Waiting for My Job Description
A couple of blogs back, I shared a moving story about a professional development workshop at a turnaround school in Louisiana: the new principal-with-vision, the mix of teachers (veterans who knew the community well, eager newbies, masters teachers who transferred in from other schools), the galvanizing moment when the principal let her staff know that she valued their judgment--that they were the people who would make learning happen.
School opened last week, even though they weren't even close to "ready"--not the building rehab, not the cleaned-up, bright-and-shiny classrooms everyone wanted, not the professional preparation and staff bonding. The principal (who's only been on the job for a few weeks) hadn't even received her job description. School started anyway.
Here's a verbatim dispatch from the principal.
Monday morning, Week Two.
Morning duty at 7:00 a.m.:
Parents and kids are now being r
