Aislin Freedman, Junior
This week I sat down for an interview with the recently appointed Assistant Principal Ms. Donaldson. Last year, before she had taken this position, she was working as a history teacher in the school, as well as the Psychology teacher. I was in her psych class last year, and can attest that she was a wonderful teacher, and is one of the more prominent reasons I have decided to pursue psychology as a major when I go to college.
Going into this interview I knew there were some questions that I wanted to ask of Ms. Donaldson, especially regarding this transition of jobs. Ms. Donaldson says that the reason she wanted to apply for the position in the first place was because, like so many people in the education field know, and many students hear plenty of times, one can never stop learning. Ms. Donaldson says she wanted to try new things, but still stay within the school system. She says that working with students is the best part of her day. With her new job, she is able to stop into many different classrooms and observe different teaching styles, and she is able to choose days to pop into classrooms when the class is doing interesting things. Observing other classrooms, and the strong teachers in them, she says, makes her wish she could go back to high school.
A basic day for her, she says, varies greatly and is fairly flexible. However there are some aspects of her days that are more common habits. She sorts people into flex blocks, helps with assemblies, etc. Some other factors that differ more prominently are whether she has meetings or not, different conversations with teachers, etc. The biggest adjustment is the flexibility left in her schedule, compared to the firmer rigidity of being a classroom teacher. In order to keep track of her time, she uses lots of checklists, and says that while some days she misses her old scheduling, other days she enjoys the freedom of being able to go where she is most needed. Overall she says her days feel like an adventure.
Another benefit of her new job, she says, is that she is in a position to make positive changes. She points to the flex block as her favorite accomplishment so far. While she doesn’t forget to mention that the creation of the flex block was a group effort among many of the staff, the idea of having the flex block was hers, and she is proud of how well it is working. The flex block is a block that would be usually used for a class, instead replaced with a kind of study hall. Students are able to choose which teacher’s classroom they want to go to, depending on which class they need the most help with. Furthermore, once a week we have a “magic block” where we are allowed to choose an activity to participate in with different teachers.
Although she enjoys her new job, one thing Ms. Donaldson says that she misses about teaching is seeing students in more of a natural environment. Being an assistant principal dropping in on a class, students are (usually) on their best behavior and so acting less naturally then when they are just with their classroom teacher. Although when first asked which subject she misses teaching the most, she paused, having to think over the question, ultimately she said that she would have to choose Psychology. As a former Psych student of hers, I can see why; it was an extremely fun class.
The last question I asked Ms. Donaldson was this: If someone was going to make your life into a movie, who would you want to play the part of yourself? Again taking some time to think over it, she decided on Sandra Bullock; specifically thinking of her role in the movie Miss Congeniality.
Overall, the school is lucky to have a teacher like Ms. Donaldson, and although many people may be sad not to have the opportunity of having her as a psychology or history teacher, this new role seems to be fitting her just as nicely, and I’m confident she will be just as admired as she was as a classroom teacher, and be a valuable asset to the administration. So to Ms. Donaldson: I wish you much luck in this new adventure!
1 thought on “Interview with Ms. Donaldson”