For the past week and a half, I have been a "substitute vice principal" at a high school in our District. The real vice principal was struck by pneumonia and having to recuperate. Fortunately for him, his recovery was faster than anticipated, and as I write this, I am back "home" to the elementary school where I have spent the entire school year.
My primary take away from the substitute opportunity is that in spite of my dearth of experience at that level (high school), I am confident that I could do a great job as a vice principal. It seems that every job in public education eventually boils down to excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and fortunately that is one of my strengths. I was also completely amazed by the head principal whose vast network of contacts is unlike any that I have ever seen in an educator. For every situation or meeting topic, he had multiple stories to tell, each involving someone he knew from 10, 20, or 30 years ago.
I was at the high school mostly during exam week and the days leading up to it. So things were quite slow. The only incident of note was an off-campus fight among two girls that was caught on video. As a school team, we scrambled the following day to find the source of the video to make sure that it didn't get uploaded onto YouTube. Fortunately we succeeded, but not before interviewing at least ten kids. The fight itself was just downright sad. It seems that the most troubling fights at the high school level happen among girls--the whole "mean girls" thing. Personally, I couldn't even watch beyond the first ten seconds of the video because it was just too disturbing. Bullying among girls is a topic for another day.
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