One Team and One Team Only: There is no “Us” Versus “Them”

 

Drew Chiodo
Assistant Principal, Pacetti Bay Middle School, St. Johns County

How hard can it be to change the world?  As a young, wide-eyed teacher, fresh out of Teach For America institutes, and convinced of the simplicity of the public education system through documentaries like “Waiting for Superman,” I stood in my first classroom knowing that I could fix everything in five to 10 years.  I thought that I could teach for five years, earn a master’s degree, become a principal and then who knows- maybe become the supreme chancellor for education in the land of “Do as I say.”  It all made sense in my mind and then I ran into the biggest challenge…. Challenge is a bad word…. I ran into one of the greatest gifts of my life: students.

There I stood, as a 21-year-old know-it-all, in front of high school sophomores and it was my responsibility to listen to them, care for them, and give them the tools they needed to be successful, not just in my intensive math classes, but in everything outside of the walls of their school.  It was there that I learned, very quickly, that there is nothing simple in the public education system.  The system is extraordinarily complex with an incredible amount of redundancies and conditions and special situations.  Ever wonder why that is?  Perhaps it’s because our children are incredibly complex with many conditions that have defined their lives and have come from an unfathomable amount of special situations.

It is impossible to quantify our students, though we try very hard. As a teacher, I knew that if I took the time to learn from them and work with them, I knew I could make a difference.  I spent year after year perfecting my craft to better differentiate lessons, to plan more succinctly, to modify my classroom management procedures, to increase the effectiveness of my parent communication, to eventually flip my classroom, to build unshakable relationships and to continuously monitor student progress. I grew exponentially to understand my students' needs and I would do everything and anything to help them.

In time, I felt that I kept on bumping into a new gift… rather, this one was a challenge: administrators. Everywhere I turned, I felt that I was being hit with another initiative, another requirement and that all of the incredible work my students were doing was all for not.  I allowed myself to think, all too often: “What are THEEEYYYY thinking?”  “Well, as long as THEEEYYYY stay out of my way, then my students will be fine,” and “I’ll never allow myself to be one of THEEEMMMM.”  I created a chasm in my mind of teachers on one side of the table, with the students of course, and administrators on the other side of the table, with the nay-sayers and power hungry curmudgeons.  I allowed this chasm to fester in me and used it as motivation while earning my master’s degree.  I continuously thought, I will be the teacher-administrator, who will bridge this chasm and build a school that will show what we can do together and fix everything, in a few years like what my new teacher self once thought.    

Change of Heart

So there I was, in the Fall of 2015, a new Assistant Principal at Pacetti Bay Middle School in St. Johns County. I was ready to bridge the chasm and be the teacher-administrator savior I envisioned myself to be.  I walked into my principal’s office for the first time and he sat me down and asked me “Drew, tell me about yourself.”  I quickly listed off my accomplishments, my educational and professional history, my previous leadership roles, etc. My principal smiled and surprised me with his response: “Drew, when the district asked me what kind of AP I needed, I said: 'Someone who knows curriculum, I don’t care how green they are, but someone who knows curriculum, someone who is willing to learn, and someone who is willing to do anything for our students.' We are all on the same team; we are all teachers, just teachers in different roles. I look at everything through my lens as a parent and then through my lens as a teacher.  You’re one of “them” now, but don’t ever think of it that way.”

I was completely and utterly shocked and his insight and his honesty. It had never crossed my mind that an administrator, a highly respected and highly effective administrator for that matter, would think and act like me: a teacher. I was too naive and stubborn to consider that every administrator had once been in a classroom, worked with children, built relationships, and struggled through the same tumultuous days as I had.  I never stopped to think that an administrator would ever have the same goals and aspirations as I did: expand your sphere of influence to help teachers help students.  But there I was, sitting in his office, humbled and astonished.

Of course over the next year and a half, I learned very quickly that I had become “one of them.” However, in my mind and in my heart, I am a teacher.  Yes, I have to evaluate teachers, run meetings, coordinate testing, handle student discipline, work with infuriated parents, know the teacher union contract through and through, pay attention to bacteria counts in the cafeteria, prepare hurricane shelters, work with the district office, organize and conduct professional development, serve as LEA, and of course know that the “other duties as needed” box on my own contract is interpreted very liberally.  But on top of everything, I have learned two things that are will always be at the core of my educational heart: (1) Like a teacher, always put the student’s needs first; and (2) Never stop listening.  Listen to the students, listen to the teachers, listen to the parents, listen to the community, and listen to those to simply feel they need to be heard. Students will always be first and we will always serve their needs if we only took the time to listen.

At the end of the day, there is only one team: the students.  Administrators and teachers are not on opposite sides of the table, we are together as one, for the students.  If I didn’t do my job as a teacher, the students would not have been successful; if I don’t do my job as an administrator, the students will not be successful.  The outcomes are the same regardless of the role I am in.  I am a teacher.  I am an administrator.  I am here for the students, and it is only together that we can meet the needs of each and every student.  My 21-year old know-it-all teacher self may look at me funny, but I know that I can say with full confidence: “You don’t know anything, you never will really know anything, but boy-oh-boy, keep putting the kiddos first and you’ll never go wrong. There is only one team, and you’re already on it.”