(Originally posted on Love the Learning.)

By Jessica Hanson

One of my awesome first grade teachers shared this with me and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the first grade humor within the story. But, after closely reading the story I thought, “Wow, this first grader may be on to something.”

Principals can command kids.
– This part of the job is easier than commanding the grown people in our building. Commands don’t work with the adults. But I think this sentence is powerful because sometimes as administrators we need to step out of our offices from the disciplinarian role and step into making positive relationships with students. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get into this principal gig to command kids…I got into this to change kids’ lives.

Principals do sleep.
-Rarely….maybe during the Spring Break…No wait…maybe during summer break….no wait….not this principal, I have 3 children under the age of 5 and a building of 500+ students to care for everyday.

Principals have family.
-Yes, I do have an amazing family. I think most of the principals you meet all have big families. I think this is because they manage chaos well from managing their own families and we just love kids–all of them!

Principals have jobs as principals.
-And as teachers, secretaries, attendance clerks, counselors, nurses, cafeteria workers, custodians, parent trainers, mediators, tissue holders, hug-givers, shoe-tiers, and that’s just the short list. Don’t forget…we also are skillfully trained in the art of blame-taking, cheese-moving, change-agenting (new word), student-focusing, teacher-cheerleading, and tech-innovating. (Wow I think I broke a lot of grammar and spelling rules there, sorry 4th grade team.)

We hold many hats, the principal is just a title. I choose to be a leader…a leader of learning!

Principals can jog one mile.
-This is probably the funniest to me because the same week this was written I am pretty sure the whole first grade class saw me sprinting across the playground after a student that tried to run from campus.

So yeah…sometimes we do run…

The principal should always be running towards the dream with a torch lit so the team can see the path and run with them.

 

jessica-hanson
Jessica Hanson is a Principal/Lead Learner at Walnut Creek Elementary. She shares her insights on her website, Love The Learning. Follow Jessica on Twitter at @jessahanson.