It is very difficult for me to find some type of decision that I have needed to make as a teacher/leader because the beginning of my second year has been the first time as though I have felt as though I am actually the one making executive decisions in the room as opposed to the chaos that happened every day last year. Last year any decision of mine would have been laughed off and ignored since my authority was not realized in my classroom. At the same time, though, I feel as though the lack of structure in my school (especially this year) has forced me to be the only one to make any type of decisions for my classroom in terms of discipline, rules, and structure.
Even before this year began, one thing I decided to do was to enforce my own rules and only my rules in my classroom. Last year the principal mandated four very vague rules by which the school would be governed, like "Be prepared" and "Be responsible." These are the rules that I posted on my wall, and they were impossible to enforce. She mandated the same rules this year, but I had already set my own rules in place. She has told us as a group in meetings this year that we should not have additional rules on our walls other than her four, but since I both know that those do not work for me and have not been singled out, I have decided to make no changes. Perhaps this does not constitute as a major difficult decision, but it is the first one that comes to mind as a decision that I have needed to make that has actually had bearing on something. Much of this hold I had at the beginning of the year has become lost with the constant changes in the building and change of authority, but there is still a noticeable improvement from what occurred in my classroom daily last year.
Since other staff members (particularly my instructional coach) so rarely visit my room this year, I am forced to make all decisions in terms of methodology and instruction on my own. Since I cannot reuse anything from my first year due to its vastly inferior quality, I am still learning what types of methods and resources work and which do not. I still never know whether I am really doing the right thing and am still guessing on a daily basis. Our instructional coach has been extremely helpful in helping us with pacing and allowing us to accommodate the needs of our classroom, but I still question my methodology daily and must make executive decisions, as I very rarely get feedback.
One thing that I wish could have happened at NPJH was the formation of clubs, an idea for our intervention block that had been thrown around during all of last year. Another teacher and I had expressed interest in creating some kind of theater club, but this never ended up happening. I wish that either something like this or a foreign language club was something that could have come to fruition, but the organization was never put in place.
Even before this year began, one thing I decided to do was to enforce my own rules and only my rules in my classroom. Last year the principal mandated four very vague rules by which the school would be governed, like "Be prepared" and "Be responsible." These are the rules that I posted on my wall, and they were impossible to enforce. She mandated the same rules this year, but I had already set my own rules in place. She has told us as a group in meetings this year that we should not have additional rules on our walls other than her four, but since I both know that those do not work for me and have not been singled out, I have decided to make no changes. Perhaps this does not constitute as a major difficult decision, but it is the first one that comes to mind as a decision that I have needed to make that has actually had bearing on something. Much of this hold I had at the beginning of the year has become lost with the constant changes in the building and change of authority, but there is still a noticeable improvement from what occurred in my classroom daily last year.
Since other staff members (particularly my instructional coach) so rarely visit my room this year, I am forced to make all decisions in terms of methodology and instruction on my own. Since I cannot reuse anything from my first year due to its vastly inferior quality, I am still learning what types of methods and resources work and which do not. I still never know whether I am really doing the right thing and am still guessing on a daily basis. Our instructional coach has been extremely helpful in helping us with pacing and allowing us to accommodate the needs of our classroom, but I still question my methodology daily and must make executive decisions, as I very rarely get feedback.
One thing that I wish could have happened at NPJH was the formation of clubs, an idea for our intervention block that had been thrown around during all of last year. Another teacher and I had expressed interest in creating some kind of theater club, but this never ended up happening. I wish that either something like this or a foreign language club was something that could have come to fruition, but the organization was never put in place.