Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Georgia Lessons Learned at SAIS Leadership Institute
Darlington School: Private Boarding School in Rome, GA
Some text some message..
 

Lessons Learned at SAIS Leadership Institute

Chad Woods | October 9, 2019 | 183 views

I origninally entered the world of education because I loved the game of baseball and I wanted to share that love with teenagers. I wanted to make sure the players understood how to play the game the correct way and make sure they were ready for the next level if given the opportunity. Being a teacher came with being a baseball coach.

I quickly discovered that being a teacher is a lot like being a coach and fell in love with teaching math. I push students in the classroom in the same way I did on the field. I make them practice. I make them think. Sometimes I think my students get frustrated with me because I won't simply tell them how to work a problem. "You can do it. Think about it for a few minutes," I tell them. Of course, I can always spot the "I have no clue what is going on" look as well.

Moving into the mathematics department chair position was a little out of my comfort zone. My comfort zone is helping high school students. I feel comfortable helping them to become better students and better people. Being department chair was really intemidating. The teachers in the math department are top notch and know more about teaching than I will ever know. Eventually, I discovered that is was not about teaching the teachers to teach, but the position is to help the teachers grow. Challenge the teachers to grow.  Challenge the teachers to try new things.

This prepared me for my current position as Dean of Studies in the Upper School.  While I was fullly prepared to help teachers grow in their teaching methods and abilities to help students, I was not prepared to help department chairs help their teachers. The SAIS Leadership Institute helped me with this new position. Rob Evans and Michael Thompson are fantastic, experienced teachers. They put us in real life situations and made us talk our way through the situations. What is the best way to handle this? What is the root of this problem? Some of these real life situations were situations the group has been faced with in the past.  We were asked how we handled the situation, how it turned out, and what could have been done differently.

Some of my biggest takeaways I have already begun to put into place. This conference made me reflect on my first year as Dean of Studies and put some things on paper I could do differently to better the school. I am thankful for the opportunity to attend this conference. I highly recommend it for those in education who have aspirations to be an administrator.