Teachers, Here’s How to Have Hard Conversations with Your Veteran Administrator
August 15, 2017
Read Jennifer's guest blog column for Learning Forward on how teachers can communicate better with veteran leadership.
Excerpt:
We want to enthusiastically recognize those of you who have joined us in the field. Welcome! We have some amazing millennial teachers (born between 1980-2000) in our schools. Many of you are replacing our baby boomer teachers, who are quickly approaching retirement. As millennials, you have a valuable perspective to contribute to our schools. Having conversations with Generation X and baby boomer colleagues and administrators is key to our goals of student achievement and school improvement. So how might millennial teachers best communicate with veteran educators?
About Jennifer Abrams
Jennifer has been recognized as one of "21 Women All K-12 Educators Need to Know" by Education Week's 'Finding Common Ground' blog. She considers herself a "voice coach," helping others learn how to best use their voices – be it collaborating on a team, facilitating a group, coaching a colleague, supervising an employee and being an all around better human being in all types of interactions.
Work with Jennifer
Praise for Jennifer
“Jennifer’s session was not just a workshop, but an invitation to look inward at how we, as adults, show up in our professional roles. She reminded us that hard conversations are not about winning or avoiding conflict, but about cultivating clarity, empathy, and courage.
One of the most powerful takeaways was this: for dialogue to be truly effective, we must learn to communicate with precision while holding space for humanity. Hard conversations should not shut people down; they should open the door to growth-producing feedback that strengthens trust, relationships, and professional practice. My learning experience with Jennifer was a reminder that our impact as educators is amplified when we are willing to pause, reflect, and engage with one another in ways that foster both accountability and compassion.”
