silly principal

[connieg]

Hi all,

Is there any hope for a school with a silly principal? He's Mr. Fun and exerts no discipline. The kids go wild if he is ever in charge and there is no respect. He even seems to favor the weaker, party teachers. I feel my class is under control when they are within my four walls, but it is a zoo out there! The bigger problem is at even though he is silly, he is also unpredictable and moody.
Connie

 

[mssee]

I feel your pain. Last year, at our school, we had a "Mr. Nice" principal who didn't discipline, and also didn't want to have any conflict, so no tough decisions were made. I don't know if your principal is going to retire or change schools, but that's most likely your only hope.

 

[teach4fun]

mssee i think yours came to our school

Connie I can understand, our principal will walk in with a goofy hat on or a light up tie in the middle of our lessons or one day he walked in with a goofy hat on, yes like the dog goofy and we were trying to take a spelling test, and our privacy folders were up, he knows those are for tests.
anyway, i just deal with things in the classroom most I can and avoid the office if at all possible

 

[SC]

Can't do much about it

Short of actually telling the principal how you feel, I don't think there's anything you can do. I would just hope that he transfers out or retires so that order can be restored to the school. I know of several schools that just went down the toilet because there was no discipline from administration.

 

[mouse_ears]

A lot of times people are silly like that because they don't know how to set limits at all, and then when they finally reach that point where it is driving them crazy, they flip out in a rage.

Here are my suggestions:
If you ever get input in professional workshop days, suggest one on classroom management, and that would be a way to get people discussing things.

Involve parents in your class projects. If parents have to walk through "wild good times" (which they will see right away is not the best educational setting) someone will complain.

I doubt the principal really sees things as they are. He sees himself as an ambassador of joy for students. What you could do is, during your evaluation, say "I'm glad that you think I am strong on classroom management...some days it has been really difficult when kids come into the room from these fun activities and they are wild and expecting playtime. Maybe we could build in some calmer activities to help kids transition from let's have fun to let's get back to business."