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Twelve Maxims For Hiring & Sustaining Teachers: Is Your School Observing These?

12/7/2022

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Picture
Peter Gow
“Hiring season” in many schools will commence just after the Holiday Season comes to an end. We offer here a dozen maxims on teacher hiring and care, derived from An Admirable Faculty: Recruiting, Hiring, Training, and Retaining Teachers in Independent Schools by Peter Gow (NAIS, 2005)
MAXIM #1—Every opening is an opportunity
  • No matter how beloved the departee, the new person can be as effective or possibly even more so
  • Look at every opening from an institutional point of view—strategic and practical needs
  • Even Mr. Chips retired at last; but you’re not replacing someone, you are filling a position
  • If your school is already perfect in every way, you don’t need this to be reading this anyhow; the wind will just blow Mary Poppins to you

MAXIM #2—Know thyself as an institution and a culture; keep these things in mind:
  • Your mission
  • Core values
  • Who works well in your community
  • Your ideals
  • Your institutional needs—on a moral and social-emotional level, not just practical
  • Your community—what it is, what it is like

MAXIM #3—It takes a school to hire a teacher
  • Build a hiring team comprised of more or less the same people/functions for every hire
  • Advertise smart
  • Interview smart
  • Use the candidate as a mirror; what do you learn about the school as your community “presents” itself?

MAXIM #4—You can always get what you want
  • Advertise smart
  • Advertise broadly
  • Work a little harder
  • Be patient
Corollary A: Diversity: There is no excuse for failure
  • Know what you mean, mean what you say
  • A little humility goes a long way
  • Advertise smart
  • Try harder
Corollary B: Cannon fodder: There is no excuse for hiring “expendable”teachers
  • If you’re a school, hire teachers, not just live bodies
  • Don’t give up before you start; don’t hire just to get it over with
  • Dorms matter, teams matter, and classes matter—but students matter more
  • Be prepared to give people the proper tools to do a proper job
  • “Good enough” isn’t

MAXIM #5—Check it out
  • Check all references
  • Do the most thorough background checks you can do
  • Got vans? How about checking driving records?

MAXIM #6—Induction matters
  • Make your initial investment count
  • And make an initial investment in time and effort
  • Know thyself and bring each new teacher into the learning and living community
Corollary: There is a reason that Mentor shows up early in The Odyssey; make sure your mentors show up early, too
  • It’s a tough journey for a new teacher—provide a map and a guide
  • Be alert for where your new hires are going to encounter minefields, mind games, and milestones

MAXIM #7—Good teachers can be made
  • You must believe this
  • Provide access, opportunity, and feedback
  • More opportunity, more feedback
  • Be specific

MAXIM #8—School culture is everything. Do all that you can to make yours both inviting and welcoming.
  • Be a learning community
  • Be a civil community
  • Be an honest community
  • Be a loving community
  • Foster cross-generational cross-fertilization

MAXIM #9—Not everybody wants an office
  • Administration: not for everyone
  • Support ambition, honor commitment, develop real leadership; even your youngest and newest can be leaders
  • Not all leaders are administrators, not all administrators are leaders (and not everyone needs to be)
  • But don’t stint on providing opportunity

MAXIM #10—Needs matter
  • Tailor-make benefits for all ages and stages
  • Be serious, and try harder
  • Beware the curses of paternalism: dependency, cynicism, complacency

​MAXIM #11—Old dogs actually like to learn new tricks
  • And they can learn them
  • Access and opportunity are for everyone
  • In a learning community, learning is supposed to be fun and rewarding; is this true with professional learning in yours?
Corollary: But some old dogs like to find their own tricks
  • “I don’t want to know a trick until I’ve seen it work”
  • But teach a man to fish…
  • Bartleby was, after all, a lousy employee in the role he was assigned; sometimes it’s worth asking what someone might prefer

MAXIM #12—All things must end
  • We know why: “cause,” “employment at will”; we hear the war stories
  • Sometimes it’s time: counseling out
  • Counseling for growth
  • Managing exit strategies
  • Preparing the chute
  • The Glorious End
An awkward cautionary Corollary: Don’t be stupid
  • We’ve all read the newspaper stories about schools that gently moved problematic teachers along
  • You want your school in the Boston Globe‘s Spotlight?
A much sweeter (but sometimes extremely bittersweet) Corollary: Be nicer than you ever thought you could be
  • Sometimes the end comes in the hardest, cruelest way, often unexpected; know how you will honor lives that end in your community
  • Whether someone left, retired, or died in harness, they gave a part of their life to your school, your students, and your community. Honor this in full, and never forget!
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