Working With Difficult School Administrators (especially if you are on a PIP - Program Improvement Plan)Untitled Episode

 Welcome back friends. Some of you are busy back at school. If you are listening to this real time, which would be about middle of August, some of you are hopefully relishing your last few days of summer, but in any event, this is an important topic. It might be one that you think, oh, it doesn't apply to me.

Hopefully it applies to very few people, but I think the mindsets, the strategies, and the four areas that I'm gonna go over. In two today's episode, there's something in here from everybody, even if this isn't your exact situation. So what exact situation am I talking about? I'm talking about that dreaded hit a program improvement.

Plan, that's what we call it. In the United States. If you're in a public school and you have a school union, you know, it is very hard If your teacher is tenured, you just can't get rid of them that easily for one of another word. And so you need to make a good faith effort to help them improve in areas that you want them to improve in.

Okay. But it. Is can be seen as a very positive thing, depending on your mindset. Well, not a very positive thing, but it doesn't need to be the end of the world. But most people would see that with dread and with anxiety, and it would make some people feel very targeted. So what if your administrator is a little bit difficult?

What, instead of being a great big champion for you and a cheerleader for you, he and a coach for you, he actually, or she actually feels more like a critic. Right. So I know that being on a program improvement plan or working for an admin who you consider to be difficult is not ideal, but there are absolutely ways to work through it, to shine through it, to have the right mindset, and that's what we're gonna talk about in this episode.

On my most optimistic days, I would coach somebody to say, this doesn't define you. Maybe it could refine you, but you know, some days the lemonade stand is closed, right? There's a reality to it. That is probably not an ideal situation either way. Ideas in here that can help you. Welcome to the Teacher Self-Care and Life Balance podcast, where we focus all things personal development to help teachers feel empowered to thrive inside and outside of the classroom.

If you are passionate about education, but tired of it taking over your whole life, you have found your new home in the podcast universe, you'll love it here. I'm Grace Stevens, your host, and let's get going with today's show. All right, so straight to it. There are four areas I'm gonna look at and of course, as always, I'm gonna start with mindset.

Then we're gonna talk about practicalities. You find yourself on a program improvement plan or feeling that you admin. Curriculum coach, whoever, if they're very critical of you, how do you deal with that in a practical manner? Then I'm gonna talk about setting boundaries specifically in this situation.

And then opportunities for growth. So there are our four areas. Okay, let's get to it. So first off, I'm gonna tell you that there are a couple of things in my Echo framework that can help you. And the first is. The O in the Echo framework is other people's experience doesn't need to be your experience.

So I'm just gonna start with a story. 'cause I am gonna tell you that I changed school districts 16 years into my career. It went from a very a totally, totally different school district. Different culture. I was in complete culture shock and the students were different. The parents were different.

The admin were sure different. The admin style was sure different and this particular admin. I'm gonna start off by saying I learned more from this admin than I've ever learned in anyone from any other admin. Even though he was only my admin for one year. Okay. So I will start with that, but it took me a long time to get to that mindset because he had a very different communication style for me in a very ma different management style than I had had before.

And he was a bit of a stickler. I'm gonna say he was a stickler. He liked things done a very certain way, which I didn't always agree with, and it was kind of his way or the highway, and it did feel like when he came into the room, I kind of, it felt like a gotcha. You know what I'm saying? It felt less like an opportunity to be coached in more like a check sheet of, well, let's find something that this person isn't doing right.

That's kind of the vibe it had. Now contributing to this vibe was a lot of staff members, talking in my ear. Oh, watch your one in particular who was head of the Union, actually, you know, watch your back. This guy takes a dislike to people and then they're outta here and just, you know, a lot of that kind of happening and a lot of stories being told against ridiculous things that he had done.

Okay. But those were other people's experiences and I got myself all tied up in knot and stressed out, and I found myself not. Being my best self around him, which was, you know, counterproductive. And I realized that I had kind of created this situation for myself where I was just totally anxious, nervous, anytime I was around him, and I wanted to change that energy.

Right, wrong or indifferent, I kind of just shook myself, right? I had that moment. If I wish I'd had a, a good friend or a good mentor to say, grab ahold of yourself. You teach this stuff, you know, practice what you preach. So one weekend when I'd been particularly stressed, I decided I was gonna grab a piece of paper and I was gonna write a new story.

