Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers who don't want
to just survive teaching but actually thrive. I'm your host, Kim Laprie,
and I really appreciate you being with me here today. This topic has been
ruminating on my mind because there's just a lot of things happening in my school
right now, and it's definitely pertinent to any teacher, but especially new teachers,
and it's all about school politics. Maybe you're like me and you hate
all things politics, but today we have to talk about them. If you've
ever worked in a job, especially in a place of business, then you
have actually experienced workplace politics. You might have done your best to avoid them,
especially if you were a less senior employee, but you may not have
realized that you were actually always a part of it. Either you were someone
who had the power or knowledge to make things happen, or you were a
pawn that a more assertive person used to reach their goal. Sounds harsh,
but that's just the reality. And now that you're in a career that you
may be in for the long haul, it's important to learn how to navigate
school politics. Even if you don't want anything to do with them, because
simply being passive about it could be the difference between loving your job and frankly
getting screwed. So I'm going to cover how to survive school politics so that
you can actually love the school that you teach at. So, just like
in regular national politics, in school politics it involves around different groups and their
power dynamics. So some key stakeholders involved are the district that you work in,
the school administrators, teachers, administrative staff, counselors, parents, and
of course students. I'm also missing some other school staff in there, but
a lot of times these are quote unquote the power players, and obviously each
group has a different priority. For example, a lot of times for a
big school district like the one that I teach in, they are of course
concerned about serving this community, but they also have to think about things like
fiscal responsibility and using taxpayer money, getting federal money, looking like a good
district to attract more people to come here so that we can get more of
that federal money. And then when you trickle down to say the schools,
that's also a similar concern in terms of like fiscal responsibility and just making the
school look good. So it makes the district look good. But also we
want to pull in a lot of students so that we can get that money.
We call it the ADA money. And then principles, of course,
they want to look good running the school. They want to make sure that
the school runs smoothly, that there are fewer parent complaints. And if a
principal is maybe trying to work up their way to work at the district level,
then they're going to do things that make them look good, so that's
going to be their priority. And then we have the teachers, you know
what I mean. And so it's it's important to understand and to really be
cognizant of the different priorities of all the power players within a school environment.
Understanding this will help you navigate the school politics more effectively because as you are
talking to these different people at these different levels, you're going to have to
frame your message according to what their priorities and what their ultimate goals are.
For example, let's say that you want a particular teaching assignment because it's your
favorite grade. Well, your principle might not care that it's your favorite grade.
The district might not care that it's your favorite grade. What really matters
to them is how does it affect their end goal. Also important to recognize
within the structure is favoritism and you know, sometimes even nepotism, because that
will also affect you in the long run. So, for example, if
you are a favorite of your principle or even the district, then more opportunities
are going to be available to you, which seems obvious. And on the
flip side, if you are someone who isn't a favorite, or maybe you
decide that you're someone who wants to fly under the radar, then things like
teaching assignments, classrooms, resources, funding, things like that may not be
as available to you. So if you've been teaching a while, then this
is all obvious. If you're new, it may not seem as obvious because
you just haven't had any experience with this, But it's just good to know
and be aware. So this goes along with understanding the school culture in your
particular school. After I got myself settled into a new school, I would
want to understand the culture and sort of those unwritten rules. For example,
you might be surprised by how little power your principle might have. They may
actually just be a puppet for the district. They may just be implementing any
kind of initiatives that the district wants, and they don't really have any say,
and they're just basically a manager, whereas in some other schools, principles
have a lot of power in terms of hiring and firing and spending money.
So it's up to you to figure that out when you get to your new
school. I've seen schools where counselors have an outsize influence on decision making.
They can actually determine teaching assignment sometimes or who gets which types of classes or
students. It was just really surprising to me to hear and actually in some
cases experience just how much power counselors have, especially because of their working relationship
with the principle. In other schools, the principal secretary is actually a gate
keeper and can determine whether or not the principle even is aware of your concerns.
And in certain communities, the PTA can have a lot of influence,
especially because they do so much fundraising, and they can actually have power in
terms of how many is spent or even have influence on things like events,
policies, and other aspects of school life. So it's important to learn about
all of this, and one of the best way to do that is to
observe and talk to people, and of course, something that we hate to
hear build relationships. A lot of times when we talk about building relationships,
it's someone telling us that we need to build relationships with students, which is
just so obvious and sometimes insulting to hear. But you also have to build
relationships with other adults, and if anything, I think that sometimes working with
the adults is a lot harder than working with the students. So you want
to build positive relationships with your colleagues and administrators and the other staff that work
in the school. Definitely the custodians. I'm going to tell you right now,
building good relationships with a custodian that cleans your room is key. You
want that stinky thing out of your room, or you want them to take
care of that mouse that's hiding under your desk, You want to be nice
to them. So basically, you need to leverage these relationships when problems arise.
