Dive Brief:
- Teaching is reportedly one of the most stressful professions, and school leaders can make a difference by helping educators manage their workloads.
- It's important for principals to take a macro-level perspective and actively work to lighten workloads, instead of adding on administrative tasks.
- School leaders can also help teachers by clearly establishing priorities for learning and making sure learning goals are transparent to all, which helps efficiency.
Dive Insight:
District admins should understand that innovative and time-saving approaches to things like professional development can also help teachers. Using new forms of PD, like digital PD alternatives, can not only offer a cost-effective alternative, but can also help educators who are both early career and experienced. A 2015 report from The New Teacher Project found that most professional development programs for teachers don’t achieve their intended goal of improving instruction and boosting student performance, which means that those programs just eat away at teachers' already scarce time.
New tech initiatives can also sometimes be a source of stress. That's because, although the majority of teachers are already adopting digital avenues to learning in the classroom, many say they still need more training. One expert, Hattiesburg Public School District Instructional Technologist Dr. Will Deyamport, says teacher "buy-in" and involvement are key to successfully implementing 1:1 device initiatives.