And I wasn't gonna do creative writing. Oh, this is my. Dream relationship with this person, or this is the relationship I hope to have with this person. It's not like I was like, you know, ooh, woo woo. Let me manifest something. No, the story I was gonna write down was actually just the facts. Let's review the facts.

Let's pretend I'm a court reporter. Write down all the facts that have happened in this relationship so far. And let me tell you, when I wrote down the actual facts, this guy had hired me without an interview. He was that impressed with a videotape I had submitted. He had stopped what he was doing to show me around campus once when I announced, showed up unannounced before school asked me what would I need in my room.

And when I told him. I showed up to school two days later to set up my room. He'd already had it delivered in there. I was very stressed about the technology they had. I was used to I. You know, I, oh, I don't wanna come over as an old person, but you know, I used to teach an off a doc cam and they like to teach off a surface pro that was just on your hand, walking around the room, having it projected.

And I had said to him, gosh, you know, I know you don't do, is there any way, do you have one in storage? Maybe I could use just as a backup. You know what? That thing was on my desk the next day. So really there was no evidence that he had been anything other than supportive to me. He had come in the room a few times and I had, you know, double checked myself, like, oh no, am I doing what I'm supposed to do?

Is my objective on the board is this and that. Like all the things, the things I'd heard about him that had been a little bit, you know, ridiculous, which I won't share here, but no, you know, he had come into my room one time and afterwards sent me a nice little email following up. Saying, you know, Hey, I noticed this was going on, this was great, and have you thought of this?

And it was good feedback. And you know, that's coaching, right? That's coaching. Coaching is if you show up in someone's room with your clipboard, you are given feedback afterwards. You don't just show up with your clipboard, make some notes and leave that, you know, again, that feels like policing. So in my mind, everything changed with that and it turns out.

That at the end of the school year, it was the middle, it was COVID happened that year, and then there was decreased enrollment and it seemed like I was gonna be, I was the last person in. Right. You know how that goes. If you tenure, it doesn't matter how amazing you are and how much everybody loves you lost him first out.

And he had already accepted a director position somewhere else, so. Why, why should he care about me? But I gotta tell you, he went up to bat and really went up to bat with the district to make sure that I had another job. So, anyway, turns out he was a hero in that story. And only because I allowed myself to have my own experience.

I, I had my own experience with this person. Now, other people, other new teachers that year did not that, you know, there were five of us this year. That year I was the only one. Two of us made it three, one quit. Actually, there were six of us. One quit. Very early in the year and mother three were non-renewed or just, you know, not, not.

Brought back. It was a two year before you were tenured. So anyway, so for them, I'm sure they would have very different things to say about this individual, but for me, I needed to have my own version of him. So just keep that in mind when I talk about mindset. This is something I teach all the time, right?

Other people's experience doesn't need to be your experience. But let me just tell you, if you have been put on a formal. Program improvement plan commonly known as a hip. You know what? It's very stressful. There can be a lot of shame around it, A lot of fear, a lot of anger, you know, confusion. Maybe. Hey, everybody tells me I'm a great teacher.

What is this? You could feel betrayed, you know? You can take it personally. Okay, but. Mindset I want you to have is, this is not a personal indictment, right? It often, it's a reflection of a broken system or poor communication or somebody somewhere talking stuff in an administrator's ear. Maybe it's under pressure from key parents or something.

They're not in the room with you all the time. They don't really know how you teach, right? It is normal to feel targeted. Okay? Just don't get stuck there. Right. My whole thing is to feel empowered. You know what? It's happened. It isn't great, and just tell yourself, listen, this is a temporary chapter. It's not my whole story.

Okay? So it is totally normal to be very overwhelmed, very bummed, very angry, all the things, but don't get stuck there, right? It's a question of what next. Right? What next? So let's look at some practical strategies. Okay. First off, I always say, you know, assume the best intentions. Assume that this thing here is actually meant to help you become more effective.

Right? What would you do differently? And how would you approach this differently if you really did have the mindset that this program was set up to help you? You are in, in the district that I was in somebody I knew got put in a program improvement plan. And let me tell you, the curriculum coach was there and modeled lessons and got resources, and there was so much support provided that I had come from a very small district where we had none of those resources.

It was like, oh my goodness. Like what a wonderful thing. Okay, so just how would you operate with it differently if you could have that mindset? Okay. Other practicalities, detach yourself, right? Well, not detach yourself, but detach like your identity away from this evaluation, okay? It's about what you do.

