Week 8 Instructor Notes Notes from the Field It is probably a very good analogy to use when we say principals wear many hats. In the winter, you are in your building before daylight. You have some teachers out today and substitutes have been called. You have to be sure they have arrived and are at their posts. If not, you have to find someone to cover—maybe you—until that person arrives. You are hoping you won’t have a late bus today, as that always seems to start everything off wrong. What about the teacher who comes into your office, totally exasperated with a student? You can hardly ignore it. You quickly devise a plan to help her out before that student gets on her last nerve. “Bring him and his assignments in here; I will clear off a spot on my desk and he can continue his work uninterrupted!” This was my response—the student’s work was uninterrupted and working at a corner of my desk allowed me to keep my eye on him as I completed my work. The kindergarten teachers march in next. It is taking most of their time at lunch to put the milk on their students’ trays, and their lunch periods are shrinking! You take on that job so that you are sure they get their thirty minutes of duty-free lunch time. Then you put yourself on lunch duty for the upper grades because you have heard that lunch is not so much about eating with that group; it is all about entertaining each other by throwing food, squeezing the condiments on someone’s new pants, and making messes they seem to have no responsibility to clean up. Oh, yes, and Grandpa calls every morning just to be sure his grandson arrives at school. You worry about giving out that information over the phone, but the secretary has assured you that this has been going on for years! He just wants to know that his grandson has arrived at school. Then there is Mom who wants you to call her as soon as that field trip bus gets back to school today. She is embarrassed to tell you, but she is so concerned about something happening on that field trip. She just has to know the minute that bus pulls into the school driveway and her daughter is safe. Can you please give her a call to put her mind at ease? Of course, you can. That is something we will do to alleviate that mom’s anxiety. I could fill this page and more, but these are just a few of the events in a day in the life of your school or any school. We move from one situation to the next—one event to the next—keeping it all together. The “hats” the public sees us wear are one thing—there are many other “duties as assigned” that they will never see. Interestingly enough, we cannot pick and choose what we do, as there here is nothing I have listed here that we will say “no” to. We just do what we do to make our schools the best we can make them. Content Notes Have you seen that on a position description? Most of the time, at the end of the expectations for the position there is a statement that reads, “Other duties as assigned by your supervisor.” If we were to sum up all our discussions about the duties of the principal, we could probably say it in one word: Voluminous! We won’t go back over all of them at this point, but suffice it to say that we have probably all agreed that one of the two most challenging positions in our profession is the principalship. The other one, you might ask? Superintendent! As we have discussed previously, if you are to be an effective school executive, you will spend more time in the classroom than in the office. You will be out in the hallways, in the

cafeteria, in the parking lot, on the playground—you name it!Week 8 Discussion – Multiple Hats
After completing this week’s Readings and Resources, respond to the following questions.
Share one “hat” you have worn during this first internship that may have been a bit of a surprise to you–one you really had not expected to wear. Give a brief description and how you wore that hat.

Did it fit well or would you have preferred to hand that hat to someone else?
How would you change anything in the future were this “hat” given to you again?

Your initial responses are due by 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and should be between 200-250 words. The initial posting should be a statement of your point of view on the question, supported by the required readings.