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As a Director/Administrator, How Can I Support My Staff?

Barbara Kaiser, MA

November 21, 2018

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Question

As a director/administrator, how can I support my staff?

Answer

Especially in today's world, realize that you are working with teachers who may be young and inexperienced. Also, with the salaries and wages in the education field, especially in early childhood, some teachers may be struggling to make ends meet in their own lives. If they have families of their own, there may be marital issues or problems with their own children. They need you to understand and support them. Like the children, each teacher needs different levels of physical and emotional support. Get to know your staff so that you can provide what they need because one size does not fit all.

Identify each staff member's strengths. If we can find people's strengths, then we can help them deal with their challenges. When looking for solutions, tap into each person's areas of expertise. The best way to make things work is to work together. Letting them know that you believe in them goes a long way in helping them to believe in themselves.

Remember that when you are talking to families or in the classroom working with the children, everyone is watching, so smile -- you are a role model. Respect personal space and remain calm. I have been in schools and watched teachers and administrators for a full day, and sometimes seen no one smile all day. If no one is happy to be there, why should the children feel good about being there? 

We also need to realize that sadly, many teachers will enter the classroom with little or no knowledge about children with challenging behavior. Many of us have preconceptions about why children behave the way they do. Often, these perceptions are not going to guide us to the best solutions. Remember that people don't know what they don't know. If your job is to build a relationship of trust with each educator so that they feel they can openly share their concerns with you, they need to know that you're listening to what they need. Most teachers want an instant fix, but that isn't possible, because no intervention or strategy works with every child, every teacher, or in every setting.

As the director, you need to find out what teachers expect from you. What do they want you to do? Often, they feel that the director doesn't truly understand what goes on in the classroom. You might be in the classroom for 20 minutes, and if you see something happen, maybe you'll intervene. Ultimately, however, you get to leave, but the teachers have to stay there all day. It can be very tense when they're worried about what that child might do next, or will this activity work out? It's important to fully understand what they feel you should be doing. Listen to them and try and meet their needs, much in the same way you want them to meet the children's needs.

This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Supporting Teachers in Addressing Challenging Behavior: A Team Approach, by Barbara Kaiser, MA.


barbara kaiser

Barbara Kaiser, MA

A graduate of McGill University’s Master's Program in Educational Administration, Barbara Kaiser, MA has been working with early childhood educators, children, and their families for over 35 years. She is the co-author of Challenging Behavior in Young Children: Understanding, Preventing and Responding Effectively, 4th Edition (2017), and is presently working on a new text, The Administrator’s Role in Supporting Staff, Children, and Families When Challenging Behavior Occurs, (NAEYC), which is expected to be available early winter 2021. She has taught part-time in the Faculty of Education at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec and Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

In addition to presenting workshops and keynote speeches on the topic of challenging behavior and related issues in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and Mauritius, Barbara was the chief consultant for Addressing Youth Violence: An Intersectoral, Integrated Approach for Western Nova Scotia, and designed a webinar series and guide to help teachers and administrators reduce and respond to bullying behavior for the Nova Scotia Department of Education. She also helped to develop teacher training video programs focused on managing children’s challenging behavior, Challenging Behaviors: Where do we begin? with Family Communications Inc. and Facing the Challenge, with Devereux Center for Resilient Children, (DCRC). 


Related Courses

Supporting Teachers in Addressing Challenging Behavior: A Team Approach (a workshop for Directors & Administrators of EC programs)
Presented by Barbara Kaiser, MA
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Barbara Kaiser, MA
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  'The Knowledge about behaviors and why they happen'   Read Reviews
To be effective, leaders must be self-reflective—think about who they are, become aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and look for ways to develop their own and their staff’s competencies and resilience. As school districts increasingly prohibit the suspension and expulsion of young children the Director/Administrator needs to believe in this goal and have the skills to develop and lead a team that supports it.

Prevention is the Best Intervention: Part 2: Nothing I Do Works!
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  'It's similar to the other challenging behavior class but I felt like there were more examples, and I love seeing videos/real examples of kids which happened in this course'   Read Reviews
This course is designed to help people who are working with children with challenging behaviors by bridging the gap between research and practice. When you recognize that a child's challenging behavior is rooted in biological and environmental factors and not a desire to ruin your day, it becomes possible for you to figure out what the child needs to learn in order to succeed. You will learn to create a caring environment that recognizes and supports all children’s abilities and skills as a preventative measure to reduce challenging behavior. This course also recognizes that challenging behavior cannot always be prevented. This course will provide information and an opportunity to explore interventions that are research based and proven effective responses to a child's inappropriate behavior.

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  'Great information'   Read Reviews
This course is designed to help people who are working with children with challenging behaviors by bridging the gap between research and practice. When you recognize that a child's challenging behavior is rooted in biological and environmental factors and not a desire to ruin your day, it becomes possible for you to figure out what the child needs to learn in order to succeed.

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  'Information was helpful'   Read Reviews
Challenging behavior cannot always be prevented. This course, the third part in a the series, will provide information and an opportunity to explore interventions that are research based and proven effective responses to a child's inappropriate behavior.

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