Balancing Unrealistic Admin Expectations [Episode 229]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
So I get asked pretty often if I will ever go back to teaching full time once all of my kids are old enough to be in grade school, and my answer is always simply, you know, we’ll see. I am so grateful to have been able to be at home with my kids during these little years, and I have loved being able to keep connected with all of you through the creation of Instant Rocket Science resources and the Secondary Science Simplified podcast. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss teaching, because I do. I simply love teaching. But what I don’t really miss at all, and I’m sure so many of you can relate, is all of the other things that go into teaching. It’s not just teaching the students. It’s not just lesson planning and grading and prepping labs. That stuff is hard too.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:43]:
And I actually didn’t mind that. It was just all the other stuff on top of that, the extra responsibilities, the meetings that could have been emails, the navigating of relational dynamics with coworkers. But I think the thing that I I miss the least, and I would be the most conscientious of in a transition back into the classroom would be the admin that I am working under. Because balancing an admin’s expectations with what is your actual reality in the classroom to me was the hardest part of being in the classroom, I think. So often admin can just take stuff from the district level and pass it directly down to you without actually thinking for a second is this a realistic thing for my teachers to manage? Is this what is best for my teachers? Is this what is best for students? And I think the difference between good admin and not so good admin is shocking. It will make all the difference in your teaching experience the admin you are working under. And I don’t think that’s something you can really realize until you have had the opportunity to work under different admin and really see how different the entire culture of the school and the day to day nature and burdens put on you in your job are depending on the admin that you have. So all that to say if you are struggling with unrealistic admin expectations in your role, I get it.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:07]:
I have been there and it is truly something I am, I don’t want to say fearful, but definitely conscientious of as I consider transitioning back to the classroom one day because it makes all of the difference. So today we’re going to be talking about what do you do when you’re in these situations and you’re trying to balance what your admin want from you, but also what is realistic in your classroom with all the other responsibilities that you have. Let’s dive in.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:33]:
This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers, love their jobs, serve their students, and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:09]:
This episode, like many, was inspired by some submissions I got to my annual podcast survey that I send out to my list, and a couple of the things I saw were were teachers saying how do you balance admin expectations without getting overwhelmed? And also how do you manage tasks that your admin assign you that just feel like everyone’s being punished because a few people aren’t doing their job? And I have absolutely been there. So the first thing I want to say though, is if you’re getting expectations from your admin that are just getting passed down to you from the district level and so they’re passing them along to you, and my first recommendation always is just to wait it out. If possible, go back and listen to episode 156 I did on what to do if you’re being micromanaged at the district or administrative level. Because I talk about this a lot, but I always think with new initiatives it’s best to wait it out and kind of see how this fleshes out as opposed to panicking and jumping on every single thing you’re asked to do. I always like to see if it is going to be best for my students or not. How much support is going to be given to me as I implement this new initiative. And I also always kind of like to see like how required is required when it comes to data tracking. I’m always kind of doing the bare minimum of what’s required.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:30]:
If it comes to a curriculum adoption situation, I’m absolutely waiting it out to kind of see what happens. But I typically tend to think if they’re just passing on something they want me to do, but they’re not providing any support for it. I’m going to wait until that support comes into play before I’m just going to drop everything I’m doing and make time for these additional requests that are given to me. Now, many of you are listening though, and you’re like, well, this isn’t possible. Like, they are on me. I have to do this. This is coming from my direct supervisors. This isn’t like, hey, we’re moving to project based learning or standards based grading within the next five years.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:04]:
I can wait it out and see how it plays out. No, this is something you’re being asked to do right now. And the timeline is now. You cannot wait them out. I basically have three recommendations for you and then what you should do if none of that works. Okay, so first, if the expectations are truly unrealistic, I recommend don’t take these on alone. Okay. First, I love getting someone else’s opinion on these things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:30]:
