I have learned in my short tenure as principal that there are different types of teachers out there. This is not one of those AH-HA moments for anyone else, but for me, who spent 27 years in her own little cocoon (aka room 208), I have been enlightened. Many teachers on my staff have made me feel...incompetent at best. They are mainly the young ones who seem to have no fear. They jump in there and try stuff. They don't take three weeks to painstakingly look and ponder and agitate over the details of a new curriculum....they just do it!

In one of my mid management courses, we were asked to use our campus data to find a weakness and suggest a solution for improvement. Halfheartedly , I chose our math scores because surely there would be something I could google. I was fine until I realized that I would have to interview the math teachers to truly understand the data. Our scores weren't that bad and were actually better than last year's. Still, I approached the math teacher with trepidation. Would she think I was singling her out because of our low scores? Would she think I was blaming her? Would she be impatient with the interruptions and data I needed her to find for me?

I need not to have worried. She briskly greeted me, listened to my request, and then began to verbally pelt me with more acronyms than a region 18 service center veteran. She pulled up data on her iPhone, printed sources from her data bases, and pulled up pie graphs, comparison charts, and DMAC data galore. In fifteen minutes, I found myself out in the hall, out of breath, and a bit disoriented, with an array of notebooks, data, and new program suggestions cascading out of my grasp. I don't think I knew what hit me. I had all I needed for my class assignment and more. Not only was she not apologetic or insulted, she wanted to talk about it, disaggregate it, and revise it. (I am not sure what "it" was, but if I ask, she will tell.) This new generation of women educators amaze me, but I will leave that for another blog.

So when the time came to research another question of concern on our campus, I knew exactly where I was headed. Not because it was necessarily a problem, it was just something I wanted to know about - Will the implementation of CSCOPE affect our math TAKS scores in a positive manner? There was no doubt in my mind where I was headed to find out. Except this time, I will be armed with a mobile cart with multiple stacking trays, a secretary, a list of common mathematical acronyms, and a slide rule - just to see if she can use one.

I have a feeling I am way ahead of my other classmates.