May 16, 2024 • 19 mins
Learn how teachers can navigate school politics and prioritize student learning. Just one of the many things teachers need to understand!
I have a new YouTube channel! Join me over there and subscribe!
Got questions, feedback, or want to be on the show? You can email me at kim@teachersneedteachers.com
Connect with me
I have a new YouTube channel! Join me over there and subscribe!
Got questions, feedback, or want to be on the show? You can email me at kim@teachersneedteachers.com
Connect with me
- Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or Stitcher
- Join my Facebook Group
- Message me through Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers who don't want
to just survive teaching but actually thrive. I'm your host, Kim Laprie,
and I really appreciate you being withme here today. This topic has been
ruminating on my mind because there's justa lot of things happening in my school
right now, and it's definitely pertinentto any teacher, but especially new teachers,
(00:24):
and it's all about school politics.Maybe you're like me and you hate
all things politics, but today wehave to talk about them. If you've
ever worked in a job, especiallyin a place of business, then you
have actually experienced workplace politics. Youmight have done your best to avoid them,
especially if you were a less senioremployee, but you may not have
(00:46):
realized that you were actually always apart of it. Either you were someone
who had the power or knowledge tomake things happen, or you were a
pawn that a more assertive person usedto reach their goal. Sounds harsh,
but that's just the reality. Andnow that you're in a career that you
may be in for the long haul, it's important to learn how to navigate
(01:07):
school politics. Even if you don'twant anything to do with them, because
simply being passive about it could bethe difference between loving your job and frankly
getting screwed. So I'm going tocover how to survive school politics so that
you can actually love the school thatyou teach at. So, just like
in regular national politics, in schoolpolitics it involves around different groups and their
(01:32):
power dynamics. So some key stakeholdersinvolved are the district that you work in,
the school administrators, teachers, administrativestaff, counselors, parents, and
of course students. I'm also missingsome other school staff in there, but
a lot of times these are quoteunquote the power players, and obviously each
(01:55):
group has a different priority. Forexample, a lot of times for a
big school district like the one thatI teach in, they are of course
concerned about serving this community, butthey also have to think about things like
fiscal responsibility and using taxpayer money,getting federal money, looking like a good
district to attract more people to comehere so that we can get more of
(02:17):
that federal money. And then whenyou trickle down to say the schools,
that's also a similar concern in termsof like fiscal responsibility and just making the
school look good. So it makesthe district look good. But also we
want to pull in a lot ofstudents so that we can get that money.
We call it the ADA money.And then principles, of course,
(02:38):
they want to look good running theschool. They want to make sure that
the school runs smoothly, that thereare fewer parent complaints. And if a
principal is maybe trying to work uptheir way to work at the district level,
then they're going to do things thatmake them look good, so that's
going to be their priority. Andthen we have the teachers, you know
(02:58):
what I mean. And so it'sit's important to understand and to really be
cognizant of the different priorities of allthe power players within a school environment.
Understanding this will help you navigate theschool politics more effectively because as you are
talking to these different people at thesedifferent levels, you're going to have to
(03:20):
frame your message according to what theirpriorities and what their ultimate goals are.
For example, let's say that youwant a particular teaching assignment because it's your
favorite grade. Well, your principlemight not care that it's your favorite grade.
The district might not care that it'syour favorite grade. What really matters
to them is how does it affecttheir end goal. Also important to recognize
(03:42):
within the structure is favoritism and youknow, sometimes even nepotism, because that
will also affect you in the longrun. So, for example, if
you are a favorite of your principleor even the district, then more opportunities
are going to be available to you, which seems obvious. And on the
flip side, if you are someonewho isn't a favorite, or maybe you
(04:03):
decide that you're someone who wants tofly under the radar, then things like
teaching assignments, classrooms, resources,funding, things like that may not be
as available to you. So ifyou've been teaching a while, then this
is all obvious. If you're new, it may not seem as obvious because
you just haven't had any experience withthis, But it's just good to know
(04:24):
and be aware. So this goesalong with understanding the school culture in your
particular school. After I got myselfsettled into a new school, I would
want to understand the culture and sortof those unwritten rules. For example,
you might be surprised by how littlepower your principle might have. They may
actually just be a puppet for thedistrict. They may just be implementing any
(04:46):
kind of initiatives that the district wants, and they don't really have any say,
and they're just basically a manager,whereas in some other schools, principles
have a lot of power in termsof hiring and firing and spending money.
