The Drive-By Experience

My View

Twenty years ago this past May, I was in the final months of my master’s program at Fordham University in New York City. I took a year off to earn the degree and get back to the classroom as quickly as possible.

I had a 1st-grade teaching position awaiting me that I was excited to begin. It would be my first time teaching an early elementary class, and while I was nervous, the opportunity to be in the lives of 5- and 6-year-olds while they learned was exhilarating.

I struggled that year — not so much with the students or the teaching but with the leadership in the school. Typical visits from my principal included what I call “drive-bys,” or brief momentary walk-throughs, with little interaction with me or my students and plenty of scribbling on a notepad. It was 2001, after all, and there was little in the way of personal technology.

Bottom line: There was no feedback. I had no idea what was being written down, and I heard little from my immediate supervisor, positive or negative.