And it doesn't mean that you're going to be fake, but it's nice
to have people who you can lean on, and of course going to want
to lean on you, and that's just part of the give and take of
being a good colleague. It's nice to have people who are in your corner
to advocate for you, especially when decisions are being made about you and when
things get tough. So it's really important to learn about who the key players
are, as I mentioned earlier, so that you can know who you need
to get past, especially if they're certain gatekeepers or certain people who really have
a lot of influence in your school, and a lot of that is through
building relationships. This means that you're going to have to show genuine interest in
others. It seems so simple, but I know people who just like to
talk about themselves. That's not really going to help you build relationships with other
people if you're always trying to find a way to talk about yourself. I'd
also participate in activities. For example, if there's a special event or luncheon
that's going on, then attend. If a teacher is throwing a baby or
bridal shower for one of your colleagues, attend. Like maybe you're not that
type of person who likes to socialize a lot, I'm not gonna lie.
I'm not. I'm more of an introvert, I'm kind of boring. I'm
a homebody. But if they're doing something at school and it's just like during
your lunchtime or maybe for a little bit after school, it's really not going
to kill you to go. That really goes far in terms of building relationships
with people and also offering to help when you can. For example, one
of my colleagues was having a baby and it was right before one of our
breaks, and no one had thought about throwing her baby shower because she was
a newer teacher. And I am not someone who likes to entertain other people,
or I don't like to have parties or dinners or anything like that.
I don't mind going out and meeting with people, but I'm just not that
person. But I pulled it together and decided that she needed to have a
baby shower, that she should have one because pretty much every other pregnant mother
in her school has had one, and just because she's new, I didn't
want her to feel left out. So I organized with all of the other
peopleople who are good at that kind of stuff, and we threw her a
really nice baby shower. And so I'm building relationships with all these other people.
I don't necessarily hang out with any of them outside of school, but
it makes me feel good to do that for someone, and I know that
in the long run it's good in terms of the school politics. And trust
me, as someone who's more introverted, it's exhausting to do these types of
social things. I prefer to eat lunch alone just because I need that time
to turn my brain off. But I definitely think in the beginning, especially
when you're a newer teacher, it's important to try to eat lunch with your
colleagues and build those alliances and to really listen and learn. That way,
you know who you need to be strategic with, because someday they could really
help you in a pinch, and it could be the difference between wanting to
stay at your school and just leave teaching altogether. However, we also have
to navigate clicks and other groups, and you've probably experienced this, either being
part of one or unfortunately on the outside of one. These cannot be of
and sometimes it really sucks. When I was teaching band, I didn't really
have like a group that I hung out with because I taught intellective and the
core teachers kind of hung out with their subject matter colleagues. And also my
classroom was really far away and it wasn't until I made friends with one of
the English teachers and she just dragged me to the lunch room and it was
so eye opening for me. But also I knew that I wasn't part of
the click and it was kind of awkward at first until I started to make
more friends. But part of at least being friendly with people, whether or
not you're in the clique, it really helps in terms of knowing who are
the decision makers or who has like the principal's ear or the counselor's ear.
But I know it's really hard to break into one. There could be a
lot of reasons why you can't break into one, and I definitely know that
agism plays a huge part. I hate to say that, and it sucks,
but you know, people of similar age and interests, they just tend
to gravitate towards each other. You might not even care about being in one,
or even really want to be in one of these cliques. I'm just
saying that it can help. It can help in terms of forming allies,
and it was hard when I switched schools after being at one school for a
really long time because everybody already had their established cliques. But I just found
that just being friendly to people and being genuinely interested in what is going on
in their life, or being genuinely interested when they're sharing something, and just
trying to get to know my other colleagues, it went really far in terms
of forming alliances. And again, you're going to need those. Trust me.
All of this relationship building that you've been doing will help you leverage for
success. Now, let's say that you want to teach a particular grade.
Maybe you're stuck in fourth grade because that's the only grade that they had open
when you applied, but you were hoping for kindergarten. Then you want to
identify who are the decision makers, who actually has an influence on the various
teaching assignments. A lot of times it's not just the principal who's making these
decisions. For example, in my school, yes it's the principle, but
it's also department heads, and it's also counselors. So who's in charge and
who can you start having the conversations with ahead of time so that you can
plant that seed. This doesn't work if you haven't built any relationships though,
and then when you build your case, you want to frame it in a
way that is going to help that person who you're speaking to reach their goal.
For example, if you're trying to teach math eight and you currently teach
seventh grade math, you're going to want to talk to the math department head
and try to figure out what their end goal is when they're recommending who teaches
what. Sometimes they see that one grade just is not working for them and
that maybe they need to switch to another grade, and so they're just trying
to make it so that everyone is placed somewhere where they can do the most
good and do the least damage. So how can you fit into that?