It's not about who you are. Okay. It's your admin's perception. It's not, it's a data point. Okay? It is not a death sentence. Then focus on what you can control. Right. This is another part of my Echo framework. Focus on what you can control. What can you show? How can you demonstrate growth? What can you learn?

What can I do? One step at a time, right? Don't focus on the part that you can't control is what if I don't get taken off this plan? What if I get let go? Like you can spiral if you start thinking that way. Okay. Treat the program improvement plan as a roadmap. These are tools. It's your GPS. It's gonna help you get where you want to be.

So that's mindset. Okay. Above and beyond that, the practicality is like, don't be naive. Don't just think, oh, well, yeah, it's gonna be okay. I'm gonna have a positive mindset about it. No, first off, document everything, right? Keep a daily log of what you're doing and how it aligns with the plan, right? Use email to confirm conversations in writing, right?

In such as short. Thanks for meeting today. I'm summarizing our steps so that we're aligned, right? Get rid of any area of. Potential area for miscommunication, right? This is a. First off, it's an opportunity for you to showcase that you communicate well, that you have excellent follow up and that you're committed to the process.

Okay? So those will all reflect well on you, but above and beyond that it you are covering your butt and your administrator will know that. You have rights. If you've done everything that's been asked of you and you have documented that, then it's gonna be hard for an administrator to implement the, you know, that plan saying that you, you failed above and beyond that, it's gonna really get rid of.

Any he said? She said situation, because again, I'm gonna assume that if you are on a program improvement plan, there might be some tensions or if there weren't before, there are now between you and your administrator, and there could be plenty of possibility for miscommunication for he said, she said for you said one thing, but they heard something else and vice versa.

So make sure you document everything. Moving on from that request specific feedback, if there's anything that's in the program improvement plan that's vague. Respectfully ask for concrete examples of what success would look like, right? If you know, like when we have kind of like writing an IEP, right?

Student will demonstrate blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, by this time, right? There has to, it has to be quantifiable, right? Nothing vague like, oh, you need better student engagement. No. What would ask the administrator? What would that look like in my classroom? Okay. Make sure there is nothing vague in there.

Okay. The third tip I have is find a thought partner, a mentor, a union rep, you know, a trusted colleague, someone outside your admin to really support you and kind of give you a sanity check like, is this normal? Am I being targeted? Right without gossiping? That's a very big part of this, like this is your business and nobody else's.

Right. There's an absolutely no shame on being on a program improvement plan, but when I talk about boundaries, I'm gonna tell you one of the best boundaries you can have is just keep your mouth shut about it. It doesn't need to be anybody's business. Okay? Keep it to yourself. It could be confidential, but have somebody trusted who you think could be impartial.

Ask them for feedback. Huh? Does this seem weird to you? Do. Have you observed this in me? Just. Have somebody, if nothing else, just a, you know, a, a sounding board, somebody to confide in. You wanna talk to somebody, you just don't wanna talk to everybody. You see what I'm saying? Okay. So tip number four, under practicalities, choose one thing at a time to work on.

It can be overwhelming if you try and fix everything all at once. Right? Tackle one to two focus areas instead of trying to, you know. Overhaul your whole teaching practice overnight. Okay. There should only be one or two things that you need to improve on, otherwise you, you know, you wouldn't have made it this far in education if everything was, you know, if student engagement and classroom management and knowledge of subject matter and ability to communicate with parents, like if before the things weren't going well, then probably you would've.

Burnt out and quit already yourself. So there should only be a few things on there, but even with a few things on there, just focus at one on a time. Don't get overwhelmed and understand that when you have a success, you know you can build momentum from there. Okay, so just try not to get overwhelmed.

'cause over, if you're overwhelmed, you're just gonna feel paralyzed. You're not gonna know what to tackle first. Alright, tip number five, under practicality is really. Maintain professionalism even when it's hard. Okay. It's really sometimes, you know, administrators, you know, little man's syndrome, sorry. Most administrators are women.

Little person syndrome. Right. Just they can be provoking. It can be a power play, but don't feed into the narrative. Don't seem resistant or negative, seem open to the process. Use neutral, calm language, right? Avoid emotionally charged conversations. If you're really upset about something, that's not the time to bring it up to your admin.

Okay? Just try and really be professional and cool and nice. And remember, you know, if this program improvement plan does not go the way you want, if you know. If it ends in its conclusion that you will not be renewed for the following year, you're gonna need a good reference. Don't burn any bridges, I guess is what I'm saying.

