The title of this article was originally going to be titled, “Administrators, New Teachers Care, But May Not Know; New Teachers, Administrators Know, But Probably Don’t Care.”  It’s then that I realized a couple of things:

1. There are only two elements in play, and, for any successful system to function properly, there needs to be at least three elements.
2. Teachers need to know, and Administrators need to care.

However, BOTH Teachers AND Administrators need to know, care and do!  It’s usually understood that everyone has a job to “do,” but both teachers and administrators need to both know what to do and care about what they’re doing as well.  It’s congruent with each of the learning domains – cognitive, affective, and kinesthetic.

This is, however, a recommendation for administrators and principals.  Your job is not to micromanage; your job is to empower your teachers to be not only the best teachers they can be, but also to teach them to lead so they are able to become the next generation of leaders.  This means leading by example.  Make no mistake, you are teaching your teachers no matter what type of leadership you exhibit.  Those you are charged to lead will either see you as one to whom they can look up to, or, they’ll see you as someone they don’t want to be like.

If the latter is how they see you, then know they’ll be seeking other leaders they can emulate, seeking someone who cares about them as the next generation of educational administrators.  If that happens, they you’ll have even more to do.