Читать книгу The Assistant Principal 50 - Baruti K. Kafele - Страница 13

Closely associated with the previous question, I'm now asking you about your ongoing preparation toward being an effective AP, regardless of whether you are an aspiring principal or a career AP. How much of yourself do you pour into your preparation toward effective assistant principal leadership? How much time do you devote to reading and studying school leadership? How effective are you as an assistant principal? How beneficial are you to the staff you supervise? How beneficial are you to the students that you lead? How beneficial are you to your principal? Also, how beneficial are you to the parents of your students? These questions are critical for anyone in school leadership. I want you to consider how beneficial you are to your entire school community.

The qualities that you bring to the assistant principalship as a human being—the characteristics that make up who you are—are vital. Toward developing solid relationships and being an asset to all of the stakeholders in your school, you must be one of great character who genuinely cares and wants students and staff to soar to the best of their abilities. The aspect of your character that I want to focus on here is your preparation for leadership success and your work ethic—not how hard you work, but how smart you work. The quality of your work. We've both observed many who work extremely hard but make very little progress—those who put in long hours and perhaps work seven days a week. However, putting in countless hours does not always result in progress. Hard work must be coupled with working smart.

Earlier in this chapter, I stated that all principals are different and that the differences will have implications for you regarding what you are exposed to as an AP. Having superior people skills can be beneficial as regards what you are exposed to as an AP. But let's say that you are in a very difficult, challenging, undesirable, and tension-filled relationship with your principal and that you have determined, unequivocally, that it is not of your making and that there's nothing you can do about it. If that is the case, for the sake of staff, students, and parents, you must, nevertheless, continually grow and be effective as an AP. Your staff and students are relying on you, so you can't afford to throw up your hands in disgust. You must continue to strive to be amazing in your capacity as an AP, despite any obstacles you may encounter. You must be an open book with eyes and ears wide open as you strive to take in and learn all that you can. You must approach your position as one who desires to be a guru in school leadership in general and AP leadership in particular. You must purposefully observe everything you can about your principal's leadership. You must study your principal and determine which of her actions are useful to you and which are of no use to you. You must treat your principal as if she were an ongoing graduate school course on school leadership. You must read everything you can get your hands on and watch videos about leadership in general and school leadership in particular. You must participate in a variety of professional learning networks (PLNs), actively participate on a social media platform, and be a part of a network of fellow APs (which I will discuss further in the following section). You must be an AP leadership sponge who absorbs as much information as you possibly can. This translates to your professional learning being a high priority toward your overall growth and development to becoming an extraordinary AP.