Sometimes what seems unrealistic to me is not unrealistic to someone else. So I would ask someone else who’s in your situation, a co worker, maybe in your department or in another, and say, hey, like, am I unrealistic to think that this ask is unrealistic? Or how are you approaching it? How do you feel about it? And then on top of that, I love to get an outside opinion from someone not in the situation. So for example, for me, my husband who’s worked in the business world, I like to say, like, hey, is something like this a normal kind of ask in the business world or would this really be unusual? Because oftentimes I do think teachers, and I don’t want to use the word abuse lightly, but I do think we almost get abused in our positions more than people in other positions in terms of what we’re asked to do. I don’t know if it’s because we don’t have strong enough unions or other people on our side, or it’s because they prey on our altruistic natures to serve students by just putting so much on us. But I think it really does help to get an outside perspective and say, like, hey, is this realistic or not? Like, on top of what I’m doing? Then from there, I think after you have that perspective, then getting someone on your side to help you ask for something that is more realistic. If you are not the department chair, that is. The first person I would go to is seeing if my department chair can help vouch for the others in my department and say, hey, like, this isn’t going to work for us. Like, this doesn’t seem realistic for us.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:02]:
I know at one school I taught in, in particular, you know, the biology teachers were getting asked to do a lot of things that the rest of the science department was asked to do, but we were the only ones with an eoc. We were able to tell our department chair. We had one of us kind of represent the four or five of us that were teaching biology at the time and say, hey, like I understand this is what is being asked of the department as a whole, but can we have an exception? Because we are the EOC teachers and this is what we think is best for our students who are taking this eoc. Or maybe it’s because you’re an AP class, or maybe it’s because you’re a lab based science course that students need for graduation. There might be reasons that you can vouch for to be an exception to the rule or the ask because of the other unique requirements that you have on your plate that make this ask unrealistic for you. So trying to get someone on your side and again, not doing it alone. You get your group of teachers who are on your team, you kind of get other perspectives. But you go to that department chair or maybe you go directly to an admin.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:00]:
Maybe it’s not your principal, but it’s a vice principal. Go to them and see if they can see your side of the situation and how this feels unfair or unrealistic on top of the other responsibilities that you have, y’, all. It is so, so important that every single teacher has someone in leadership ahead of them that is on their team. Again, it doesn’t have to be your direct principal and it doesn’t even have to be your direct supervisor. I talk about in my relationships mini course, which is a virtual PD course I have within the whole secondary Science Simplified PD bundle. I’ll link in the show notes, but I talk about in detail how I got incredibly close to the junior class vice principal. So I was at a school once where we had a vice principal essentially over each grade that was kind of the point person for seniors or juniors or sophomores or freshmen. And since I taught mainly freshman courses, my direct supervisor was the freshman vice principal.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:56]:
But I just didn’t have a great relationship with that vice principal. Nothing against him personally, we just didn’t connect. But I had a good companionship and just kind of camaraderie with the junior principal. He was the principal that’s office was on my floor. So I was passing by him every day. We were chatting in the halls. He was a former science teacher at one point, so he had that experience that my vice principal did not. He was also a formal special education science teacher, so I really thought he understood, you know, what it looked like as I was the science teacher in My department, who had the most students with IEPs and 504s.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:32]:
So we just had a good relationship. So he could vouch for me, he was a safe person that I could go to and say, hey, you were in that faculty meeting. How am I supposed to do this? You know what I’m dealing with, you know, my caseload, you know what’s going on. Can you help represent me with the admin and saying, hey, can she be an exception? Or can we look at this differently? Or can we do this another type of way? Okay, so that’s my first recommendation. Do not do this on your own. Do not take this on on your own. Get perspective from people in your situation, people outside of it, and then find someone to kind of be on your team to go against maybe and push a little bit against some of these expectations if they are unrealistic. The second thing I recommend then is having a conversation not just with all these people around you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:17]:
