Dear First-Year VP

Preface

I write this as a reflection of the last year and a half. It is filled with love and gratitude for those I have been privileged to learn from, work with and laugh alongside. 

Lifelines when Landing on Mars

As you shift gears from the classroom to the admin office, your first few weeks will be decorated with many greetings and attitudes about how “you come in peace”.
I suppose the feeling of landing on Mars is somewhat just part of the territory of a job in educational administration – especially seeing as it is common practice to move after a certain amount of time. Perhaps we could look at it as Mars being the first landing, and although you are destined to further explore the other planets and improve your adaptability everytime you land somewhere new, that first landing, in a completely different cosmos, is most definitely jarring. That’s the thing about firsts, they typically only happen once.

For this first landing to be any semblance of a success, you will need to know how to recognize and lean on your lifelines. The first key player of the game will be the director/principal of the school or center. In my brief experience, I have been the only one on the VP team (sometimes there is an “I” in team – only an I), so if you are entering a team of vice principals or assistants – these are your people, your tribe – you need them. If your cards look a little more like mine, then the school/center principal/director and, of course, the secretary are your lifelines. This is not to say that there won’t be anyone else, but these two will, I hope, be your buoys in the sea of uncharted water that is administration. Ask them the questions, and be sure to listen to their answers. They are the gurus, while you are observing and slowly formulating a lay of the land.

I want to point out that taking the time to stand back and observe is not a bad thing. If you are a newly appointed admin it is because you were an allstar teacher. Kudos. Please give yourself some grace. If we are anything alike, as administrators, we are intrinsically motivated and we ultimately want to be the agents of change to, simply, make things better- on almost all fronts. But please, give yourself a minute. I put so much pressure on myself to get things done, to “wow” people, to make sure I left a mark, even to prove that I belonged in this position, when really, all people wanted and needed from me, especially in the beginning, was to be seen and heard.

We have two ears but only one mouth…that whole argument.

VP Lesson 1 (foundational in the least):  Learn to listen. I know, you think you listen well. You may even think you listen so well that you managed to get here. This job will demand for you to learn how to listen with admin ears. It will start with humility, and force you to recognize that there is so much that you do not know – and that is OK! I would argue that it is necessary for you to come to the point where you can confidently say that you know that there is so much you don’t know and that you are willing to inquire and listen in order to find out. You may indeed know the answers, have great, feasible solutions, have innovative ideas, heck, you are likely ready and willing to turn this whole operation on its head and force everyone to see the light – but learn to know when to simply sit back and listen. I am totally aware that this is a very simplistic wording for something that is extremely complex and arguably strenuous. Cultivating the knack to control the impulsivity to insert your opinion, or to give a seemingly obvious answer, is hard work – but it is a necessary skill to develop. At the very beginning, your goal is to tend to the earth, to understand the lay of the land. To watch how the pieces and parts move, for you to be able to acclimate to this new climate and then help it progress. How can you move things forward if you don’t know where they are?

On learning names: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”… perhaps for Juliet, but not so much in leadership.

I would argue that one of the most important things about being an administrator and what should be the crux of your existence for a good portion of your first month is about learning names. The majority of the job rests upon your motivation and skill to build relationships with the people around you. Dogs sniff each other’s butts to identify and introduce each other. Lucky for us, we have language and names to do that. Pay attention to the people you meet and make the effort to learn their names. Again, give yourself grace, as it is highly likely that you will be walking into a group of 50 people who know each other well. It may take some time to get to know which Jennifer teaches which group, but it is vital to show that you genuinely care to get to know people – on a first name basis at the very least. 

Admin, Shmadmin
I think it is important to note that within your first few weeks, you will likely pick up on the fact that different people will react differently to you, and your role, and what it means to them and for them (this is assuming you are intuitive. If you feel you are not – I would definitely spend time working on and tuning into your intuition – that is also a HUGE part of the job- alas, I digress…).  

Go eat something! There, permission granted *eye roll emoji*.
I have always enjoyed the idea that we can never be everything, but we can definitely always be more than one thing. By this, I mean to suggest that this job will force you to get in touch with different skill sets – some of which you had no idea you even had! I was amazed at how much my first couple of months revolved around food and organizing lunches, yet I constantly found myself at the end of the day having not had time to eat anything. This seems to be far away from the perception of what an administrator does but, to break it down, administrators “take care of the people”, and frankly, the people (all people) need to eat.

Find the funny
This. In my short time as an administrator, I have been faced with some pretty unimaginable situations, and sometimes, when you are at the point where complete disbelief meets realizing you have to act dutifully despite the level of ridiculum, the only thing you can do is laugh – preferably with a colleague, and after the fact, of course. The truth is there is laughter in everything, you just have to find it. Often, it is in hindsight – or maybe right there in the middle of the whole thing when you run to your principal/director for help and you have to explain the situation that you know is completely ridiculous – and together, like batman and robin, you laugh about it before having to put on a serious face (and avoid looking at each other) to find solutions together – only to giggle again after it is solved. 

Remember… you are a teacher first. 

This is something I have always considered to be of utmost importance. When you are a teacher who has a principal (or director) who has never taught, no matter how happy go lucky you may be, it is next to impossible to give that person the credibility and credence they ask for when they tell you, no matter how nicely, how to be better at your job (the job they have never done, and honestly cannot even fathom the complexity it entails). This is definitely more of a private school reality than it is in the public sector (thank goodness), but, as a teacher, I was in this position more than once (wild… I know), and from that experience I always told myself that a good educational leader has to be someone who has climbed the ranks. A good educational leader remembers what it was like having no choice but to pick up the scrap contracts and, despite being anxious and slightly betrayed -because the dream they sell you in university has a very small correlation to your first few years in the profession- knows the pressure to do their very best with the classes they see for 40 minutes per week- because the boss needs to like and want to keep them. Now that you are on the other side of that fence (nice climb, by the way), remember to tap into those repressed feelings when you have a teacher asking you for help and advice. You have been there, and who knows, you may find yourself there again. Perhaps the point I am trying to make here is about humility. Humility will serve you very well within your first few months. As I mentioned before, it is equally important to be vulnerable and admit that you know there is plenty you don’t know, but, there is also plenty you do know. Allow for the knowledge you have gathered over a teaching career to help and guide your colleagues, but be mindful of delivering it in a way that is always from a humble place.

With all of these weird thoughts and perplexities, I leave you with one last little piece of wisdom; it doesn’t get better, but you will.

– A fellow VP.
Janna De Rycke

Meet the Expert(s)

Janna De Rycke

Assistant Center Director, Pearson Electrotechnology Center, Lester B Pearson School Board

After 15 years of teaching grades K through 11, I made the jump into administration just under 2 years ago, but a large part of my heart still belongs to teaching grade 11 English. My short time in administration has brought me to the land of adult and vocational education, and having now had a taste for many of the different spheres of education, I feel like my arsenal of stories and anecdotes is becoming share worthy.

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