Taking Something Off Their Plates

What I Learned In School Today: Sometimes you have to take a job of the teachers’ plates.

First trimester progress reports go home this Friday. Grades are due today and reports will be printed tomorrow along with personalized cover letters, sorted by class, and distributed. This year, Garnet Valley has shifted its student information system from PowerSchool to Alma. As a result, the process for entering grades and developing the report card has been significantly different this year.

As part of the process, the administration was under the impression that a feature had been added to report card process that would significantly ease the time requirements put on teachers. Unfortunately, today, the day before printing the report cards, we learned that there had been a miscommunication and this time saving feature did not exist.

After the initial frustration passed, we had a decision to make. One option was to inform teachers, admit that there was a mistake, and put it back on them. The second option was to roll up our sleeves, go through each individual report card for every student in the school, and fix the problem. We chose option number two.

As a leader, it is critical to communicate and delegate. Realizing that one person cannot do everything is an early step on the road to effective leadership. That being said, sometimes administrators need to take on the burden and take something off the plate of the teachers. Our day was completely absorbed by solving this problem, but the teachers were unaffected. Sometimes that’s what they need.