Like, take the high road and I hate to say play the game, but you know, just do the best you can, but. Above all, do not stoop to something that you would be embarrassed about later. Okay? Or not shared with a an a perspective employer later. And if I'm just gonna throw this in here. Now, if you do end up going to a different school district, maybe that's what you decide, even if your program improvement plan is, really successful, but you just feel like you don't want to deal with that administrator or that school setting has become toxic for you and you move on. You know, always take the high road, do not bad talk a past employer that just really reflects poorly on you. To be honest, I, I spent many years in the hiring space and I cannot think of a single example where it reflected well on somebody that they told me, well, I was targeted and they didn't like me and my administrator was real difficult.

That just, that just makes you come across as somebody who can't get along working with multiple types. That's, that's just me being honest there. Okay. All right. Another tip is now we're gonna talk about setting boundaries. What does that mean? Setting boundaries? I always say that, but some things to bear in mind.

First off, do not just make this become your whole life. Okay? You're gonna burn out. You need to set some time boundaries. If you're on a pip, it can be really tempting to work long hours to prove yourself, right? Like, oh, they're gonna see I'm the last car out of the parking lot, right? Which that just leads to depletion, not to excellence, okay?

And also, now is the time to actually double down on your self-care. This is a very stress, stressful situation. You need to find time. And ways to decompress outside of school, going for a walk, you know, exercising, all these things that take time and intentionality. And if you are spending all your time at work and only thinking about work, it's just you're gonna get burnt out.

Okay? So really limit how much time you spend working and especially. Limit how much time you spend working on this program improvement plan, right? Like, okay, here's the areas I need to work on. I'm gonna work on them for an hour a day, or whatever. Don't just go down this rabbit hole of trying to rewrite every lesson plan and trying to redo every procedure and try and do everything to perfection.

So as well as time boundaries, you're gonna need some emotional boundaries. And what I mean about that is we wanna respond. Not react. That goes into all the other things I've said about always taking the high roads, about trying not to take things personally, having professional language, but give yourself some time, like pause before you react to an email or some, some feedback, right?

Try and emotionally distance yourself from it. Keep telling yourself, this isn't personal, it's procedural. It might not feel that way, but that's what you kind of need to tell yourself. Right, and then protect your piece by, you know, just limit your venting to one or two trusted people, right? No hallway gossip, no reliving all the frustrations of your day.

None of that actually makes you feel better. Okay. You think like, oh, I'm venting. But what you're doing is just, ugh, is just, you don't feel better once you've walked away. You know that. Okay? So don't give anyone access to your emotional energy unless they've earned it. Okay? If they're your trusted teacher, bestie a mentor, and they ask you how it's going, you can share with them, but that's, it's not for general workplace consumption.

All right. And the next boundary we're gonna talk about as we're talking about communication, is how do you communicate with your administrator, not just with other people around you, but you know, you can feel a pressure now to overexplain or over justify or constantly ask for reassurance. Okay? But that's not healthy communication.

Healthy communication is clear, calm, confident, not apologetic. Okay. Again, use email to clarify to and document expectations. Right. Don't overshare your thoughts or your fears. Right? The, the administrator wants to focus on actions and results, not on how you're feeling about the whole thing. Okay. And then you know, if you are feeling like you're not getting commu clear communication from your admin, then you know.

Be empowered, take action. Like, you know, I'd like to meet briefly once a week to assure we're aligned with our expectations. Okay, that's easy, that's simple. That's not attacking them like you put me on this program improvement plan because you're targeting me and you haven't told me specifically what I need to improve on.

Like, no, just keep it clear and composed and you know, you don't need to overexplain or apologize. So remember, the overall goal here is to stay grounded. To feel empowered and to feel in control when navigating this program improvement plan. Of course, you wanna improve your practice, okay? You, you are game too.

You wanna, you wanna improve too, right? We should all be on the same page. If you disagree that you don't need to improve, you know, everybody needs to improve on something, but you know, maybe you're feeling that the program improvement plan wasn't the way to go, but again. If you're already on it, it is what it is.

Okay? Just let's try and, and, and do the best we can and really have this mindset, how could I grow from this? How could I grow? Right? Even if you're feeling targeted and maybe it lead this whole process, hopefully you get off the program improvement plan in a positive way, but. The whole process is probably gonna mu have you reevaluate, right?

Whether this is the district for you, whether this is where you wanna be, you can hope and pray. Listen, most teachers outlive their, they're administrators, right? You know, one school I was in in the 16 years I was there, I cannot tell you how many we went through. Okay? So you can hope and pray that that one goes and a new one comes.

But if it is leading you to look at, you know, what else is there out there for me you know, move forward with. With strength, we're feeling empowered, not feeling like a victim, okay? No matter what. That's the thing that I want you to focus on. I've made a resource, if you are on my email list. Usually you get on that 'cause you, you signed up for one of my free resources. So the easiest way to get on my list would be the most useful resource. At this time that I have. I think that's free is probably my how to say no in a professional way and, setting healthy boundaries on your time. Ditching your least favorite duty.

It, it will take you about. It's A PDF take you about 10 minutes to go through, but it has a couple of exercises in it. Very, very helpful. So if you sign up for that at www.gracestevens.com/say no. One word say no. Then you'll get on my list anyway. Once you're on my list, I do not bombard you. I think there's an initial two or three emails that you get sent, but then after that it's just usually I send an update out when there's a new podcast episode or two.

Or if I have a if something that I have that is gonna be on special offer or whatever, it really isn't too many emails, trust me. There's nobody has time to be sending spam emails. I actually don't enjoy writing emails and I'm at that stage in my career where. I don't enjoy it, I'm not gonna do it.

So, but it will be helpful for you. But the, the reason I'm saying this is if you are on my email list this weekend, once this episode is out, I am gonna send you a checklist which is, if you are on a a program improvement plan, just print it out and keep it in your back pocket, just in case of things to go through.

But then also this journal reflection prompt. And I think the, the journal reflections are good for many things, not just if you're on a program improvement plan. I'll give you a couple of examples of questions on there. Like, can I name the dominant motions that I'm feeling right now without judging them?

Well, that's a good exercise for any day, right? What are three things that are stew in my control today? What is it that I know to be true about myself as an educator regardless of this plan? Right? Where am I over-functioning or overextending myself? Out of fear. Okay. What would be a more sustainable effort?

What would that look like? Okay, so there's a lot of, of good, of good prompts on here. What boundaries do I need to reinforce this week to protect my time, energy, and wellbeing, right? Those are just some examples. I. Of questions on this reflection so you can see that they're very helpful whether or not you are on a program improvement plan.

So if you are on my list, just keep your eye out this weekend. I will be sending that to you and I let you know about this episode. But in the meantime, if there are other things that you are. Struggling with, you know, send me a, a quick email, see if I could make a podcast episode about them. This wasn't something that was on my radar, but it did come from, from somebody who'd been talking about that. So, you know, it's, there's, I'm here to help any way I can, but I want to remind you that it is a snapshot in time. It is just, even though it might feel very demoralizing and very, you know, stressful, if you do find yourself in a program improvement plan, you know, learn what you can, maybe what you learn is that this is not the district for you.

Maybe that's ultimately what you learned, but you can still learn some things along the way. Okay. But don't look at it like it's the end of the world. It just isn't. It is just, you know, it's one of those things. Is it ideal? Absolutely not. But I'm here to remind you, you have made it through 100% of your tough days, okay?

Many tough days you've probably had in your life. Nobody gets a free pass in life. The older I get, the more I know that no matter how charmed a life or how charm a career people seem to have, they've all had their struggles. Nobody gets a free pass. Okay? So you've made it through some tough things before.

You're tough and you can get through this too with some grace. So. If you know someone on a program improvement plan or who is struggling with who they would consider to be a difficult administrator, go ahead and forward this episode to them. Don't send it to an administrator. That's a really passive aggressive thing to do.

They, if you're like, oh, look, you're the stickler, you now. So that's somebody else's job to tell them that, you know, maybe they're not ideal. Okay. But if there is someone, you know, who's struggling with a, a program improvement plan, yeah, sure. Send them this episode. Maybe there's something in there that will help.

All right next week onto Happier Things, hopefully. And in the meantime, remember you have got this. I hope your year is off to a fantastic start. It seems weird that we're always like, oh, fall back to school. And yet, you know, some of us are in this incredible heatwave. That's just is what it is. But until next time, remember, create your own path.

Bring your own sunshine, and from at the bottom of my heart, thank you for listening, and thank you for everything that you do. For other people's children, even though it sometimes feels like a thankless task, I promise you the world needs your passion, your talents, and your energy. Thank you.