How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Your definition of teacher leadership?
My definition of leadership hasn't been altered but instead reinforced. According to dictionary.com, leadership is defined as "a person who guides or directs a group" which is what I view a person in a leadership position to do. The book, "How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader," describes the essential characteristics of an influential leader, some of which include being honest and ethical, organized, empathetic and supportive, resourceful, fair, accepting, and forward-thinking. When picturing a positive leader, these are all characteristics that I would hope the person would possess. My definition of teacher leadership has changed throughout this course. I had mostly viewed leadership with the educational setting as a principal or other administrator. The text pointed out many positions that teachers can take on in leadership roles without going into administration like a grade level or subject area leader, mentor, peer coach, host teacher, technology leader, and many more.
Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed?
As discussed in other previous blog posts and forum discussions, I think the way many schools select their teacher leaders might not be the best way, as also described in the text. Many department chairs get that title from having the most seniority and not necessarily because they would be the best person for that role. With all of the various ways teachers can take on leadership positions, each can find a role that will best fit their interests and capitalize on their skills.
Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"? If so, what will you do to help?
I think improving education from within is certainly a fine statement to make. The administration and the teachers they lead are what make the school run. If changes are going to be made and made to stick, they are going to need to happen from within with the teachers' support and buy-in. Within the past year, I've really taken the initiative to be the technology leader for our system. I am serving on the technology committee as well as the technology coach for the system. With the tech coach position, I am able to carry out professional development opportunities for the teachers to learn more about technology and integration into the classroom. I will also continue to serve on our 1:1 initiative committee as our system is researching the best options to fit our needs. I'm excited to be part of this fast-paced, always changing area of education!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
CEDO 565 Week 5
The part in Chapter 6 that I could relate the most to was "Map the Curriculum". "You were hired right out of college, obtained a job a few weeks before the school year started, and were told that you would be teaching 9th & 11th grade. You were given copies of the state and local objectives, teacher editions, and maybe even paired with a mentor. But when all was said and done, you needed to develop lesson plans, activities, and assessments for a curriculum that was largely unfamiliar to you." This scenario was actually more than I was given as I started my teaching career. I was given the very rough, incomplete lesson plans from the previous teacher for one class and nothing for the other 4 classes I was responsible for teaching. I had to contact the textbook publishers so I would at least have a few teacher editions and student textbooks so I could pull resources and ideas from. It was very scary. Now that I have a good handle on the content for each of the courses, I have been able to put together a curriculum map for each course. Like the book said, I think of it as a working document. It isn't something that I feel pressure to stick to exactly in regards to doing the same activities but I do cover the same objectives each time I teach the course but how I get from A to Z sometimes varies.
Another key point I pulled from this chapter is "Make work meaningful." That is SO important. I hate feeling like I have to do an assignment just to do something or fill time and I don't want my students to feel like that. By making the material something that the students can relate to on some level makes it come alive and the learning is brought to a whole new level.
Finally, the last two points - "communicate frequently with parents" and "involve the guidance department" are two things that are very much stressed at our school. It is expected that as soon as we see a dip in grades, motivation, behavior, etc, that we contact parents, as well as copy the guidance counselor, learning services, and the associate principal on the parent email. The idea of customer service and parent communication is one of the key foundations for us as teachers at our school.
Another key point I pulled from this chapter is "Make work meaningful." That is SO important. I hate feeling like I have to do an assignment just to do something or fill time and I don't want my students to feel like that. By making the material something that the students can relate to on some level makes it come alive and the learning is brought to a whole new level.
Finally, the last two points - "communicate frequently with parents" and "involve the guidance department" are two things that are very much stressed at our school. It is expected that as soon as we see a dip in grades, motivation, behavior, etc, that we contact parents, as well as copy the guidance counselor, learning services, and the associate principal on the parent email. The idea of customer service and parent communication is one of the key foundations for us as teachers at our school.
Monday, September 12, 2011
CEDO 565 Week 4 Reflection
Boy, did the break in class come at a great point. With school starting it was so chaotic and I can't imagine having to thinking about Stritch homework/responsibilities as well as the start of school responsibilities. Things are still pretty crazy but hopefully starting to settle down here soon.
