Personal Work Styles
Situation Time: You are an elementary school principal. One of your best teachers—perhaps the best—is causing a bit of an uproar. She is in her second year on staff after graduating from college and is doing a wonderful job with the second graders. They’re happy, the parents are happy, and you’re happy. The other teachers aren’t happy, at least some of them aren’t. Two of the more outspoken and senior teachers came to you today with a request. “Do something about her,” they said. “She is consistently late in the mornings. You know our policy is for the teacher to be in the classroom at least 30 minutes before school starts.” You are aware of her tardiness, but you also know that she consistently stays late and is most often the last teacher out of the building at the end of the day. She isn’t aware that her co-workers have complained about her. You can’t put this off because the grumbling is starting to spread. Questions What do you do, and why? How can you turn this into an opportunity to develop an approach that accommodates a range of personal work styles and different classroom approaches, all while holding up high performance standards?
