Top 6 Tips for Navigating a Problem Principal

Top 6 Tips for Navigating a Problem Principal Most of the time, we teachers live within the bubble of our individual classrooms. Once we close the classroom door, were in our own little worlds, rulers of our domains, and completely in control of how our day progresses overall. Sure, we have meetings and all-school directives and grade level coordinating and parent conferences and errands to run around campus. But mostly, were the only adult around for five to six hours a day. But, still, it would be reckless to forget about the wider school power structure and thus ignore the importance of a good relationship with an administrator. Dont learn the hard way that tension with an administrator can spiral out of control if youre not careful. Stop Principal Problems Before They Start Principals are people too, and they arent perfect. But, they certainly are powerful on an elementary school campus. So its key to make sure your relationship is solid, positive, constructive, and mutually respectful. Whether alls well with your principal right now or things are tense, here are some helpful tips from someone whos been in both a great and a poor relationship with various principals: If your relationship is going smoothly and you have a well-liked administrator, then enjoy your job! Life is good and theres nothing better than a kind and supportive principal which makes for a happy school full of happy teachers. Join committees, take risks, ask for advice and support, live it up!If your relationship is going well but youve noticed that many other teachers have problems with your administrator, consider yourself lucky and take proactive steps to maintain a healthy relationship with your principal. Dont be afraid to kiss up and do everything within your power (and common morality) to stay in his good graces. Try to fly under the radar and just make it through his tenure at your school. Nothing lasts forever and your goal must be professional, sane, and calm.If you sense mounting tension from a difficult principal, start documenting every event that occurs between you and him. Keep a log of all conversations, the subject matters, dates, times, and ​duration of his classroom visits. Your sense of a looming problem may eventually prove to be incorrect, but in the meantime, it cant hurt to protect yourself. If your principal goes on the attack and you start to feel victimized, stay calm, remain focused and polite, and work with him to create a plan to solve any problems. Set goals, be straightforward, and try to give him what he seeks. Youll sense it if and when he steps over the line. Until then, give him the benefit of the doubt and show due respect. If you do not yet have a permanent or tenured position at this school or district, you must go above and beyond the call of duty to solve this problem and make it right.If it becomes clear that your principal is overstepping his bounds or preventing you from properly performing your teaching duties, consider talking to your union representative. Chances are, the union rep will already have fielded other complaints about this administrator. As long as you are a sane and goodhearted professional, it will rarely be you who brings up the first complaint about a given individual. Learn about your protected rights and make a plan with the union rep to clear the air and come to a new understanding with the administrator. If the problem does not improve over time with mediation and patience, then you can always request a transfer to another campus. You may also choose to eventually mentally relinquish the stress over this situation and continue to focus your positive energies on the most important people in the school: your young students who need you! Give them everything you have and before you know it, your problem administrator will likely be moving on to another assignment or the tensions will naturally dissipate as he moves on to a new target. As you can see, there are varying degrees of principal problems and it will require your good judgment to decide on a course of action.

Star Wars in Spanish

Star Wars in Spanish If you want to talk with your Spanish-speaking friends about Star Wars, the Fundacà ³n del Espaà ±ol Urgente has some advice for you. Known in English as the Foundation for Urgent Spanish, the Royal Spanish Academy-affiliated organization also called Fundà ©u BBVA has issued guidelines to aid Spanish speakers and publications in discussing the space saga. Among them are that the film series should not be referred to by its English name - as is common - but by the Spanish name for the first film in the series: La guerra de las galaxias (literally The War of the Galaxies). As is the case with other compositition titles, only the first word should be capitalized. As with that piece of advice, Fundà ©us other recommendations show some similarities and differences with English: Precuela is an acceptable word to refer to a prequel, just as secuela is acceptable for a sequel.Although in English we can talk about Episode 5, in Spanish its episodio V.Theres no need to capitalize the names of groups of creatures, just as names of ethnic groups arent capitalized. Thus the Ewoks are known as los ewoks. (In words of recent foreign origin, it is common to pluralize by appending -s rather than -es as is usually done with words ending in a consonant.)Jedis are known as jedis, but the Jedi Order can be written with capitalization as la Orden Jedi.Names of spaceships are capitalized much as they are in English. Thus the Millennial Falcon is el Halcà ³n Milenario.A laser is un lser.A hard-core fan can be called un or una friki, whose spelling is preferred to friqui.A series of nine films can be called either una nonalogà ­a or una enealogà ­a. Im not sure what the English equivalent is, but this is similar to the way a series of three films is called a trilogà ­a in Spanish (trilogy in English). The entire saga can be referred to as, well, una saga even though the traditional meaning of saga refers to legends less grand.The use of franquicia (franchise) should be avoided in referring to the movies series itself - its better to use serie. Franquicia should be used to refer to merchandise and spinoffs (such as comic books) based on the movie series.Luke Skywalker? Hes  Lucas Caminante de los Cielos, a calque. And Han Solo is simply Han Solo.  Native speakers have often written the name as Han Sà ³lo, but Fundà ©u says the accent isnt needed.