The concept of the one room schoolhouse in the global information age is the product of decades of observation, reading, research, and experience. I am identifying what our best teachers do daily.
Let’s examine the key jobs in the school system and the strands of what you need to know to be able to incorporate them into your metaphorical one-room schoolhouse. As you become a teacher leader, or teacher who leads, these points-of-view are essential to your success.
The Teacher - ironically, this is just about the last thing you get to be. Many issues compete for the hearts and minds of our youth. Multiple conditions must be met for your students before you can be the teacher. In a one-room school teachers and kids had no other options when the going got tough. Don't allow yourself the thought that you can just get rid of a student who is a poor fit in your life. Think old school. All people crave connection; that's a fact. Investigate the work of Abraham Maslow if you need convincing. The more connected you are with your students, the smoother your life will be.
The Secretary - be an excellent record keeper and communicator. Be a proactive communicator and a responsive communicator when you are forced into a reactive mode of communication. Make people feel that you are glad they are in your presence and that they are indeed very special. Everyone feels that way about himself or herself anyway; play into his or her belief structure. They will love you for recognizing their significance. You are the same way too, so don't laugh.
The Janitor - clean up your own messes, both literally and figuratively. Buy a vacuum cleaner at a garage sale and have your students maintain the room. Learn to stock up on replacement parts in advance, and always have an old school solution available for the inevitable technology failure that will occur at the worst possible time. Have lessons that are impossible to derail. Also, when you make an emotional mess, clean it up yourself. Be your own fix-it man or fix-it woman in every way.
The Counselor - learn to ask, "How are you feeling about that?” Learn to read body language and end the problem before it goes home to mom and dad. People who are removed from the situation should not be the people dreaming up solutions. Learn to read your students and tailor your interactions with their needs in mind. If you can help it, don't let kids leave your room angry or upset. They will tell mama bear, and then your pain begins. Knowing when a kid is upset can be hard, because sometimes they are deceptively passive. It may take an encounter with mama bear to learn how to avoid an encounter with mama bear. Avoid it. Abandon what you think is absolute right and wrong and do what works.
The Assistant Principal - decide with the parent what an appropriate consequence is for their child to learn from behavioral mistakes. The Education Code outlines what is a violation, but the application of consequences is far from universal. Decide on something the parents can support. Keep them on your side. It will probably change poor behavior much faster than the traditional authority figure model. That model is passé. Parents think they are the experts on all things related to their offspring; play into their belief structure whenever possible. The parents who are great at raising their kids will show up on back to school night and open house. Really great parents just need to know that you are there and that you know what you are doing. If their kid is happy in your class, you will not hear from them too often. If their kid is not happy in your class, you need to beat the kid home with that news. When you have a kid with poor behavior, the chances are high that boundaries are simply being tested, and that it's not an issue of poor parenting. Whenever possible, have the conversation about your behavioral concerns with the parent before you address the student. The old school model would suggest that the best practice would be to inform the parent that you had to assign a consequence to their child for some infraction. The new school model must invert that sequence. A kid can and will fire off a rapid text message (regardless of the school's cell phone policy) to helicopter mom before the ink on the detention notice is even dry. You stand a very good chance of the tables being turned on you. Avoid outsourcing the issue to an administrator. Referrals are pointless and they teach kids that the problem is too big for you to handle. Plus, what you don't know as a new teacher is that your administrator will not view you as highly competent when you start making your problems their problems. Deal with difficult kids creatively. Have a back up agreement ready at all times with a fellow teacher when you need to give a kid another place to be. Have emergency work ready to send along; don't jam the office with your inability to manage behavior. Solve it.
The Principal - avoid losing control of any disagreement that will end up at the principal's desk or higher for a final decision. You will always know the situation better than someone who is removed from the discussion by several degrees. Find the compromise yourself and be the one to appease the parent. It's better for future conflicts that you are seen as the one who can solve the issue. Make it your job to read articles on education from journals and magazines. Keep your ear to the ground on latest trends. Don't just be a talking head that issues proclamations from the safety of your desk. Engage in management by walking around. Learn to detect sincerity or mere flattery. Learn who in your circle is trustworthy.