So it's up to you to figurethat out when you get to your new
school. I've seen schools where counselorshave an outsize influence on decision making.
(05:10):
They can actually determine teaching assignment sometimesor who gets which types of classes or
students. It was just really surprisingto me to hear and actually in some
cases experience just how much power counselorshave, especially because of their working relationship
with the principle. In other schools, the principal secretary is actually a gate
(05:32):
keeper and can determine whether or notthe principle even is aware of your concerns.
And in certain communities, the PTAcan have a lot of influence,
especially because they do so much fundraising, and they can actually have power in
terms of how many is spent oreven have influence on things like events,
(05:53):
policies, and other aspects of schoollife. So it's important to learn about
all of this, and one ofthe best way to do that is to
observe and talk to people, andof course, something that we hate to
hear build relationships. A lot oftimes when we talk about building relationships,
it's someone telling us that we needto build relationships with students, which is
(06:14):
just so obvious and sometimes insulting tohear. But you also have to build
relationships with other adults, and ifanything, I think that sometimes working with
the adults is a lot harder thanworking with the students. So you want
to build positive relationships with your colleaguesand administrators and the other staff that work
in the school. Definitely the custodians. I'm going to tell you right now,
(06:36):
building good relationships with a custodian thatcleans your room is key. You
want that stinky thing out of yourroom, or you want them to take
care of that mouse that's hiding underyour desk, You want to be nice
to them. So basically, youneed to leverage these relationships when problems arise.
And it doesn't mean that you're goingto be fake, but it's nice
(06:57):
to have people who you can leanon, and of course going to want
to lean on you, and that'sjust part of the give and take of
being a good colleague. It's niceto have people who are in your corner
to advocate for you, especially whendecisions are being made about you and when
things get tough. So it's reallyimportant to learn about who the key players
are, as I mentioned earlier,so that you can know who you need
(07:19):
to get past, especially if they'recertain gatekeepers or certain people who really have
a lot of influence in your school, and a lot of that is through
building relationships. This means that you'regoing to have to show genuine interest in
others. It seems so simple,but I know people who just like to
talk about themselves. That's not reallygoing to help you build relationships with other
(07:42):
people if you're always trying to finda way to talk about yourself. I'd
also participate in activities. For example, if there's a special event or luncheon
that's going on, then attend.If a teacher is throwing a baby or
bridal shower for one of your colleagues, attend. Like maybe you're not that
type of person who likes to socializea lot, I'm not gonna lie.
(08:05):
I'm not. I'm more of anintrovert, I'm kind of boring. I'm
a homebody. But if they're doingsomething at school and it's just like during
your lunchtime or maybe for a littlebit after school, it's really not going
to kill you to go. Thatreally goes far in terms of building relationships
with people and also offering to helpwhen you can. For example, one
of my colleagues was having a babyand it was right before one of our
(08:28):
breaks, and no one had thoughtabout throwing her baby shower because she was
a newer teacher. And I amnot someone who likes to entertain other people,
or I don't like to have partiesor dinners or anything like that.
I don't mind going out and meetingwith people, but I'm just not that
person. But I pulled it togetherand decided that she needed to have a
baby shower, that she should haveone because pretty much every other pregnant mother
(08:52):
in her school has had one,and just because she's new, I didn't
want her to feel left out.So I organized with all of the other
peopleople who are good at that kindof stuff, and we threw her a
really nice baby shower. And soI'm building relationships with all these other people.