Yes, I did start off with that. I did say, you know, like, let’s have some conversations like that. But I also think that if we just let that kind of negative chatter fester, then if it circles back to, to your head admin to your principal, it’s just not a good look. So I love to go in and have a face to face conversation with someone in leadership about this. And in doing that, here’s how I approach that with humility. I acknowledge that. I hear what the expectation is. I kind of like to recount, hey, here’s what I heard you say that you’re expecting from us.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:49]:
Here is then now kind of where my concerns are in terms of me being able to do my role well on top of this added expectation and then ask questions. I think asking questions as opposed to like just going in and complaining is a great way to open up dialogue with people. And one of my favorite things I’ve talked about on this podcast before is saying, help me understand what the goal of this is. Help me understand what the hope for this is. I’m seeking clarity on this in terms of how do you think this is gonna best serve students? And sometimes at the end of the day they’re just gonna say, I don’t have an answer for you. This is just something we’re being asked to do. And that’s where you can kind of negotiate with them and seeing like, okay, well, first of all, if the goal is something I can accomplish in an alternative way that’s gonna be like less busy, work on me, then I would ask that and provide some solutions. Here, come in with some solutions of alternatives, but figuring out the goal first and then if it’s not, if there’s like, if they’re like, well, we’re just doing this because we’ve been told that we have to do this, I would ask them like, hey, when do you see me fitting this in? And I think walking them through a day in your job, a week in your job, and what that looks like can help them kind of have a dose of reality.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:00]:
I think, unfortunately, and I’m not going to speak for all admin because not all admin are this again, when you have good admin, it makes such a difference. But some admin have been out of the classroom for 20 plus years. They have no idea what it is that you’re facing. And so I think it’s really helpful to do your own time audit. I think all teachers should do this. It’s for your own benefit too, to see where you’re wasting your own time. But just saying, like, hey, this is where I spend time each week, this is how my planning periods are being spent, this is where I’m coming in early, staying late, et cetera. Where do you see it that I could fit this in? And if we are going to add something to my plate, maybe something else needs to be subtracted and have them help you identify that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:41]:
And again, y’, all, I think admin just have no idea all the extra things we have to do as science teachers when it comes to labs. And that’s a unique way to kind of advocate for ourselves and say, hey, here is all the extra time I’m having to spend on lab prep, lab cleanup, making sure these things are safe for students, etc. Can I lose another responsibility like a lunch duty, like a whatever, so that I have more capacity to do these extra things you’re putting on my plate? Science teachers already have so much extra that other teachers don’t necessarily have. So I think going in and having a conversation and saying, help me help you achieve this checkbox for the district level. Like, I’m, I’m wanting to be a team player here, but I’m having a hard time seeing how it’s going to fit in, that is something I highly recommend doing. And then the third thing I say is, and I hate to say this because I am a type. My dad always says that I’m a type A, A, A plus type A person. Like, I want to do everything and I want to do it the absolute best.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:40]:
I want to be 100% a plus teacher. But in These kinds of situations, if it truly is not best for students, if it’s not something that’s going to benefit my practice, my students and getting achieving their goals and, and it’s truly just going to be like extra busy work. To check a box, I would say how required is required. And look at your contract if you need help evaluating your teacher contract, which is something that I bring up kind of every spring, every April, listen to episode 68, see if you really do have to do this, and then just do your best to kind of check the box and see if it’s good enough. And time how long it takes also to do what they’re asking you to do. That way you can circle back in your evaluate and you circle back to this original conversation you’ve hopefully had with them to say like, hey, how am I supposed to fit this in? Et cetera, and say like, hey, just FYI, you may not have realized, but doing writing these common assessments that we’re now required to do, changing everything to standard space grading that we’re now required to do, requiring unlimited retest for students that we’re now required to do. This is how much time it took to do this. So something has to give because this is not sustainable.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:46]:
