Department heads are essential to helping new teachers adjust, creating a supportive environment that helps them tackle challenges and stay focused throughout the school year. Department heads are the backbone of the school, providing leadership and supporting teachers. They help manage the curriculum, communicate with administrators, mentor teachers and ensure that teachers are prepared. They help to ensure that the school year runs smoothly for the other teachers in their department, while managing their own classroom needs as well.
For new teachers, adjusting to the fastpaced life of Woodbridge High where students push themselves to succeed, can be challenging and overwhelming. Jennifer Blackie, head of the science department, discussed how teachers face these specific challenges.
“Teaching at Woodbridge has its challenges,” Blackie said. “Our Woodbridge students are very high achieving, and they are sometimes very competitive about their grades.”
New teachers struggle with students who are demanding and constantly want updates about their grades and those who question their scores.
“Sometimes teachers who have taught at other schools come here; they’re not used to that, and they’re not used to students being so highly motivated,” Blackie said. “The flip side is that students and parents are some times a little bit aggressive.”
New teachers are not used to having that level of scrutiny, especially when their teaching is being questioned by students and parents. When this becomes a problem, department heads step in to offer support and guidance, helping them to go back and check grades.
“Sometimes even looking at student papers together, we make sure that we’re all grading the same way, so they feel confident in what makes the difference between an A, B and a C,” Blackie said.
Department chairs create open spaces where they can address challenges and build confidence in teachers, helping teachers adjust to the high achieving environment at Woodbridge High.
Every department at this school handles things differently, but they share the same goal: to make new teachers feel supported through challenges they face.
While new teachers bring challenges, they also bring open minds and enthusiasm.The department chairs must balance their own responsibilities while ensuring new teachers get the support they need. They often juggle multiple classrooms at the same time. Geoffrey Tipper, the head of the math department, explains that this was something he struggled with. He explained that he needed to try and to find a balance between training new teachers and dealing with his own caseload of students.
“I’ve got to get my own classes together,” Tipper said. “So I’m making sure they feel comfortable in their classroom, and I’m feeling comfortable in mine.”
Overwhelming workloads, consisting of their original tasks plus additional responsibilities can make quick meetings challenging, because teachers need to get home from work and they don’t always live nearby. To resolve this issue, department heads work to search for different ways to continue their meetings.
“[We] pivot to Zoom calls,” Tipper said. Department heads also have to deal with the more practical tasks including managing supplies and preparing classrooms to make new teachers feel supported and prepared, which can make all the difference.
“People want a well-supplied room…and part of my job as a department chair is to make sure that we’re well stocked with our supplies [and] that we use our budget wisely. So this year, with two new teachers, I made sure to get in a supply order a little earlier than I normally did,” Tipper said.
The heads of each department have to plan several steps ahead to make sure they keep everything running smoothly. New teachers also bring fresh and brand new ideas, making it easier for department heads to integrate them. They come in with excitement and innovative thinking skills that complement the more experienced teachers. They bring in things that old teachers and department chairs can learn from, and new concepts of teaching.
“Tools that none of us veteran teachers had been exposed to, and just little things like that that get students up and moving around more tactile, instead of just, the rhythm of writing and reading,
writing and reading, so kind of breaking that up a little,” English department chair Sabreena Beneville said.
Having new teachers brings in that fresh perspective and open minds to new teachings and techniques. They go outside of just the traditional teaching bounds for the department heads. Being introduced to these new ideas allows for opportunities to integrate new lessons into the new school year curriculum.
Through leadership, open mindedness and new mindsets, dedicated department heads play one of the most important roles in preparing new teachers, and returning ones ready to meet the standards of Woodbridge High.
