she askes the people around her to give immediate feedback and to make sure she is staying true

to the mission of our school. She also told me she is not afraid to ask teachers about her

performance. Sometimes the truth hurts, but not knowing how to improve can hurt even more

than something that could be holding her back.

As mentioned previously, my principal believes in leading by example, and the same

applies to professional development. During our interview, I asked my principal about the

professional development opportunities she attended recently and how she brought them back to

our school. I also asked what professional development she uses to improve her practice. My

principal told me about the conferences she has attended and the various books that she has read

to see what may work for our school. My principal believes in investigating a practice first

before implementing it. Additionally, if something may work, my principal will conduct trials on

a smaller scale before implementing schoolwide to measure the potential effectiveness. As for

her professional development, she has been investigating effective professional development and

instructional practices. My principal believes there is always something new to learn and
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explore. I was told that it is important to find effective professional development of high quality

so that our staff will buy-in. My principal believes if she cannot follow the practices herself, she

will not make her staff implement those practices.

Conclusion

After looking at the ten best practices of a school administrator, it is easy to see that being

a principal is more than just “running a school”. The principal is the leader driving the ship

across a sea of uncertainty. A principal is responsible for being a role model to others,

encouraging others to grow, supporting students, supporting parents and community leaders,

supporting staff members, and more, on top of running and managing the school. While I still

have no desire to be a principal, I am confident that my experiences with my principal have

prepared me to be a principal in the event I would be promoted to a principalship. I am very

appreciative of my principal and all she does for our school as she truly follows the principles of

being an effective administrator.