Reply to If teachers are leaving left and right, is it the principal's fault?

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Reply to "If teachers are leaving left and right, is it the principal's fault?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Principals have a huge part in it. The other factors mentioned are part of it, but if you have an admin team that truly has your back, that listens and problem-solves with you, then you are much more likely to stick it out. Principals have a great deal of power and very little oversight. Their supervisors have no idea what they do day to day, unless someone has the guts to go over their head. A friend of mine was repeatedly hit by a sixth-grader and had things thrown at her, and was told by the principal that the child didn’t throw things at other IAs, so she must be the problem. This was a very troubled girl and a highly experienced teacher. You would not believe how principals can sabotage a school and demoralize the staff. If you have a huge turnover each year, which some schools do repeatedly, the principal is the cause. Do region superintendents even hear from HR how many teachers are transferring or leaving each year?

One principal at an elementary school with huge turnover each year told the staff that losing 20-25 teachers each year was normal! I don’t think so.

In my view, this responsive classroom mess started a lot of principals thinking kids would just behave magically and no consequences are needed. Children need boundaries and clear behavior guidelines. A kid kicks the teacher and goes for a walk with the counselor and returns to class, having gotten all that personal attention? At the elementary level, they’ve lost sight of how reinforcing negative behavior works and not having reasonable consequences does not work. I’m a very therapeutic type of teacher, and fully understand that we need to figure out what help the child needs, but saying the teacher should have used a Kagan strategy is not working.[/quote]

I wouldn’t know how to go over my principal’s head.  I am pretty sure any attempt I made to report her would end in me being fired.  Right now, most of the faculty just try to avoid her.  What’s sad is that it takes teachers leaving en masse to even point to a problem.  By then it’s too late.[/quote]

I wouldn't waste your time or energy. A group of parents and some teachers went above a principal with a lot of things that were going wrong and kids transferring out at a high number  and it was just swept under the rug. I don't think they will fire you they need you but nothing will change.[/quote]

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