In addition, Mr. Thelen created a file of materials for each course and
made it accessible to all staff members. Every lesson he created was made
available to the entire department. Others were encouraged to add to the
file so that future teachers of the course would have not only a curriculum
guide, but a wealth of lesson plans, handouts, examinations, and general
materials developed by those who previously taught the course. By shar-
ing everything, this assistant principal role modeled that in a community
of learning, professionals share for the benefit of all.
His next step was to start over. Over the next four-year period, each
course of study was revised, based on experience, new directives, and the
needs of a changing student body.
Nothing worked perfectly. There was always the teacher who would not
use the uniform plans. Very few teachers came to planning sessions to create
the new courses of study, but many were quick to criticize what had been
developed. Only about half the staff regularly added to the curriculum files.
In the real world, this is often what happens. For the most part, in the
1980s and still today, teachers want a supervisor to provide the ambience
in which they are able to teach successfully. In this example from 1981,
this meant that when students came into a sophomore English class, teach-
ers could be reasonably sure of what their students had learned in their
freshman year, would know what their students had to learn this year, and
could see how this would be the basis for instruction in the next year.
Since formal planning meetings were poorly attended (usually the
assistant principal and one other teacher), more informal methods were
used. There were many conversations. As materials were developed, Mr.
Thelen gave drafts to appropriate staff members with a request for feed-
back. When the final curriculum guides were ready, he could include a
thank-you to several staff members for their ideas and input. When the
inevitable negative comments came, he could truthfully say that every op-
portunity for input had been given and that all staff members would now
try to use what was developed before making more changes.
Remember, this was before computers, before word processing pro-
grams, before Ctrl+C (copy) and Ctrl+V (paste). Everything was manu-
ally typed. The technology for continuous revision did not exist.
When a school leader is new to the staff, whether of a department or of
the entire school, he needs to earn the trust of his staff. The previous
4 Chapter 1