How can you help them out? But if you see that they're trying to
meet a need and they're stuck, you could bring up your strengths and how
you would be a really good fit in that role. But I definitely wouldn't
throw your other colleagues under the bus because that's going to bite you in the
butt later on. They're probably going to find out, and it might be
a series of different conversations with different decision makers, framing it from again their
goals and needs that will eventually get you to what it is that you want.
You just got to be patient. Like navigating school politics can really take
time, and you might have to start planning that seed early on in the
year. Now, sometimes we have to take one for the team. It's
kind of that I'll scratch your back and then you scratch my type of a
deal. So you might have to volunteer for maybe a less desirable committee,
or maybe for one year you take a teaching assignment that isn't ideal, but
you can have that conversation of well, I know that so and so is
going to be on leave this year, so I'll take that position for the
year, but then I would love for the following year to be teaching this
That could really help out your princes figure out what to do just for this
next school year, and that'll really go far later on in terms of when
they're making the decisions for the year after that. It just demonstrates your commitment
to the school and just really builds goodwill with your administrator and possibly your colleagues,
and of course, when the opportunity to raises, you get to cash
in on that good will. This actually worked for me because we had a
first year teacher who had been traveling classrooms. And that's really rough when you're
a first year teacher, like you want to have your own room. You're
really excited to decorate and do things like that. And I felt really bad
for them, and so what I did is I actually gave up my classroom
and I became the traveling teacher. I knew that doing this wouldn't be too
tough, because I mean, I'm established, I can teach anywhere in any
classroom, honestly, especially because we are mainly online. The kids have their
iPads, so it wasn't that big of a deal to me. But I
also knew that I would use this later on. And so then that new
teacher took my classroom and was able to decorate and fill the bookshelves with books
that they had acquired, and they really loved it, and they just got
to be in one spot. And I traveled only for one year, and
then the following year, a better and nicer classroom in a better area opened
up. And because I had taken one for the team, your principal is
more than happy to give that one to me. Now you may have done
all of this relationship building and leveraging, but you know conflicts are going to
rise. You obviously can't avoid that in any workplace. And this is when
you'll really see the power of politics come into play because you're going to see
different factions and it can get ugly. There'll be alliances, possible backstabbing,
people throwing each other under the bus. It's like this huge episode of Survivor
or squid Games. In this case, if you were not directly involved,
I encourage you, especially as a newer teacher, to stay neutral. You
are Switzerland. I would avoid taking sides as much as possible, Like,
be supportive of your team, your allies, the people that you've created these
relationships with. But remember that as a newer teacher, you are being watched
by the powers that be until you have tenure or some kind of seniority.
If you're really vocal about the side that you pick, that could bite you
in the butt later on. I mean, it sucks, but it could
be your job on the line. So yes, be emotionally supportive to the
people that aren't in your team. But at the same time, I definitely
wouldn't do anything that's going to make administration mad. In the end. School
politics suck and all we want to do is just focus on our students,
and I get that. However, we also have to think about ourselves and
our well being, especially our mental and emotional wellbeing. A lot of that
depends on things like our teaching assignment, our classroom, classroom resources, you
know what I mean, And to get the most ideal teaching environment for you.
Understanding and leveraging school politics is really going to go a long way.
I know you don't want to have to do this. It can feel gross
because you're like, I don't want to have to play the game. But
the people who don't play the game and who just want to fly under the
radar, they just kind of get whatever's left over. They get forgotten,
they get passed over, they get pushed around. It's that teacher who might
get bumped to a different grade every single year because there haven't leveraged any relationships.
You might think that the person who's the most vocal and who's the squeaky
wheel and gets really indignant about it, gets what they want. But a
lot of times it's the people who have taken the time to patiently work on
relationships that in the end are happiest. Then really get what serves them the
best. And honestly, when we're happy, our students are happy too because
they can feed off of our positive energy. But when you hate teaching assignment,
you hate your classroom, you hate everything that's going on in your school,
your kids feel that too and they react in a certain way. So
while it made you feel gross to do all of this political stuff, in
the end, it just helps you like teaching more and stay in the career.
So remember, as a newer teacher or maybe just new to a school,
just be observant of your school's culture. Build relationships with your colleagues,
administrators, and even parents. These allies can help you advocate for your needs
and your student success. Remember that professionalism and data driven requests go a really
long way, and don't let politics distract you. Just keep your passion for
teaching your students at the forefront of your mind. So I hope that this
was iOpening for you, especially as a newer teacher. It's something that you'll
get over time, but I just wanted to give you a heads up so
you can start building those relationships in your school. Big shout out to my
Facebook group if you want to comment on anything in this particular episode, then
go ahead and join it. I have a link in the show notes and
you can go over there and say hi and ask questions. You can also
reach out to me and you can also just reach out to me at kimat
teachersned teachers dot com. Thanks for hanging out with me today and I will
see you next time.