I don't necessarily hang out with anyof them outside of school, but
it makes me feel good to dothat for someone, and I know that
(09:13):
in the long run it's good interms of the school politics. And trust
me, as someone who's more introverted, it's exhausting to do these types of
social things. I prefer to eatlunch alone just because I need that time
to turn my brain off. ButI definitely think in the beginning, especially
when you're a newer teacher, it'simportant to try to eat lunch with your
(09:33):
colleagues and build those alliances and toreally listen and learn. That way,
you know who you need to bestrategic with, because someday they could really
help you in a pinch, andit could be the difference between wanting to
stay at your school and just leaveteaching altogether. However, we also have
to navigate clicks and other groups,and you've probably experienced this, either being
(09:54):
part of one or unfortunately on theoutside of one. These cannot be of
and sometimes it really sucks. WhenI was teaching band, I didn't really
have like a group that I hungout with because I taught intellective and the
core teachers kind of hung out withtheir subject matter colleagues. And also my
classroom was really far away and itwasn't until I made friends with one of
(10:16):
the English teachers and she just draggedme to the lunch room and it was
so eye opening for me. Butalso I knew that I wasn't part of
the click and it was kind ofawkward at first until I started to make
more friends. But part of atleast being friendly with people, whether or
not you're in the clique, itreally helps in terms of knowing who are
(10:37):
the decision makers or who has likethe principal's ear or the counselor's ear.
But I know it's really hard tobreak into one. There could be a
lot of reasons why you can't breakinto one, and I definitely know that
agism plays a huge part. Ihate to say that, and it sucks,
but you know, people of similarage and interests, they just tend
to gravitate towards each other. Youmight not even care about being in one,
(11:00):
or even really want to be inone of these cliques. I'm just
saying that it can help. Itcan help in terms of forming allies,
and it was hard when I switchedschools after being at one school for a
really long time because everybody already hadtheir established cliques. But I just found
that just being friendly to people andbeing genuinely interested in what is going on
(11:22):
in their life, or being genuinelyinterested when they're sharing something, and just
trying to get to know my othercolleagues, it went really far in terms
of forming alliances. And again,you're going to need those. Trust me.
All of this relationship building that you'vebeen doing will help you leverage for
success. Now, let's say thatyou want to teach a particular grade.
Maybe you're stuck in fourth grade becausethat's the only grade that they had open
(11:46):
when you applied, but you werehoping for kindergarten. Then you want to
identify who are the decision makers,who actually has an influence on the various
teaching assignments. A lot of timesit's not just the principal who's making these
decisions. For example, in myschool, yes it's the principle, but
it's also department heads, and it'salso counselors. So who's in charge and
(12:07):
who can you start having the conversationswith ahead of time so that you can
plant that seed. This doesn't workif you haven't built any relationships though,
and then when you build your case, you want to frame it in a
way that is going to help thatperson who you're speaking to reach their goal.
For example, if you're trying toteach math eight and you currently teach
(12:28):
seventh grade math, you're going towant to talk to the math department head
and try to figure out what theirend goal is when they're recommending who teaches
what. Sometimes they see that onegrade just is not working for them and
that maybe they need to switch toanother grade, and so they're just trying
to make it so that everyone isplaced somewhere where they can do the most
(12:50):
good and do the least damage.So how can you fit into that?
How can you help them out?But if you see that they're trying to
meet a need and they're stuck,you could bring up your strengths and how
you would be a really good fitin that role. But I definitely wouldn't
throw your other colleagues under the busbecause that's going to bite you in the
butt later on. They're probably goingto find out, and it might be
a series of different conversations with differentdecision makers, framing it from again their
(13:16):
goals and needs that will eventually getyou to what it is that you want.
