5 Steps to Positive Accountability for Teachers

When things go wrong, everyone usually wants to know what went wrong and nothing else. The person who made the mistake is left feeling resentful, hurt, or any of a multitude of negative feelings. Lets say that you fail to line your kids up in the cafeteria in a timely and organized manner and as a result get them to gym late. The gym teacher might be upset and ask why the kids are late upon which you respond that you had a hard time settling them down even though you tried many things to get them to line up. The gym teacher might not be very sympathetic about this.

Here are 5 steps to Accountability. If you stick to this structure in a sincere and honest way, it should lead to better understanding and communication between teachers, staff, and administrators. It should also be done when self-reflecting every day so that you can continue to grow.

Photo by Dean Shareski

 1. What have I done to help things go right?

2. What went wrong? Why?

3. What am I going to do differently?

4. How did my team/staff help me?

5. How they could have helped more?

Now lets try the scenario with the gym teacher again. The gym teacher can ask these questions or if the gym teacher does not know about the 5 question accountability process, then the other teacher can approach the gym teacher in the following way:

1. I tried using enforceable statements with the children to get them to line up and I attempted to start lining them up early.
2. I didn't have a chance to tell the kids "less talking, more eating" or to give them a warning that lunch was almost over due to a fight with one of the kids. Some of my kids would not throw their lunch away since they weren't finished.
3. Next time I will ask for help as soon as I see that the kids are resistant and focus on getting the kids to finish eating earlier in case of an unforeseen incident such as a fight.
4. I did not get any help.
5. I wish someone would have offered help when they saw the hard time I was having instead of leaving.


Results = Better communication + Less of a chance for misunderstandings + Self growth

I urge everyone to try this with any problem even outside of school. Try it to help others solve problems or to better yourself by understanding your strengths and weaknesses. It can also be applied in group meetings where everyone takes 40 seconds to quickly go through this process at the start of every meeting.

Like this? Share it with your staff and try to implement it in your school!