Yes there is a dichotomy between the leadership piece and the management piece of the VP role. I am speaking as an elementary VP who teaches as well. In my Board, there is, I believe, only one full time VP role in elementary. The rest of us all teach, many are less than 0.5 VP. What fuels the dichotomy you ask? Read on: 1) When the Literacy Coach model started in this Board around 2005-6, the VPs were to manage the school and not be a hands on part of this initiative. That was clearly stated. SERT (for the first couple of years), Literacy Coach (and there might be two sharing the role in a school) and P attended this Professional Development. Ps relied heavily on the SERT and the Literacy Coaches to support their instructional leadership. An important instructional leadership opportunity was lost to the VP. When staff PD was being planned, the VP often could not attend due to their teaching responsibilities that provided planning time for teachers. 2) More recently, Instructional Coaches who cover Literacy and Numeracy have been put in place and again, they became the “gurus” of instructional leadership and the P relies heavily on their input. The VP is not even always able to be part of planning for staff PD, as they may be teaching when this is occurring. 3) Depending on the culture of your school and the make-up of the players, the Teacher in Charge may or may not be keen to be frequently out of his/her classroom. This can make the absence of both admin on the same day difficult. So even if the VP is invited to attend, say a family of schools meeting along with the P, it may not be prudent for the VP to leave the building. Perhaps some thought should be given to alternating attendance at these types of meetings. VP on time, P another time…otherwise this dichotomy widens….for the VP.
The Leadership/Management Dichotomy
ReplyDeleteYes there is a dichotomy between the leadership piece and the management piece of the VP role. I am speaking as an elementary VP who teaches as well. In my Board, there is, I believe, only one full time VP role in elementary. The rest of us all teach, many are less than 0.5 VP. What fuels the dichotomy you ask? Read on:
1) When the Literacy Coach model started in this Board around 2005-6, the VPs were to manage the school and not be a hands on part of this initiative. That was clearly stated. SERT (for the first couple of years), Literacy Coach (and there might be two sharing the role in a school) and P attended this Professional Development. Ps relied heavily on the SERT and the Literacy Coaches to support their instructional leadership. An important instructional leadership opportunity was lost to the VP. When staff PD was being planned, the VP often could not attend due to their teaching responsibilities that provided planning time for teachers.
2) More recently, Instructional Coaches who cover Literacy and Numeracy have been put in place and again, they became the “gurus” of instructional leadership and the P relies heavily on their input. The VP is not even always able to be part of planning for staff PD, as they may be teaching when this is occurring.
3) Depending on the culture of your school and the make-up of the players, the Teacher in Charge may or may not be keen to be frequently out of his/her classroom. This can make the absence of both admin on the same day difficult. So even if the VP is invited to attend, say a family of schools meeting along with the P, it may not be prudent for the VP to leave the building. Perhaps some thought should be given to alternating attendance at these types of meetings. VP on time, P another time…otherwise this dichotomy widens….for the VP.