You just got to be patient.Like navigating school politics can really take
time, and you might have tostart planning that seed early on in the
year. Now, sometimes we haveto take one for the team. It's
kind of that I'll scratch your backand then you scratch my type of a
deal. So you might have tovolunteer for maybe a less desirable committee,
(13:41):
or maybe for one year you takea teaching assignment that isn't ideal, but
you can have that conversation of well, I know that so and so is
going to be on leave this year, so I'll take that position for the
year, but then I would lovefor the following year to be teaching this
That could really help out your princesfigure out what to do just for this
next school year, and that'll reallygo far later on in terms of when
(14:07):
they're making the decisions for the yearafter that. It just demonstrates your commitment
to the school and just really buildsgoodwill with your administrator and possibly your colleagues,
and of course, when the opportunityto raises, you get to cash
in on that good will. Thisactually worked for me because we had a
first year teacher who had been travelingclassrooms. And that's really rough when you're
(14:28):
a first year teacher, like youwant to have your own room. You're
really excited to decorate and do thingslike that. And I felt really bad
for them, and so what Idid is I actually gave up my classroom
and I became the traveling teacher.I knew that doing this wouldn't be too
tough, because I mean, I'mestablished, I can teach anywhere in any
(14:48):
classroom, honestly, especially because weare mainly online. The kids have their
iPads, so it wasn't that bigof a deal to me. But I
also knew that I would use thislater on. And so then that new
teacher took my classroom and was ableto decorate and fill the bookshelves with books
that they had acquired, and theyreally loved it, and they just got
(15:09):
to be in one spot. AndI traveled only for one year, and
then the following year, a betterand nicer classroom in a better area opened
up. And because I had takenone for the team, your principal is
more than happy to give that oneto me. Now you may have done
all of this relationship building and leveraging, but you know conflicts are going to
(15:31):
rise. You obviously can't avoid thatin any workplace. And this is when
you'll really see the power of politicscome into play because you're going to see
different factions and it can get ugly. There'll be alliances, possible backstabbing,
people throwing each other under the bus. It's like this huge episode of Survivor
or squid Games. In this case, if you were not directly involved,
(15:54):
I encourage you, especially as anewer teacher, to stay neutral. You
are Switzerland. I would avoid takingsides as much as possible, Like,
be supportive of your team, yourallies, the people that you've created these
relationships with. But remember that asa newer teacher, you are being watched
(16:15):
by the powers that be until youhave tenure or some kind of seniority.
If you're really vocal about the sidethat you pick, that could bite you
in the butt later on. Imean, it sucks, but it could
be your job on the line.So yes, be emotionally supportive to the
people that aren't in your team.But at the same time, I definitely
(16:37):
wouldn't do anything that's going to makeadministration mad. In the end. School
politics suck and all we want todo is just focus on our students,
and I get that. However,we also have to think about ourselves and
our well being, especially our mentaland emotional wellbeing. A lot of that
depends on things like our teaching assignment, our classroom, classroom resources, you
(17:00):
know what I mean, And toget the most ideal teaching environment for you.
Understanding and leveraging school politics is reallygoing to go a long way.
I know you don't want to haveto do this. It can feel gross
because you're like, I don't wantto have to play the game. But
the people who don't play the gameand who just want to fly under the
radar, they just kind of getwhatever's left over. They get forgotten,
(17:23):
they get passed over, they getpushed around. It's that teacher who might
get bumped to a different grade everysingle year because there haven't leveraged any relationships.
You might think that the person who'sthe most vocal and who's the squeaky
wheel and gets really indignant about it, gets what they want. But a
lot of times it's the people whohave taken the time to patiently work on
(17:45):
relationships that in the end are happiest. Then really get what serves them the
best. And honestly, when we'rehappy, our students are happy too because
they can feed off of our positiveenergy. But when you hate teaching assignment,
you hate your classroom, you hateeverything that's going on in your school,
your kids feel that too and theyreact in a certain way. So
(18:08):
while it made you feel gross todo all of this political stuff, in
the end, it just helps youlike teaching more and stay in the career.
So remember, as a newer teacheror maybe just new to a school,
just be observant of your school's culture. Build relationships with your colleagues,
administrators, and even parents. Theseallies can help you advocate for your needs
(18:29):
and your student success. Remember thatprofessionalism and data driven requests go a really
long way, and don't let politicsdistract you. Just keep your passion for
teaching your students at the forefront ofyour mind. So I hope that this
was iOpening for you, especially asa newer teacher. It's something that you'll
get over time, but I justwanted to give you a heads up so
(18:52):
you can start building those relationships inyour school. Big shout out to my
Facebook group if you want to commenton anything in this particular episode, then
go ahead and join it. Ihave a link in the show notes and
you can go over there and sayhi and ask questions. You can also
reach out to me and you canalso just reach out to me at kimat
(19:15):
teachersned teachers dot com. Thanks forhanging out with me today and I will
see you next time.
Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers who don't want
to just survive teaching but actually thrive. I'm your host, Kim Laprie,
and I really appreciate you being withme here today. This topic has been
ruminating on my mind because there's justa lot of things happening in my school
right now, and it's definitely pertinentto any teacher, but especially new teachers,
(00:24):
and it's all about school politics.Maybe you're like me and you hate
all things politics, but today wehave to talk about them. If you've
ever worked in a job, especiallyin a place of business, then you
have actually experienced workplace politics. Youmight have done your best to avoid them,
especially if you were a less senioremployee, but you may not have
(00:46):
realized that you were actually always apart of it. Either you were someone
who had the power or knowledge tomake things happen, or you were a
pawn that a more assertive person usedto reach their goal. Sounds harsh,
but that's just the reality. Andnow that you're in a career that you
may be in for the long haul, it's important to learn how to navigate
(01:07):
school politics. Even if you don'twant anything to do with them, because
simply being passive about it could bethe difference between loving your job and frankly
getting screwed. So I'm going tocover how to survive school politics so that
you can actually love the school thatyou teach at. So, just like
in regular national politics, in schoolpolitics it involves around different groups and their
(01:32):
power dynamics. So some key stakeholdersinvolved are the district that you work in,
the school administrators, teachers, administrativestaff, counselors, parents, and
of course students. I'm also missingsome other school staff in there, but
a lot of times these are quoteunquote the power players, and obviously each
(01:55):
group has a different priority. Forexample, a lot of times for a
big school district like the one thatI teach in, they are of course
concerned about serving this community, butthey also have to think about things like
fiscal responsibility and using taxpayer money,getting federal money, looking like a good
district to attract more people to comehere so that we can get more of
(02:17):
that federal money. And then whenyou trickle down to say the schools,
that's also a similar concern in termsof like fiscal responsibility and just making the
school look good. So it makesthe district look good. But also we
want to pull in a lot ofstudents so that we can get that money.
We call it the ADA money.And then principles, of course,
(02:38):
they want to look good running theschool. They want to make sure that
the school runs smoothly, that thereare fewer parent complaints. And if a
principal is maybe trying to work uptheir way to work at the district level,
then they're going to do things thatmake them look good, so that's
going to be their priority. Andthen we have the teachers, you know
(02:58):
what I mean. And so it'sit's important to understand and to really be
cognizant of the different priorities of allthe power players within a school environment.
Understanding this will help you navigate theschool politics more effectively because as you are
talking to these different people at thesedifferent levels, you're going to have to
(03:20):
frame your message according to what theirpriorities and what their ultimate goals are.
For example, let's say that youwant a particular teaching assignment because it's your
favorite grade. Well, your principlemight not care that it's your favorite grade.
The district might not care that it'syour favorite grade. What really matters
to them is how does it affecttheir end goal. Also important to recognize
(03:42):
within the structure is favoritism and youknow, sometimes even nepotism, because that
will also affect you in the longrun. So, for example, if
you are a favorite of your principleor even the district, then more opportunities
are going to be available to you, which seems obvious. And on the
flip side, if you are someonewho isn't a favorite, or maybe you
(04:03):
decide that you're someone who wants tofly under the radar, then things like
teaching assignments, classrooms, resources,funding, things like that may not be
as available to you. So ifyou've been teaching a while, then this
is all obvious. If you're new, it may not seem as obvious because
you just haven't had any experience withthis, But it's just good to know
(04:24):
and be aware. So this goesalong with understanding the school culture in your
particular school. After I got myselfsettled into a new school, I would
want to understand the culture and sortof those unwritten rules. For example,
you might be surprised by how littlepower your principle might have. They may
actually just be a puppet for thedistrict. They may just be implementing any
(04:46):
kind of initiatives that the district wants, and they don't really have any say,
and they're just basically a manager,whereas in some other schools, principles
have a lot of power in termsof hiring and firing and spending money.
