We finally had a chance to get together and have a conversation about our jobs at KIS. We are the junior administrators at the school: Jamie, the associate high school principal, Allan, the elementary dean of students, and myself, the middle school dean of students. It started off with some general settling in discussion about shopping in Korea, which may sound way off task, but when you are living aboard much of the battle is dealing with the little daily life situations that become major difficulties due to the language barrier and cultural differences. After discovering the Allan had already explored the Garak Market, the conversation moved into the realm of language learning in general and some comparisons between life in China and Korea (supplied by Allan) and between Turkey and Korea (supplied by me).
Jamie brought us to the real task with some information about his normal routines as the associate principal. Allan and I followed up with a brief breakdowns of our days. I enjoy reflecting on meetings like this and finding the things a can take away and spend more time on. My takeaways are the following to ideas from my colleagues:
- Jamie shared some interesting food for thought about strategic planning. I realized that due to the 1:1 initiative last year and a general lack of people-power in administration, our school went an entire year in crisis mode; but now, with more administrators, the future, long-range strategic planning can actually begin. Moreover, it must begin! We need to move out of that crisis cycle and into the realm of long-range planning in ordered to improve our school. Jamie, also, developed a nice organizational tool with areas for immediate actions, weekly actions, long-range goals, and a great reminder area in the center. I’ll get a digital copy and post it later.
- Allan provided a great point about our roles as support administrators. We are often taking care of the small and time consuming jobs, so our immediate supervisors can focus on the long-range goals of the school. Our job is essential, because otherwise the building principals would be bogged down with little cases of discipline and dealing with small problems that we can handle. It helps to know that our position is tied to the bigger picture.
In the end we made a plan to meet again and discuss more about our roles and what we are doing on a monthly basis. For my part, I plan to share this brief reflection with my colleagues by posting it on my blog. I have came to understand that the sharing of knowledge, no matter what it is, is connecting to others and learning. I want to continually share my learning with those I know.
