Burnout continues to be a top concern for school leaders and teachers alike. In this unusual year, everyone is busy with both their day-to-day responsibilities and strategic concerns of the future.
Remember, the primary job of academic leadership is to take care of teachers. This is especially important now.
What can academic leaders do right now to support their teachers? We asked teachers and here’s what they had to say.
What do private school teachers need from leadership?
Consider the following aspects of your school environment. Then, ask your school’s faculty about their unique needs.
Crystal Clear Expectations
Teachers want to know what you expect of them, especially now as teaching situations change often. Teachers oversee their classrooms—but want their academic leaders to make the big, strategic calls and give them the information they need to move forward. It’s your job to make decisions such as the tools teachers must use, the daily schedule, and more—and then communicate those decisions to your teachers.
Good Communication
Changes are unavoidable right now. However, communicating key changes to teachers first is vital. Teachers should be made aware of new policies, schedule changes, or any other decisions before parents are notified.
Ample Planning Time
Teachers need planning time built into their daily schedule. This best practice has always been recommended, but more so now while everyone is trying to balance blended classes, maintaining social distancing, and family concerns. Now, there are many more elements to consider. Ensure teachers have this time as part of their day, free of interruptions or other duties.
Leadership Availability
Set times each week to meet with your direct reports. You are not just checking in on their classes—this is time to connect on a personal level. Show empathy and allow your teachers to share ideas on how you can better support them.
How do private school leaders handle pressures from parents?
Parents have their own needs and expectations. Sometimes, they transfer these worries onto teachers. This happened before the pandemic, but the unique factors of our current situation have only magnified these pressures.
Many parents need their children to be fully engaged with school assignments while they fulfill their own employment responsibilities and accomplish other tasks during the day. If students are learning at home, parents want to be assured their child is getting a quality education. Sometimes parents equate “Zoom time” with instructional time.
Unfortunately, time spent on live video in distance learning doesn't necessarily create the best environment for true learning. This can leave teachers feeling torn between meeting parents’ expectations and knowing effective for students.
The key here is frequent and diligent communication.
Tune in to live webinars every week during the school year to get specific, research-backed insight you can immediately apply at your school.
Most parents understand in-person instruction. It’s how they learned. But distance learning on this massive scale, even six months into the pandemic, continues to be an unfamiliar experience. It’s hard to shake the impression that “for learning to be effective, children must be ‘in-class’ from 8 a.m.–3 p.m. five days a week, even if they’re at home.”
Administrators must continue to communicate with parents, instead of leaving all the work to teachers. If you set expectations and clarify the process, it helps teachers, parents, and students work toward common goals.
We’ve seen many schools succeed when they communicate and partner with families. They surveyed parents and made decisions for each cohort of students based on what they learned.
They asked questions like:
- What times are good for live (synchronous) work?
- What is the easiest way to conduct one-to-one meetings?
- How much work can students reasonably do at home?
- What are the best times of the day for your child?
- What active learning strategies are you able to support?
An important predictor of parent satisfaction is a daily schedule. Parents who know what’s happening every day and have a daily schedule report a higher level of satisfaction. Just like students and teachers, parents need predictability.
How do leaders prevent an “us versus them” dynamic between teachers and administrators?
One of the biggest issues teachers face right now is isolation. Teachers didn’t get into the profession because they want to be alone. But teaching at a distance feels lonely. No one peeks their head in the door as they walk by, no chats in the hallway, and no camaraderie over lunch. Everyone misses these interactions!
How do you build camaraderie and show sincere empathy to your faculty? As much as teachers need autonomy, they also want to know you care about the work they do. Find ways to connect with your teachers. Consider scheduling time to observe classes, setting weekly one-on-one meetings, sending handwritten thank-you notes for the work they do, or even simply saying "thank you!" Use a spreadsheet for tracking to make sure you connect with everyone!
Admit you might not know how difficult their position is, but you are available to help them. Be present and empathic when you open the lines of communication, no matter what your teachers bring to the table. Help them and act as a sounding board.
Supporting your teachers is critical right now. Follow these steps to ensure you’re doing what’s best for them to keep morale high for your entire school community.
