Electronic mentoring: three school leaders across upstate New York advise each other through e-mail

School Administrator, Nov, 2003 by Paul Riede

Hauber agrees.

"The support we provide for each other can't be underestimated," she says. "When we're going through a problem and just need a friend to talk to we know that whatever we're sharing is safe and sacred, and we hold each other up."

Or, as Day puts it, "We're dedicated to our profession and now I think we're dedicated to each other."

RELATED ARTICLE: Listening in on electric conversations.

As a superintendent, Stephen Day has a few more opportunities for quiet reflection than building principals who are constantly subject to interruption. His contributions to the electronic "journaling triad" are sometimes longer and more philosophical than those of his counterparts.

Day, a superintendent for three years, calls the time he spends preparing his entries "a grace moment for reflection." Here is a portion of one entry on leadership:

"I often look at my job the way I used to direct plays. There is a rhythm to a play and a pace that is established by the actors as they say their lines. A good director listens for these 'pace changes' and helps his actors build emotional cadences into these rhythmic beats. Administration is much the same. We have to take time to listen to our staff and to also listen to the organization as a whole.

"I think that I mentioned looking at the organization as a living entity. Every life has a pace; every act in life has a pace. Anger, depression, love, sex, despair and loneliness all have their basic rhythms, and it is up to us to tune into them in order to appreciate them. They are each special. The same for organizations. When we listen very carefully we begin to understand what the organization is all about and then we can decide on whether or not we want to change it."

At times in the e-mail correspondence of the journaling triad, seemingly trivial comments about everyday routines open up deeper issues. One brief discussion about the lunch habits of the three administrators touched on deeper issues concerning the relationships among administrators, teachers and students.

The triad consists of Jim Thompson, an elementary school principal in LeRoy, N.Y., southwest of Rochester; Superintendent Stephen F. Day in Portville, a small village in the southwestern corner of New York; and Bonnie Hauber, a high school principal in the Maine-Endwell district near Binghamton, N.Y.

Thompson: "I usually eat a PB and J sandwich and skim milk at my desk while I check my mail. My door is always open during that time ... the whole undertaking is probably 10 minutes. I have never eaten in the teachers' lunchroom ... think that is their space ... But I frequently get into the cafeteria and sit at different tables to see how kids are doing ... that is a lotta fun."

Day: "I just finished my school lunch of a chicken patty, mashed potatoes (with real butter), peas, honey to dip the chicken in, and milk. I passed up the brownie for dessert. Ever since I have been in the school district as an administrator I have eaten lunches in the cafeteria, with the students, 90 percent of the time....