Dean of Students and Why I Stepped Outside the Classroom.

Welcome to my blog. Keeping in mind I am exploring my beliefs....I have examined one of the bigger events in my teacher career, the decision to step outside the classroom into the role of leadership.

From 2010 - 2012 I taught music at EECS: Dancing, singing, drumming and creating a positive musical experience was my goal. I saw every student in the school once a week. Being a “specials” teacher you can have a huge impact school wide. I called 73 homes in one school year giving positive reports to families about their children in music class. (I thought that was a lot, looking back, I wish I had done more.) I joined the leadership team and started to attend meetings. I soon realized that I was at a special school. A school that valued innovation and new ideas. A school that was at the beginning of a rebirth. I was part of a SIG school, $2,748,663 grant

In late August of 2012 I was offered the opportunity to work outside the classroom at EECS while still maintaining a part time role as music teacher. I did some soul searching and decided I would take the plunge. Previously, I had talked to my about my time in the NYC school system and described how each grade level had a dean, as well as 3 grade level AP’s and one building principal. I had always believed that EECS could benefit from having a Dean of Students on staff, a person who looked at the school in a pure student focused / customer satisfaction type of way. (As a side note, I do not receive any extra money so $ was not one of the considerations when I accepted this role.) I made my decision and the role of Dean of Students was created to carry the beliefs of student engagement and relationship building.

First order of business: bring student engagement and relationships

to the cafeteria and recess.

**As a side note here...I had planned to expand on this, however a family illness kind of squashed my plans to actually blog on a regular basis.