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Management is a gift of God but there are many who have acquired this as a skill through sheer hard work, experience and dedication. Just as Not every worker can become a good manager, not every teacher can become a good school administrator. Teaching skills and management skills are certainly two different sets of expertise and there are few who excel in both these trades with excellent results.
Advice to Teachers Interested in Becoming a Principal
"There's a tradition of teachers who are really excellent exemplars in the classroom of saying, 'I don't want to be a principal because it has nothing to do with instruction,'" says Linda Darling-Hammond, a leading authority on education policy and the teaching profession. "But one of the things we found in our study was that as some of those people were reached out to and got the message that being a principal could be about... building the quality of instruction, they said, 'Oh, well I might actually want to do that.' They've become spectacular school principals, and we've seen them in action.So number one, do it if that's what you're passionate about.
"Number two, seek out the best preparation you can find for instructional management, for organizational development, for change management - for these things that we know matter because [being a principal] is a different use of your skills and talents. There is a broader knowledge base to capture, and not every place you may look to to build your skills will have those pieces in place. Be aggressive about finding the right support and training for yourself.
"Third, collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Go into this with the idea that, 'I'm going to build a team. It's not going to just have to be me. My job is to really find the expertise and the skills and the abilities of the people that I work with, cultivate those, glue them together.' You will be both a more successful principal and you will be a saner principal who has at least a little bit of a life beyond all of the effort that you put into the work in the schools."
I don't think so. The confidence level needed for managing a school can't be achieved just through learning. Other managerial skills are not enough to tackle this task of extreme responsibility.
I don't think all teachers can become great administrators, it would be good enough if they understood the concept of administration and worked together to keep operations flowing.
Very true administration and teaching are totally two different skills, there can be people having both the skills simultaneously they are god gifted people, but every teacher cant be a good administrator and vice versa. these skills have to be either learnt or acquired through experince. But good teachers are always born they need not llearn to be a teacher they are god gifted.
To be able to become a school administrator, we must be an effecient,and effective teacher and has the ability to manage and solve problems on the spot. We must start our knowledge on how to handle big problems and situation inside the classroom on how to manage the students of different manners, attitude and classifications inside the classroom. We must always be ready to face any challenges that we may encounter every moment in the time of our duty and should be clear our mind what is our responsibilty. Being a teacher is not easy but if we have passion on what we are doing everything will be manage well. We must be cooperative, compassionate, resourceful, considerate, well-disciplined, act as a good leader and model for everyone, and most of all has a good wil.
Through this we can handle and solve hard situations wisely and properly without any reason for doubts and failure.
I think one has to be administrator also to become effective teacher, along with teaching skills teacher also should possess administration skills to manage students to get desired results.