So it's up to you to figurethat out when you get to your new
school. I've seen schools where counselorshave an outsize influence on decision making.
(05:10):
They can actually determine teaching assignment sometimesor who gets which types of classes or
students. It was just really surprisingto me to hear and actually in some
cases experience just how much power counselorshave, especially because of their working relationship
with the principle. In other schools, the principal secretary is actually a gate
(05:32):
keeper and can determine whether or notthe principle even is aware of your concerns.
And in certain communities, the PTAcan have a lot of influence,
especially because they do so much fundraising, and they can actually have power in
terms of how many is spent oreven have influence on things like events,
(05:53):
policies, and other aspects of schoollife. So it's important to learn about
all of this, and one ofthe best way to do that is to
observe and talk to people, andof course, something that we hate to
hear build relationships. A lot oftimes when we talk about building relationships,
it's someone telling us that we needto build relationships with students, which is
(06:14):
just so obvious and sometimes insulting tohear. But you also have to build
relationships with other adults, and ifanything, I think that sometimes working with
the adults is a lot harder thanworking with the students. So you want
to build positive relationships with your colleaguesand administrators and the other staff that work
in the school. Definitely the custodians. I'm going to tell you right now,
(06:36):
building good relationships with a custodian thatcleans your room is key. You
want that stinky thing out of yourroom, or you want them to take
care of that mouse that's hiding underyour desk, You want to be nice
to them. So basically, youneed to leverage these relationships when problems arise.
And it doesn't mean that you're goingto be fake, but it's nice
(06:57):
to have people who you can leanon, and of course going to want
to lean on you, and that'sjust part of the give and take of
being a good colleague. It's niceto have people who are in your corner
to advocate for you, especially whendecisions are being made about you and when
things get tough. So it's reallyimportant to learn about who the key players
are, as I mentioned earlier,so that you can know who you need
(07:19):
to get past, especially if they'recertain gatekeepers or certain people who really have
a lot of influence in your school, and a lot of that is through
building relationships. This means that you'regoing to have to show genuine interest in
others. It seems so simple,but I know people who just like to
talk about themselves. That's not reallygoing to help you build relationships with other
(07:42):
people if you're always trying to finda way to talk about yourself. I'd
also participate in activities. For example, if there's a special event or luncheon
that's going on, then attend.If a teacher is throwing a baby or
bridal shower for one of your colleagues, attend. Like maybe you're not that
type of person who likes to socializea lot, I'm not gonna lie.
(08:05):
I'm not. I'm more of anintrovert, I'm kind of boring. I'm
a homebody. But if they're doingsomething at school and it's just like during
your lunchtime or maybe for a littlebit after school, it's really not going
to kill you to go. Thatreally goes far in terms of building relationships
with people and also offering to helpwhen you can. For example, one
of my colleagues was having a babyand it was right before one of our
(08:28):
breaks, and no one had thoughtabout throwing her baby shower because she was
a newer teacher. And I amnot someone who likes to entertain other people,
or I don't like to have partiesor dinners or anything like that.
I don't mind going out and meetingwith people, but I'm just not that
person. But I pulled it togetherand decided that she needed to have a
baby shower, that she should haveone because pretty much every other pregnant mother
(08:52):
in her school has had one,and just because she's new, I didn't
want her to feel left out.So I organized with all of the other
peopleople who are good at that kindof stuff, and we threw her a
really nice baby shower. And soI'm building relationships with all these other people.
I don't necessarily hang out with anyof them outside of school, but
it makes me feel good to dothat for someone, and I know that
(09:13):
in the long run it's good interms of the school politics. And trust
me, as someone who's more introverted, it's exhausting to do these types of
social things. I prefer to eatlunch alone just because I need that time
to turn my brain off. ButI definitely think in the beginning, especially
when you're a newer teacher, it'simportant to try to eat lunch with your
(09:33):
colleagues and build those alliances and toreally listen and learn. That way,
you know who you need to bestrategic with, because someday they could really
help you in a pinch, andit could be the difference between wanting to
stay at your school and just leaveteaching altogether. However, we also have
to navigate clicks and other groups,and you've probably experienced this, either being
(09:54):
part of one or unfortunately on theoutside of one. These cannot be of
and sometimes it really sucks. WhenI was teaching band, I didn't really
have like a group that I hungout with because I taught intellective and the
core teachers kind of hung out withtheir subject matter colleagues. And also my
classroom was really far away and itwasn't until I made friends with one of
(10:16):
the English teachers and she just draggedme to the lunch room and it was
so eye opening for me. Butalso I knew that I wasn't part of
the click and it was kind ofawkward at first until I started to make
more friends. But part of atleast being friendly with people, whether or
not you're in the clique, itreally helps in terms of knowing who are
(10:37):
the decision makers or who has likethe principal's ear or the counselor's ear.
But I know it's really hard tobreak into one. There could be a
lot of reasons why you can't breakinto one, and I definitely know that
agism plays a huge part. Ihate to say that, and it sucks,
but you know, people of similarage and interests, they just tend
to gravitate towards each other. Youmight not even care about being in one,
(11:00):
or even really want to be inone of these cliques. I'm just
saying that it can help. Itcan help in terms of forming allies,
and it was hard when I switchedschools after being at one school for a
really long time because everybody already hadtheir established cliques. But I just found
that just being friendly to people andbeing genuinely interested in what is going on
(11:22):
in their life, or being genuinelyinterested when they're sharing something, and just
trying to get to know my othercolleagues, it went really far in terms
of forming alliances. And again,you're going to need those. Trust me.
All of this relationship building that you'vebeen doing will help you leverage for
success. Now, let's say thatyou want to teach a particular grade.
Maybe you're stuck in fourth grade becausethat's the only grade that they had open
(11:46):
when you applied, but you werehoping for kindergarten. Then you want to
identify who are the decision makers,who actually has an influence on the various
teaching assignments. A lot of timesit's not just the principal who's making these
decisions. For example, in myschool, yes it's the principle, but
it's also department heads, and it'salso counselors. So who's in charge and
(12:07):
who can you start having the conversationswith ahead of time so that you can
plant that seed. This doesn't workif you haven't built any relationships though,
and then when you build your case, you want to frame it in a
way that is going to help thatperson who you're speaking to reach their goal.
For example, if you're trying toteach math eight and you currently teach
(12:28):
seventh grade math, you're going towant to talk to the math department head
and try to figure out what theirend goal is when they're recommending who teaches
what. Sometimes they see that onegrade just is not working for them and
that maybe they need to switch toanother grade, and so they're just trying
to make it so that everyone isplaced somewhere where they can do the most
(12:50):
good and do the least damage.So how can you fit into that?
How can you help them out?But if you see that they're trying to
meet a need and they're stuck,you could bring up your strengths and how
you would be a really good fitin that role. But I definitely wouldn't
throw your other colleagues under the busbecause that's going to bite you in the
butt later on. They're probably goingto find out, and it might be
a series of different conversations with differentdecision makers, framing it from again their
(13:16):
goals and needs that will eventually getyou to what it is that you want.