To be able to do this, I need an extra planning period next year or whatever. And really negotiating that after you’ve done the bare minimum like passing grade C effort on it. Okay, that’s my recommendation for you. Now, if you find that this is becoming an ongoing problem, that you’re not getting support, that there’s no admin who’s really on your side, that you’re asking questions, you’re asking for help, you’re doing your best and you’re not getting kind of anything in return. And you’re still getting asked to do unrealistic things over and over again. This is where it’s become an ongoing problem and this is where it’s time to kind of consider if it is time to make a change. And spring is kind of the perfect time to do that because it is contract negotiation season. So I would go listen to episode 121 and kind of hear more about that.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:34]:
How do you know if it is time to make a change in your job? And truly sometimes it’s just changing the atmosphere that you are in that will make all of the difference. Another episode that I think would really encourage you to hear this from someone else is episode 190. It’s an interview I did with Heather Bonanno. She is a. She talks a lot about all sorts of different things, student mastery, teaching chemistry, a ton of stuff. But she also talks about switching schools and how she, she really couldn’t believe how much it changed her experience as a teacher to be in a different teaching environment. And I think oftentimes we’re really scared to think about changing jobs. We think I couldn’t teach someone else because there’s nowhere else near me or I couldn’t imagine the commute or my, my children go to this school, so I have to teach here.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:21]:
But it can absolutely change everything if you’re willing to say, well, what if I did? And kind of look at what that looks like. And I genuinely believe that science teachers, especially secondary science teachers, y’ all are a hot commodity. You are a limited resource, a non renewable resource, if you will, that there are not a lot of you out there that are if you’re a certified teacher for teaching high school science. I mean, I saw a reel the other day that made me laugh but also kind of made me want to cry because it was talking about, you know, they can’t even find subs to teach your class. So obviously it’s going to be hard to find a full time person to take your role. So really maybe the solution here is to consider you need to be teaching in a space where admins support you, they advocate for you on the district level and they hear you and partner with you in doing your job well. Your admin should be partners with you and serving students, not people that just add to your plate unrealistic expectations and burdens without supporting you in accomplishing those extra tasks. So your take home challenge today is to have a conversation with the superior who’s given you unrealistic expectations and ask some questions, get some clarity and get some perspective from someone else to maybe say, like, hey, is this unrealistic? And if you want to hear from someone like me, like shoot me a DM on Instagram and it’s not rocket science, like send me a dm, give me some context for your situation.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:45]:
Say, hey, is this an unrealistic ask based on everything I’ve heard or do I kind of need to suck it up? Like, I’m happy to give you perspective on that. And if you want to hear more episodes on dealing with admin, I’ve had a conversation with a lot of other teachers about this and I’ve also talked about ways you can advocate for yourself and your admin can support you. But most of these episodes I’m going to reference are guest episodes. So check out episodes 68 69, 71, 121, 156, and 190. Like I just mentioned, I’ll link all these in the show notes. They are absolutely worth checking out if admin make your job very hard. And if you want to find those links, head to the Show Notes at it’s not rocketscienceclassroom.com Episode 229 and I know I’ve been talking about this a lot, but it’s true. I mean, talking to you guys on these episodes is my favorite part of running this podcast and so I would love to talk to you, especially if you’re like, hey, I have experience teaching with a variety of admin and I can attest that your admin make all the difference in your work life balance and how you your job goes.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:48]:
Come apply to be on the podcast and share your experience with other high school science teachers. You can apply at bit ly SSSGuest and you can find that link in the Show Notes, but I will be reviewing applications in May, so next month and then I’ll be doing interviews this summer when your schedule’s the most flexible, and then releasing those episodes throughout the next year. And I would love to have you on the podcast to talk about that and hear your personal experiences. So apply to beyond all right, teacher

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:15]:
friends, that wraps up today’s episode.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:18]:
If you’re looking for an easy way

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:19]:
to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com challenge to grab your Classroom Reset Challenge.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:29]:
And guess what?

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:30]:
It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, Teacher friend.