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2nd March 2007

“When I Become an Administrator” movie ideas

posted in digitalstorytelling, leadership |

One of my favorite videos to show teachers during professional development sessions is Marco Torres’ Teacher Movie. Marco’s keynote today and this evening’s conversation with other MACE conference attendees inspired a project idea for next Monday– and I’d love to hear your input on this.

Monday night (March 5th) I’ll be teaching a three hour evening class at the University of Central Oklahoma (in Edmond, where I live) for 25 principals-to-be. The course is “Technology for Administrators,” and one of my main goals will be to introduce the grad students to a variety of administrator and teacher blogs. I think helping educators learn to learn from each other (via the blogosphere and other voices on the web) is one of the most important and powerful things we can share and teach.

I’m a “substitute instructor” for just one evening, and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity since I love to teach! I’m thinking another goal for the evening could be helping the now-teachers and soon-to-be administrators think about how they want to lead and administrate DIFFERENTLY than many of the other administrators they know and have known in the past.

So here’s my thought as well as my challenge to you: What should the script for this “When I Become an Administrator” video include? If you haven’t already, watch the 1 min and 39 sec “Teacher Movie.” Then add a comment here with your own thoughts. Following the same pattern of the teacher movie, I’m thinking some of the “one liners” of the administrator movie could be:

WHEN I BECOME AN ADMINISTRATOR…..

  1. I want to print out my email messages, and have my secretary read them to me.
  2. I want to attend meetings all day, so I never have time to be in the classrooms with students and teachers.
  3. I want to spend lots of time disciplining the kids in my school rather than inspiring them.
  4. I will insist that all my teachers use the chalkboard and the overhead projector every day.
  5. I want my teachers to ask all the questions, so the students can provide the answers.
  6. I want to write a technology plan once, and then forget about it for five years until we have to revise it again.
  7. I want to communicate with parents, teachers and students using paper and pencils.
  8. I want to talk the talk, but not walk the walk.
  9. I will make sure every teacher is on the same page of the curriculum guide each minute of the day.
  10. I want to standardize learning, instill fear in both teachers and students, and make sure all the students stay quiet and on task all day long.
  11. I will tell my teachers to focus all their attention on preparing students for their tests.
  12. I will make sure every student in my school is treated exactly the same.
  13. I will stifle creativity, and make sure no one is allowed to think out of the box in our school.
  14. I want to say “no you can’t do that” at least one hundred times each day.
  15. I won’t waste time getting to know the first names of every student in my school, because too many of them move away anyway.
  16. I want to do all the talking, so the teachers and the students can do all the listening.
  17. I want to roll out a new instructional reform program at the start of every school year, and discontinue it at least two months afterward.
  18. I want all the professional development for my teachers to be one-shot training with a different person they never see again in their lives.
  19. I want to do whatever parents want who complain to me or the superintendent, whether or not I think it is right or it is best for the child and our school.
  20. I want to stop learning.

What one-liners should be added to this potential script draft? These need to be short and to the point, highlighting administrative “worst-practices” in the hope they will inspire people to consider administrative “best practices.”

On this day..

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under digitalstorytelling, leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 11 responses to ““When I Become an Administrator” movie ideas”

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  1. 1 On March 2nd, 2007, Tim said:

    Great list! However, number 21 should be “I want to stop teaching.”

    I’m sure it’s different everywhere else :-), but in our system too many administrators get so bogged down in regulations and paperwork that they forget to be educators. Principals and others leading the district need to remember that their job is still about teaching. Not just kids but teachers and parents as well.

  2. 2 On March 2nd, 2007, Wesley Fryer’s Food for Thought… « Hokanson’s Instructional Technology said:

    [...] Wesley Fryer’s Food for Thought… 2 03 2007 Wesley Fryer has a great post at his blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, where he shares:  “One of my favorite videos to show teachers during professional development sessions is Marco Torres’ Teacher Movie.” The video is a parody of the Monster.com video from a couple of years ago. Wesley is planning on a twist to this, “When I Become an Administrator,” for a project he is planning at a presentation. Check it all out and share some ideas as it is great “food for thought.” [...]

  3. 3 On March 2nd, 2007, Danny Rose said:

    That last screen should say “Think Differently”. ;-)

    Maybe add “I want to teach the test, and not the student” (for those in Texas).
    -D

  4. 4 On March 2nd, 2007, John Evans said:

    How about:
    “I will eat my lunch at my desk and never take time for myself during the day!”

    or

    “I want to make quick decisions based on little information to show my incredible time management skills!”

    or

    “I want to be the first person in the building and the last person to leave so I have my finger on the pulse of everything that is going on in my school!”

    I love Marco’s video as well. It is awesome stuff.

    Cheers

    John

  5. 5 On March 3rd, 2007, Janetta Garton said:

    With your permission, I’d like to copy a section this post into a post on my Fusion Finds blog with a link to the original post, encouraging our staff members to send you commments.

  6. 6 On March 4th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    By all means, please copy and use what you want here, Janetta! Unless specified otherwise, the content on my blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Only license. That means you’re granted permission up front to reuse the content here for other purposes as long as you give attribution credit somewhere for the work. The link to this license is at the bottom of each page of my blog.

    Glad you find these ideas of value and worth sharing!

  7. 7 On March 4th, 2007, Fusion Finds » Blog Archive » When I Become An Administrator said:

    [...]  Wesley Fryer on his Moving at the Speed of Creativity Blog as written this in a post entitled: “When I Become an Administrator” movie ideas. He has asked his readers to comment, assisting him in publishing a movie for one of his upcoming conference presentations: [...]

  8. 8 On March 5th, 2007, iDog said:

    Hey Wesley- I love the idea of “When I become a Administrator”…what a great idea!! How did you come up with it?

  9. 9 On March 5th, 2007, Hurt Feelings said:

    When I become an administrator, I will give credit where credit is due.

  10. 10 On March 5th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    This is a somewhat cryptic comment from “Hurt Feelings.” The original idea for this was inspired by Marco Torres’ video “Teacher Movie,” and I plan on including full attribution info for this video. Is there somewhere else I should be including credit for this idea? Or is this just a suggestion for a line in the video? The name line on this comment threw me.

    iDog: As the original post indicates, the idea for this came from Marco’s “Teacher Movie” video.

  11. 11 On March 12th, 2007, Wesley Fryer said:

    Check out our work! We posted this video last week to YouTube. Thanks to everyone for suggestions and input on the ideas for this!