As I work with Assistant Principals, I marvel at the variety of roles in which they serve and how they support myriad communities. Among this diversity of deployment, I do however notice two things APs seem to have in common.
First, as I posed in my book’s title, All Other Duties As Assigned, they have a “. . . Critical Role in Supporting Schools Inside and Out.” Second, their daily roles are best described as existing in a never-ending state of un-doneness, meaning two things: (a) when APs arrive at school, they invariable end-up doing different things than they had planned, and (b) all the stuff society kicks-up keeps coming at them, continually and ongoing.
For some who might remember the movie Groundhog Day, (1993, Columbia Pictures, Director Harold Ramis; Story by Danny Rubin) it’s the same type of wake-up call; however, with something different happening each time the figurative alarm clock rings. The un-doneness of an AP's windshield is constant, yet the details of each experience can be unique. Makes for great memoir writing, one might muse, yet it also makes for something else indeed: Gift-giving.
I’ve noticed there’s a certain and predicable gift-giving done by un-doneness. I’ll bet many in AP roles have noticed it too, and even embrace more fully. Three of the gifts un-doneness bestows are Professional Fitness, Professional Impact, and Professional Opportunity. I’ll detail each.
Professional Fitness is maintaining peak performance in what we are being asked to do, like a professional exercise regimen—e.g., Assistant Principal calisthenics—with a slight-to-moderate change-up each work-out. The un-doneness of circumstantial “Incoming!”—with accompanying unpredictability keeps us sharp, nimble, and quick. We certainly aren’t allowed to be professionally sedentary.
Examples of maintaining Professional Fitness include the following:
Honing our abilities to say what someone needs to hear, in the way they need to hear it, when they are behaviorally unpredictably.
Getting students to share “the real story” with us, so they don’t compound the serious of their circumstance through untruthfulness.
Moving parents into a positive perceptual light in front of their own children, when they are making it difficult to do so (Tip: Getting to the Nod, p. 69 AODAA).
Moving quickly to where we need to go, to pre-empt others’ bad decisions, and not appearing to be in a hurry (Maximize Your Visibility, p. 11, AODAA)
Appearing calm on the outside when we are “anything but, “on the inside.
Professional Impact is one of making a certain, powerful difference in others’ lives. It’s about students, friends, and colleagues relying upon us, on their not-so-best days. After all, they’re doing the best they can, and often they feel underwater doing it. We’re the life preservers. Our decisions have consequence; our perspectives have power. Our actions have impact. Let us not forget impact can go in all directions—positive, not, and otherwise. Impact is not light-weight. It’s an obligation to do no harm.
Examples of leveraging Professional Impact include the following:
Ensuring students have at least one adult champion who will go to bat for them, even when they have few others (Empower Staff to Save and Adopt, p. 109, AODAA).
Choosing occasionally, not to act—even when we can—as students are pushing our buttons and making themselves an easy target for school discipline.
Honoring a parent’s voice and option for handling a situation their own way, even if you believe you know a better way to raise their children.
Making a difficult decision to remove a student from school for a time, because the needs of the circumstance and safety of others call for it, or when an appropriate teaching tool.
Spending the necessary time teaching, reteaching, and re-reteaching social skills that arguably should have been learned in kindergarten.
Professional Opportunity is one of securing ways in which to learn and grow, moving into our better selves, each day, one day at a time. With hundreds of experiences granted to us, we learn continually that the closing of doors opens windows of opportunity. While opportunities branch-out, borne of our last thing done, they don’t allow us to walk backwards and un-do; however, we do at times walk-things-back. Opportunity provides us that. This creates another way of approaching a situation and re-inventing our capacity to deal with it.
Examples of harnessing Professional Opportunity include the following:
Asking students if you could have the honor and permission to try to reinvent your relationship with them.
Finding the place for a daily do-over of perspective, focusing on best outcomes amid ever-present worst fears that all around.
Taking the opportunity to visit classrooms, as a respite and because we deserve to see great teaching with student interest, success, and engagement (Visit, Just Because, p. 164, AODAA).
Asking our secretaries and administrative assistants how we are coming across and encouraging them to provide us at least one gift of observational advice that could serve us well.
Advancing our graduate education through university degrees and professional development and training opportunities—those that may or may not have anything to do with our days of un-doneness.
Again, I marvel at what Assistant Principals strive to influence daily, which is typically something different than what they expected they would, when pulling into the school parking lot. In doing so, I find true gifts at what un-doneness offers amid All Other Duties As Assigned.