Thursday, September 27, 2012

What Does a Principal Do?

Recently one of our assistant principals came in to read The Principal from the Black Lagoon to us. (We've had the librarian and the P.E. teacher in to read their respective books in the series as well. It's a fun way to invite guests in and build our understanding of a series.)

She asked my first graders what they think a principal does. I waited with bated breath to hear their responses. I had hoped for something a bit more interesting, but I found their thoughts pretty on target.

The first one said:
"If you get in trouble in class, if you do something really bad, you go to the principal's office."
It saddened me a bit to think that their first thought about the principal was about being in trouble. They've only had one, maybe two years, of schooling so far but they've got that completely figured out. One of my goals is to invite all three of our principals in throughout the year so the kids can see them in a different context. Our principal made it down for Dot Day for a bit which was fun.

The second student said:
"The principals are the boss of the school."
That's about how I explain their job. I wonder if there is a better explanation for what a principal does.

4 comments:

Summers School said...

We like, "They're the captain of our ship."

Only problem comes when they don't captain. Right now we're in such disarray that my principal told me she's not quite sure what she is doing this year either. Stressful!

teacherninja said...

Ideally they'd be the instructional leader.

Snippety Gibbet said...

Love the idea of asking kids what they think our different jobs are. It might provide some really interesting perspectives on what we do.

Jenny said...

Summers, that's a pretty good description. It sums things up succinctly.

Jim, so true. I'm not sure that's something first graders will understand though, given the experiences they have with the principal. I wish that were different.

Snippety Gibbet, it might...it might also be really disconcerting!