[Ous-lp-rp13] EDAD 6020, Response to Answer for Question #2

[Nicholas Turon]

*Brittney,I am interested in your answer and how much trust you have in
your school system. To have control so much in the classroom means that the
principal trusts you completely. My question is, what happens when that
trust is not well placed?Certainly, we would all like complete freedom to
run our classroom exactly how we want to, but what happens when we cannot
show results? What happens when the way we want to run the classroom starts
impacting students negatively? Where is the point that a staff member
should be fired?I am struggling with this now with a colleague at my
school. This teacher, I am convinced, does not teach here is how I know: -
Results - Her music programs do not show evidence of vocal training or
pitch control. Basic concepts, such as using your head voice instead of
your chest voice, show no evidence of being taught.- Results - Students who
I acquire from her classes lack understanding of basic music terminology:
note values, lyrics, pitch, singing voice, rhythm.- Direct Observation - I
walk by or in her classroom at least 2 times a week at varying times of day
and there is 100% always a Youtube music video showing or there is a sub
playing a movie on Netflix.- Reports - students, unprompted, have talked to
me about how little is done in her classes and that the little they picked
up in the class came from packets she handed out students to complete on
their own.In my first two years of teaching their, I tried desperately to
collaborate with her on teaching. I offered to help, I offered suggestions,
we came up with a plan to bring choir back. Every time when rubber hit the
road, she had an excuse for why she couldn’t do whatever she needed to do.
The excuses range from understandable to fear driven postering.Her OTES
scores are just fine because she teaches music and we can make our SLOs
anything because administrators do not understand our subject at all. Her
observations are good because they are announced and administrators don’t
know what a music classroom should look like.So my question is, as an
administrator, how do you balance giving control to teachers with
accountability so this doesn’t happen in your building. I know
accountibilites exist where trust does not. I want to trust my teachers
because that makes everyone’s life easier and better for the most part, but
I cannot happen in a building I supervise. What do you do? What measures
can you put in place that help with this? What’s do I do to both allow for
flexibility yet have a radar up for teachers who were miss-hires? I don’t
believe anyone went into this profession not wanting to help children, but
I am also not naive enough to think everyone will act with the same
integrity toward teaching.I am very interested in hearing a veteran
principal’s approach in how they walk the line between a professional
structure and authoritarian
structure.------------------------------Brittney's Original Message:The
professional structure most closely resembles that of my school.
Professional structure relies on highly trained professionals to carry out
their own work. Although this professional structure has bureaucratic
tendencies, in that large-scale decision making is typically centralized,
the principal, it is not entirely bureaucratic. This professional structure
is far less machine like in that professional ultimately have the ability
to make informed decisions, because there is not complete centralized
control. For example, at my school we have a lot of freedom when it comes
to pacing our instruction. At the beginning of each school year our
principal has us submit our pacing chart but does not dictate the outcome
of the pacing chart so long as we have one. We are trained and
knowledgeable professionals, and he believes we are capable of structure
our own instruction. In that is just one example of many of how my school
resembles professional structure. The authoritarian structure least
resembles that of my school. In an authoritarian structure the leader
dictates all the decisions and assumes complete control over all
procedures. This type of structure does not allow for subordinates to make
any decisions either for themselves or for the organization. This structure
is not at all like my school, often my principal includes teachers in
decision making, and never dictates what occurs in our classrooms, so long
as we follow curriculum, maintain behavior, and carry out our basic duties.
Like I previously stated, we are treated as professionals that are capable
of making informed decisions. There are few organizations that the
authoritarian structure would be beneficial, however a school is not one. *

*Nicholas Turon*
Director of Bands
Paint Valley Local Schools
nicholas.turon at gmail.com
(740)-816-8266
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