Admin Credential Done!!

The past 15 months in my admin program with the Orange County Department of Education have been so rewarding. I learned so much, grew as a teacher, expanded my lens of education beyond the classroom, and met an amazing group of individuals. Everyone was so down to earth and I truly appreciated how everyone genuinely cared about the experiences and stories of others.

I’m not ready to jump to an admin role and even though it’s only January, I’ve already committed to another year in the classroom because that’s where I feel called to be right now. This program allowed me to have the lens of an administrator, but beyond that, I’m so excited to see how that lens will shape my teaching. I’m excited to take it slow, not take the jump, and see how I can utilize my knowledge at the “street” level.

Key Learning Points

Here are a few key learning points that I’ve had throughout the past year and some months.

1. It’s so important to have a mission and vision. It frames your decision making and when you’re asked, “why?”, you’re able to articulate your decisions based on your mission and vision.
2. As a teacher, you gather street data, or data directly from student work. As an administrator, map and satellite data (CAASPP, CAST, absentee percentages, general data that goes into the SARC). Ensuring that all of these are taken into account during decision making is important and when there’s discrepancies or questions about map/satellite data, the street data within the classroom helps explain it. Lean and trust on teachers.
3. As a teacher, you have a different lens than an administrator. A common phrase I often hear is, “Administrators forgot what it’s like to be a teacher.” I’ve learned that it isn’t that they forgot, but rather their lens expanded in the role as an administrator. There’s a tense disconnect between the jobs that I think communication and understanding can help ease.
4. This is a whole new and exciting world. As a teacher, you learn about pedagogy, teaching practices, student-centered instruction, content specific knowledge, and things teaching-related. You’re told what the school policies and procedures are. You might participate in some committees. As an administrator, you conduct needs analysis to identify areas of growth and start the committees, develop its vision, lead the development of policies and procedures. When it comes to school systems and structures, you’re told “what” as a teacher and you develop the “how” and the “why” as an administrator. You critically gather, analyze, and communicate data and explain its alignment to the mission and vision. That job description is so different than a teacher. It’s why I’m not ready to take the leap and apply for jobs as an assistant principal yet because my growth as a teacher is still my focus, but when I’m ready, I know it’ll be really fun with impact in a different way than my current job.

There’s a lot more that I learned and I could go on for days using the notes and documents that I’ve gathered from the awesome instructors in the PASC program, but I’ll stop at this summary. I’m so thankful that I started and finished this because it really elevated my love for education knowing that the number of paths I can take to make a difference for students just expanded.