Assistant Principal: Lori Rodriguez

High Desert’s assistant principal reflects on her role in the school and her history in the classroom

It’s not everyday someone has the heart to greet you with a smile after mediating a standoff between five young girls in their office.

But Lori Rodriguez is not your everyday someone.

Long before Rodriguez became assistant principal at High Desert Middle School in 2010, she was a teacher. Take a look at her six-page resume, and you will find that for 23 years, she taught every subject to grades four through six, from science to music.

“I taught for so long that I’ve really never forgotten what it was like to be a teacher,” she says.

 

As a teacher, she had a tendency to ‘close her door’. When she was in the classroom with her thirty students, those kids were hers, and she made every effort to help them problem solve.

 

“I felt as soon as I sent a student out of my room I gave up my power, I gave up my opportunity to build a relationship with that kid. I just gave it to somebody else,” she says. “So I really made every effort to keep every student in, working with the parents, pulling them out in the hallway and talking to them, and working through problems and problem solving, because I knew that made our relationship stronger.”

 

High Desert doesn’t have a counselor on staff, so from time to time Rodriguez finds herself sitting in what would be the counselor’s chair. Minutes before I walked into her office, she was doing just that. To this day, each time a student comes through her door with a problem (and sometimes there is a line out the door) she often takes the same approach she used as a teacher.

 

It must catch some kids by surprise when she asks them, “What do you think should happen?”

“I try to ask those questions because I know how they learn from those things,” she says.

Nine times out of ten, they are harder on themselves than she would be.

When she is not counseling students, she could just as easily be out to recess duty or lunch duty, talking to parents, writing teacher evaluations, visiting classes to see what’s going on or how she can help, or working with the folks over at the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Bus duty is always an adventure.

 

The way she sees it, her role is to be present wherever she is needed, so there is no telling what her day is going to look like.

“With a small staff, we all pitch in and do what we have to do,” she says. “I really feel we’re a team in this. If it’s not bloody, and I’m needed in the nurse’s office I’ll be there.”

“If it’s bloody I’ll walk away,” she adds with a laugh.

Rodriguez hadn’t exactly envisioned becoming an assistant principal. But after 23 years of teaching, including ten in Globe, and no plans for retirement, she began to consider leadership options.

“I kept seeing needs,” she says. “Staff retention, issues that the rural communities had. And I kept thinking, somebody should be able to address this, and it wasn’t happening.”

Sure enough, she was bumped up to assistant principal after a brief stint as coordinator of special projects for the district.

 High Desert has what is considered an extremely small staff, with 24 teachers and about 477 students. Teachers have it a little harder here in Globe-Miami, Rodriguez says. In comparison to areas like Washington Elementary School District in Phoenix, where she started out, there is not a strong mentoring program for new teachers. Here, she has observed that professional development is provided as it can be afforded. It’s hit or miss. Her goal is to change that. 

 

“I think we’re going to start looking at that, to help support the teachers as they’re learning,” she say. “Because it’s tough, it’s a tough profession.”

 

As assistant principal, teacher support is critical. Sometimes this simply means saying thank you or noticing a teacher’s success.

 

“I think that while I’m important to kind of help umbrella, that [the teachers] are the groundwork. They’re the ones that are doing the day-to-day stuff, they’re the ones that are making an impact and building a relationship with the kids,” she says. “And I’m there to support that.”

 

Reflecting on her own past experiences in the classroom gives her insight on how to do so.

 

“The state department says you only need to have been a teacher three or four years before you’re an administrator,” she says. “I don’t think that’s necessarily long enough to really remember and know what goes on.”

 

She is also stressing collaboration between teachers. As it is, teachers tend to isolate themselves with their students, she says. Their jobs could be far easier if they collaborated on lesson plans or how to deal with particular students, she says.

 

High Desert teachers are particularly hard-pressed for time not only because they have a small staff, but because they have long hours. Their school day lasts from 8 in the morning until after 4 in the afternoon. This makes collaboration even more difficult.

 

Nonetheless, Rodriguez says collaboration between teachers is a must, particularly since schools will adopt Common Core standards beginning next year.

 

“It’s going to be a paradigm shift for all of us,” she says. “The Arizona standards, I think did in some sense education a real disservice, because as I always say, they had us teaching about a mile wide and about a half an inch deep.”

 

In other words, there was less emphasis on understanding, and a lot of emphasis on teaching to the test.

 

Nonetheless, she sees a lot of potential on the horizon for the district. The district has a goal to pull together a comprehensive curriculum for K through 12 education. With Jerry Jennex as the new superintendent, she sees a lot of potential on the horizon.

 

“I think Mr. Jennex is a huge improvement, both in his leadership style and his leadership direction,” she says. “I think that’s a real positive for Globe. I see us going in a really upward, positive direction, and I’m excited about being a part of that.”

 

In fact, that is why she is still here. “I could retire now, I’m 53,” she says.

 

“As a dear friend of mine says, ‘Now you’re working because you want to, not because you have to,’” she adds. “And I do want to, and that’s a nice feeling.”

 

Preparing for Common Core

A few tips from a former Globe educator

 

Next year, Common Core Standards will be implemented in schools statewide. This is not only going to change how students learn, but how teachers teach, says High Desert assistant principal Lori Rodriguez.

 

We asked the former educator how she would prepare her students if she were back in the classroom. Here is what she had to say about how students, teachers and parents can prepare for this transition:

 

 

“I think if I was in the classroom with Common Core looming I would begin really utilizing cooperative learning and have students really begin “talking” about their answers in math. Common Core is going to require that students justify their answers – “Does it Make Sense?” “How can you explain your answer?” Having students begin this process might help them be more comfortable as we transition in.

 

Common Core math standards are going to require more concrete models in math. As a classroom teacher I would continue to use hands-on manipulatives in class, and again integrate more math “talk”.

 

My advise to teachers would be to begin looking at the Common Core, search the web and begin getting my feet wet. This is a total paradigm shift and there will be a learning curve for both the students and the teachers. Don’t be afraid to try something! Collaborate and share with each other.. dive in!

 

The reading portion of Common Core is going to have a heavy emphasis on non-fiction, so I think if I were in the classroom now I would be introducing my students to more non-fiction, through reading aloud and/or reading stories – integrating science and social studies into the reading curriculum.

 

As for parents, my advise would be to support their child. This will be a totally different evaluation process, getting away from the bubble sheets, one right answer response. Don’t be afraid of failure in the beginning as students become accustomed to the new demands.

 

The Common Core is designed to encourage higher-level thinking. Students will need to rely on their independent, higher-level thinking skills, not just memorizing facts and regurgitate them from rote memory. This will help to make the learning meaningful and encourage lifelong learners but it will truly be a transition for everyone in the educational process: administrators, teachers, students and parents.”