You just got to be patient.Like navigating school politics can really take
time, and you might have tostart planning that seed early on in the
year. Now, sometimes we haveto take one for the team. It's
kind of that I'll scratch your backand then you scratch my type of a
deal. So you might have tovolunteer for maybe a less desirable committee,
(13:41):
or maybe for one year you takea teaching assignment that isn't ideal, but
you can have that conversation of well, I know that so and so is
going to be on leave this year, so I'll take that position for the
year, but then I would lovefor the following year to be teaching this
That could really help out your princesfigure out what to do just for this
next school year, and that'll reallygo far later on in terms of when
(14:07):
they're making the decisions for the yearafter that. It just demonstrates your commitment
to the school and just really buildsgoodwill with your administrator and possibly your colleagues,
and of course, when the opportunityto raises, you get to cash
in on that good will. Thisactually worked for me because we had a
first year teacher who had been travelingclassrooms. And that's really rough when you're
(14:28):
a first year teacher, like youwant to have your own room. You're
really excited to decorate and do thingslike that. And I felt really bad
for them, and so what Idid is I actually gave up my classroom
and I became the traveling teacher.I knew that doing this wouldn't be too
tough, because I mean, I'mestablished, I can teach anywhere in any
(14:48):
classroom, honestly, especially because weare mainly online. The kids have their
iPads, so it wasn't that bigof a deal to me. But I
also knew that I would use thislater on. And so then that new
teacher took my classroom and was ableto decorate and fill the bookshelves with books
that they had acquired, and theyreally loved it, and they just got
(15:09):
to be in one spot. AndI traveled only for one year, and
then the following year, a betterand nicer classroom in a better area opened
up. And because I had takenone for the team, your principal is
more than happy to give that oneto me. Now you may have done
all of this relationship building and leveraging, but you know conflicts are going to
(15:31):
rise. You obviously can't avoid thatin any workplace. And this is when
you'll really see the power of politicscome into play because you're going to see
different factions and it can get ugly. There'll be alliances, possible backstabbing,
people throwing each other under the bus. It's like this huge episode of Survivor
or squid Games. In this case, if you were not directly involved,
(15:54):
I encourage you, especially as anewer teacher, to stay neutral. You
are Switzerland. I would avoid takingsides as much as possible, Like,
be supportive of your team, yourallies, the people that you've created these
relationships with. But remember that asa newer teacher, you are being watched
(16:15):
by the powers that be until youhave tenure or some kind of seniority.
If you're really vocal about the sidethat you pick, that could bite you
in the butt later on. Imean, it sucks, but it could
be your job on the line.So yes, be emotionally supportive to the
people that aren't in your team.But at the same time, I definitely
(16:37):
wouldn't do anything that's going to makeadministration mad. In the end. School
politics suck and all we want todo is just focus on our students,
and I get that. However,we also have to think about ourselves and
our well being, especially our mentaland emotional wellbeing. A lot of that
depends on things like our teaching assignment, our classroom, classroom resources, you
(17:00):
know what I mean, And toget the most ideal teaching environment for you.
Understanding and leveraging school politics is reallygoing to go a long way.
I know you don't want to haveto do this. It can feel gross
because you're like, I don't wantto have to play the game. But
the people who don't play the gameand who just want to fly under the
radar, they just kind of getwhatever's left over. They get forgotten,
(17:23):
they get passed over, they getpushed around. It's that teacher who might
get bumped to a different grade everysingle year because there haven't leveraged any relationships.
You might think that the person who'sthe most vocal and who's the squeaky
wheel and gets really indignant about it, gets what they want. But a
lot of times it's the people whohave taken the time to patiently work on
(17:45):
relationships that in the end are happiest. Then really get what serves them the
best. And honestly, when we'rehappy, our students are happy too because
they can feed off of our positiveenergy. But when you hate teaching assignment,
you hate your classroom, you hateeverything that's going on in your school,
your kids feel that too and theyreact in a certain way. So
(18:08):
while it made you feel gross todo all of this political stuff, in
the end, it just helps youlike teaching more and stay in the career.
So remember, as a newer teacheror maybe just new to a school,
just be observant of your school's culture. Build relationships with your colleagues,
administrators, and even parents. Theseallies can help you advocate for your needs
(18:29):
and your student success. Remember thatprofessionalism and data driven requests go a really
long way, and don't let politicsdistract you. Just keep your passion for
teaching your students at the forefront ofyour mind. So I hope that this
was iOpening for you, especially asa newer teacher. It's something that you'll
get over time, but I justwanted to give you a heads up so
(18:52):
you can start building those relationships inyour school. Big shout out to my
Facebook group if you want to commenton anything in this particular episode, then
go ahead and join it. Ihave a link in the show notes and
you can go over there and sayhi and ask questions. You can also
reach out to me and you canalso just reach out to me at kimat
(19:15):
teachersned teachers dot com. Thanks forhanging out with me today and I will
see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com