he devoted a great deal of time to the improvement of teaching and learning
through informal observations. As a result, students did extremely well on
the required state exit examinations in math and science.
Second, Mr. Silver was a mentor to lost students. In any school, large
or small, some students fall through the cracks. If individual staff mem-
bers do not target students such as these, they will be lost to the school,
to society, to themselves. This supervisor found such students when he
handled discipline problems for his teachers. He made them his monitors
during their lunch periods. He spoke to them about their school day, their
teachers, their dreams. He often called their parents to keep tabs on them.
He interceded with their teachers on their behalf when they had problems.
When necessary, he referred them for counseling. He was a major factor
in encouraging these students to stay in school and graduate.
Third, he liked to spend much of his time out and around the school
(instead of sitting and writing observation reports). In addition to visiting
and speaking with his teachers, he would find students in the halls and
stairways when they should be elsewhere. He acted as an extra dean in
encouraging them to get to their classes; some became his monitors, as
mentioned previously.
Finally, Mr. Silver was an excellent advisor and sounding board. He
had been in the school many years before Ms. Rivera was assigned there.
Prior to serving as a department supervisor, he had been a teacher and
then an attendance coordinator. He knew how to correctly project student
enrollment so that Ms. Rivera could create a sound budget. He knew the
history of the school and which past policies had failed and succeeded.
At meetings, formal and informal, Mr. Silver was the voice of cau-
tion, always able to pinpoint the weaknesses of a plan or the pitfalls of a
proposed policy. He was often able to help Ms. Rivera refine her ideas
before they were formally presented, helping her to achieve consensus. At
meetings, he would defuse disagreements by reminding everyone that the
good of the students was the common goal of all.
As individual staff members have strengths and weaknesses, so do school
leaders. The key is to recognize what we do well and exploit this and to
admit our deficiencies and compensate for them.
Many principals described in this book are strong on organization, able
to devise administrative procedures that worked efficiently and saved
Maximize the Positives; Minimize the Negatives 125