ladies if you will just uh tell me your name and what you teach my name is Patricia brassel I teach music I've been teaching for 37 years orene Ashton I'm a prayer professional and I've been here for 10 years Lisa young and I teach the discoveries and I've been teaching for nine years and I'm Sharon Pleasant Blackwell I'm a fourth grade science and social status teacher I've been teaching for about 23 years have you have you had more experiences with good instructional supervisors or bad instructional supervisors I've had more experiences with good instructional supervisors what makes a good instructional supervisor in your opinion then an instructional uh supervisor who's compassionate yet Stern a person who has I guess himself or herself experienced the classroom itself okay anybody else well I've had a little bit of both um and I guess it depends on the individual uh him or herself and how they you know get along with the and an instructional supervisor uh it it depends on like she said the expertise but how they bring it to the person that they're bringing it to sometimes uh it's it's all in the way they say it what they're saying to the other person and I think so too I've had a little bit of both and um I think it's in just being around going around being in the classroom being involved in in the children's life although you're in a different position still being involved in the school itself and still being involved in the children's and in what's going on in the classrooms because most of them haven't been in the classroom or haven't been in in a long time and so they need to keep connected with that classroom with the classroom that's true I like being involved with the teacher and with each other as classmate and not forgetting that they were once a teacher say that again and not forgetting them for they they were once a teacher and from where they came you know don't just you know understand what's really going on in classroom there are three prerequisites for instructional supervision uh and if you think of it as a triangle each one of these points is on the end of a triangle one of them is a knowledge base in the teaching profession another one is technical skills the last and probably the most important based on what you said Miss Pleasant is interpersonal skills right okay would you all agree with that prerequisite to be an instructional exactly exactly okay um even though all supervisors are supposed to have those three prerequisites some are are if there is a Continuum of super of instructional supervision you have the more directive approach on this end and the more collaborative approach on this end just personally which approach do you respond to better as a teacher and I can respond to that because I'm actually in a situation where we have I actually am at two schools so I have the directive approach and I have the collaborative approach and I definitely respond to the collaborative approach much better better because you're working together you know your a team you feel wanted you feel appreciated you feel a part of something and it makes you and your excitement go over into to the other staff members because you want to be there you want to be a part whether you're a novice or a veteran teacher most teachers would prefer a collaborative method okay but we know in the real world when you got parents and students and thing there are situations where the instructional instructional supervisor has to use the directive approach true would you agree to that true okay can you think of some situations where um you would respond effectively to an instructional supervisor using and I'm not talking about a restricted Choice approach meaning I want you to do a b or c i mean a directive approach I want you to do a and I'm gonna come back and evaluate a and make sure you did a and if you didn't do a and I ain't talking about B or C I'm talking about a it's gonna be a problem you can see that when you're doing data analysis for example because you need that data done you need it done so that you can look at the Children's evaluation so that you can see where you started and where you're going and where you're going to end up for the year so I can see that I need data analysis done on Tuesday it has to be done we have to be able to evaluate that data effectively I can see that as being something that could have would May would have to be a directive approach because teachers to do tend to get lost in paperwork and sometimes there's so much paperwork you forget about the things that are important that you have to have done yeah and I could um I can think of another example um because our pres like a supervisor U she has a love for the Smartboard you know and um and it is effective you know I I started teaching in 1974 so you know I can TCH up stff and so um I I think we got email one time to said um you know I was while I'm doing um work sites you may or not be using the smart because I realize that you don't use it all the time but when when I do a formal evaluation I want to see the Smart Board and you know when the formal evaluation is going to be I want to see that that smart board is being incorporated into your lessons you can't argue with that I mean you know that's one of the components and so yes I can take a directive so would you say that the best instruction supervisors have to use a mix of both collaborative and directive approaches to be effective to be effective even though teachers prefer collab supervisors when a teacher makes the transition from a teacher to an administrator there is an inclination to be more directive why is that that as teachers we like collaboration but as soon as we become an administrator we start being directed and then as we mature in our administrative and supervisory roles we become more collaborative why do you think that is partly because now you've got that leadership sh on you well first do you all agree that that happens it does happen it doesen it does okay it does because you're stepping over into a new real now you feel like well I'm not really a peer anymore so I've got to set myself up to to make them respect me more make them not make them respect me more but differently and that I'm a leader now I'm not just on the same playing field as them I'm I'm a leader and they have to respect me as now I've got to give them I've got to tell them certain things to do I've got to line them out on certain things and sometimes and sometimes when you um sometimes when you teach on a staff um you know you know of some things that are happening may not should be happening you know as you're teaching and then the first thing you may say you know when I become principal I'mma straighten that out what advice would you give to to classroom teachers who are currently in graduate school and taking courses in supervision uh to One Day become an administrator what advice would you give them to help them become better instructional supervisors pay attention to everything going around you going on around you just just watch and observe everything that's going on around you watch other teachers watch how they do things watch students and watch your principal and how they interact with other people just be very observant and watch just watch you don't have to say anything just do a lot of watching and just watch what's going on and how different people do different things and respond to different things different ways sounds like you're saying focus on building in a personal skills there you go okay yeah just be yourself me just be yourself you know because what's in you is in you if you friendly you going to be friendly whether you get the next job or not you're going to be there and that's what and then you may not want to be a principal at the same school you taught it that's true that's practical advice some but some people can handle it though don't get me wrong because uh we've had a couple um I guess who taught here um the first principal I worked under here was Mrs Katie Pringle and Miss Pringle had taught she had been a classroom teacher she had been the librarian she had been the counselor she had been the music teacher when didn't have music and um she had also I don't think they had the instru instructional coordinat at the time but she taught everything that uh happened at the school so in some some ways that was a good thing and some ways it was a not so good thing