Show Notes, Episode 38: Just Put the Key in the Door with Maddie Jurek

About this show:

Yay! You finally found time to get into a classroom and do a big observation! You sit down, congratulating yourself for prioritizing, and the teacher and students dive into a lesson on quantum physics. Wait! What? Of course, this is an exaggeration, but most of us have found ourselves tasked with observing a teacher whose content we did not fully understand. We dive into this topic today with our guest, Dr. Maddie Jurek.

Notable Quotes

Dr. Maddie Jurek:

“The hardest part for me whenever I went in to observe those lessons, truly, was putting the key in the door and turning the knob to walk into the room. After I walked into the room I realized, I don’t have to focus on content here… I am here to focus on instruction, and there is a difference between instruction and content.”

“Good teaching is good teaching, no matter the content of the classroom”

“One of the most important attributes for an education leader is an attitude of being self-aware”

“So often we get tunnel vision of what is going on right here in our schools and I might not be seeing what they are doing in another school that may be something effective that I can do AS n administrator in my building”

“We can’t make excuses for their past experiences, but we can do our best with what we have now”

“I really am not afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ when I don’t know to a teacher”

“Don’t be quick to make a decision on something if there is doubt creeping in your mind”

“Go in with the confidence that you have something to offer. You were hired for a reason”

“I always encourage our APs here just to ask questions of their teachers and develop a more conversational rapport”

“You have to take the plunge. You have to let yourself be uncomfortable”

“Put the key in the door and step in the classroom, because so many times there are so many things that will prevent us from doing that”

Frederick:

“One of the switches that I advocate that we flip as administrators is understanding that our role is to grow great teachers. That’s how we improve our schools, that’s how we support our kids. And to do that, we need to support our teachers every step of the way”

“We are asking you to do something important. And how do we know it is important? Because we are investing resources in creating the time for you”

“We don’t have to do a flywheel for everybody. We can choose a grade level or we can choose a subject area”

“Teachers can be feedback junkies, just like students can want stickers on their papers when you hand them back”

“The most common practice that I see is that we do Professional Development and then we don’t follow up specifically on that PD”

“To hear people from buildings that are different than yours, from districts that are different than yours, to hear the perspectives they bring can be really valuable, not because you need to change yours, but you may understand why you do what you do a little bit better”

“If you never feel imposter syndrome, you’re not pushing your edge”

Links:

My email: [email protected] 

The Assistant Principal Podcast website: https://www.frederickbuskey.com/appodcast.html 

Sign up for the daily leadership email: https://mailchi.mp/c15c68e6df32/specialedition 

Website: www.frederickbuskey.com

Blog: www.frederickbuskey.com/blog (reposts of the daily email)