DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET I 14 Chapter 1 M       at the Child Development Academy for almost three years. As a teacher, Marielle was organized, great with families and their children, and worked well with other staff. Many of the teachers in the toddler room and Marielle were friends outside of work and enjoyed going out for dinner on Friday nights and chatting over the phone. In fact, it was the team of teachers in her room who encouraged Marielle to apply for the lead teacher position when the former lead moved. “You’ll make a wonderful lead teacher,” they told her. Marielle went through the interview process and got the job. At first all the other teach- ers were happy for her. Slowly, as Marielle began to address issues in the room, ask them to do things that were not getting done, and tell them about new center policy, the other staff members weren’t as excited about her new position as lead teacher. The other teach- ers started having conversations without her, and when they went to dinner, Marielle felt uncomfortable because the conversation inevitably led to complaints about the academy administrators, of which she was now one. Some teachers even pressed her to tell them con- fidential information. Marielle was eager as a new supervisor to help improve the quality of care and educa- tion in her room and program, but supervising her friends was hard. q You Can Do It! Learn to: winning ways K Accept your role as a supervisor. K Use your skills in working with children as a basis for supervising adults. K Feel comfortable when people treat you differently because you are a supervisor. K Gain the respect of the people you supervise and your supervisor. K Have an impact on more adults and children as a supervisor. Stay Positive! Avoid: K Dodging diffi cult situations and conflict. K Wanting everyone to like you. K Working for the approval of others. K Thinking you’re not making a difference because you’re not working directly with children all the time. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL