14 / 29
14
Superintendent shadowing:
Living a day in the life of a student
Have you ever considered what it would be like to be a
student in your own district? After watching a PBS story
on Assistant Principal, Karen Ritter, who shadowed a
student at East Leyden High School, I thought that
gaining that perspective for my own district would be
insightful.
As a district, we have always focused on what is best
for students, and all decisions we make are derived from
that premise. To truly gain the perspective of one of our
own students by walking in his or her shoes for a day
would give us a realistic look into our district.
As a superintendent, I visit classrooms often. However,
as an administrator, I have the ability to get up, move
around, and even leave the classroom whenever I feel
like it. Our students do not have that same ability.
To begin this journey, I shared the PBS story on the East
Leyden assistant principal with my building administrators,
explaining that I thought this experience would be valuable
for our district--and that I would be willing to go first.
I started the process by asking my guidance counselor
for the name of one high school student with a “typical”
class schedule--one with no remedial courses or
advanced courses. Once selected, I called the student to
my office and discussed my proposal. I then called his
parents to explain the purpose of the shadowing, asking
both the student and the parents to keep the plan
amongst us. I had shared with my staff that I would be
doing this, but I thought that if I didn’t share the specific
date, I could truly experience a typical day in the life of a
Red Bud Musketeer.
Utilizing a pre-shadowing list of questions developed
from the PBS video, the following areas were assessed
before and after the shadowing experience: climate, high
expectations, relevance, students as active learners,
student engagement, and student voice. I also used
WeVideo to record myself the morning of shadowing to
share my thoughts and pre-assessment of those areas
before the experience.
Jonathan Tallman, Superintendent of Red Bud District 132, spent a day going back to high
school, and this column tells about his experiences and what he learned that day from
shadowing a student.