Humility and Curiosity Matter More Than Experience for Instructional Leaders

Classroom walkthroughs are often done in an unhelpful way.

And we got just a ton of comments on my previous video talking about classroom walkthroughs.

And the model I teach in my book, I think is one that every teacher would like and appreciate, but it's often not what people are doing when they get into the classroom.

They're doing things that are punitive kind of micromanage-y and nitpicky and a gotcha.

You know, all of those are definitely not what I'm talking about in this book.

And we actually didn't even use the term walkthrough in the title here because we're talking about something so different.

But I really want to take over the term walkthrough and introduce some better practices that will be more helpful to teachers and just a better experience for everyone.

But a lot of people seem to think that their administrators would not be capable of doing giving them helpful feedback or doing effective walkthroughs that are not a terrible experience because they don't have the experience teaching.

And as I looked closer and closer at what people meant by that, you know, people would say things like, well, you don't teach my subject, you didn't teach my grade level, or you've been out of the classroom too long, or maybe you taught exactly what I teach, but you didn't teach it as long as me.

And it has become clear to me that people are impossible to please when it comes to experience.

And some people just want to be completely left alone.

This is a profession.

We can't just have complete autonomy and isolation just to be completely left alone.

I mean, that's just not ever going to be feasible.

But I do think we need to expect and demand good practices when it comes to classroom walkthroughs.

We should not be using gotchas.

We should not be interrupting in an unhelpful way.

We should not be disrespectful to the teaching that we're observing.

And I think when people are frustrated at the way they're treated by their administrators, it's not really the experience.

And I really have to stick up for people who were PE teachers, for people who were band directors, for people who teach what's kind of, quote unquote, a non-core subject.

I really think there's a lot of disrespect toward people who taught those subjects that really can give you very valuable experience, even if it's not what every teacher you supervise taught.

Like English is not the correct subject.

Math is not the only important subject.

Administrators can come from any academic background and be good administrators, and administrators can come from any academic background and be terrible administrators.

It really has nothing to do with what you taught.

It has everything to do, though, with your humility and your curiosity.

If you were a 30-year veteran and you taught a core subject and then you supervise people in that exact subject, and you have more experience than all of them.

If you basically hit every criterion that people bring up, you can still be a terrible instructional leader if you're disrespectful, if you're not curious, if you walk in and you immediately think you know what needs to be different in a lesson.

But curiosity really is everything, and respecting the work that teachers are doing is everything.

I didn't have a lot of experience in elementary when I became an elementary principal, but teachers taught me.

I was able to listen and learn.

And I think really humility is all we need to get on an effective learning path and to avoid doing harm in walkthroughs.

Let me know what you think.