Thinking back to the last week of class, the simulation/game was interesting and frustrating. Our group worked really well together and had some thoughtful, meaningful conversations when trying to make our decisions. We thought we were on track and then would get slammed with negative feedback. It was frustrating to say the least but definitely simulated many examples of change in real life. The process in the simulation seemed to go so slowly. When I say that, I'm not referring to how quickly/slowly Louis got around to each group to give the feedback but I'm talking about the order of steps/actions taken to move each of the individuals from the beginning to the end. It was a lot of prep work, awareness building, communication with all of the stakeholders (to get them informed and on board), team building, and training. It certainly parallels real-life, that's for sure!
Our group was able to move many of the individuals about halfway through the "change" process. It seems like we would have needed double the amount of time to get everyone where they need to be. Now that we know the beginning steps needed in order to advance, we might be able to move a bit faster from the start but I really wonder how you could get everyone from A to Z in only the 3 year time period. Has any group ever been able to do so?
Thinking back to the last week of class, the simulation/game was interesting and frustrating. Our group worked really well together and had some thoughtful, meaningful conversations when trying to make our decisions. We thought we were on track and then would get slammed with negative feedback. It was frustrating to say the least but definitely simulated many examples of change in real life. The process in the simulation seemed to go so slowly. When I say that, I'm not referring to how quickly/slowly Louis got around to each group to give the feedback but I'm talking about the order of steps/actions taken to move each of the individuals from the beginning to the end. It was a lot of prep work, awareness building, communication with all of the stakeholders (to get them informed and on board), team building, and training. It certainly parallels real-life, that's for sure!
Our group was able to move many of the individuals about halfway through the "change" process. It seems like we would have needed double the amount of time to get everyone where they need to be. Now that we know the beginning steps needed in order to advance, we might be able to move a bit faster from the start but I really wonder how you could get everyone from A to Z in only the 3 year time period. Has any group ever been able to do so?
Saturday, August 13, 2011
CEDO 565 Week 3 Reflection
Starting class this past week, I felt so anxious and nervous. I read over the materials related to the simulation but didn't quite understand exactly how everything was going to work. It wasn't until we were broken into our groups and starting talking about what each person understood and what to do that the pieces of the simulation started to make sense. Our group had a rough start in the beginning of the simulation and weren't quite sure how to get going. It finally clicked that we needed to take a step back from trying to figure out our successes and challenges and needed to first gather information from our school community and talk to some of the school community members. After the simulation class session was done, our group chatted for a bit to talk about our next steps and how we want to approach the start of the next class. I am excited about where we are going and what we are going to attempt in the simulation next. :)
I also really enjoyed the "Who Moved My Cheese" video and slideshow for this week's assignments. I haven't read the book but am looking forward to it. The Leadership & Management course taught in our department has this book as one of the required readings (obviously I have taught that class yet:) ) As discussed in the "Tune In" discussion board, I was frustrated with the generalizations of the Millennial generation as talked about in the article. I'm sure every generation gets frustrated with the generalizations and stereotypes.
Finally, this is a great blog to follow in regards to leadership, change, technology, and 21st Century learning/teaching. Here is a great post called This is Not Optional Anymore talking about teachers embracing (or not embracing) technology in teaching...and as it says in the blog post title, that technology use in the classroom isn't optional anymore but a must! Check it out!
I also really enjoyed the "Who Moved My Cheese" video and slideshow for this week's assignments. I haven't read the book but am looking forward to it. The Leadership & Management course taught in our department has this book as one of the required readings (obviously I have taught that class yet:) ) As discussed in the "Tune In" discussion board, I was frustrated with the generalizations of the Millennial generation as talked about in the article. I'm sure every generation gets frustrated with the generalizations and stereotypes.
Finally, this is a great blog to follow in regards to leadership, change, technology, and 21st Century learning/teaching. Here is a great post called This is Not Optional Anymore talking about teachers embracing (or not embracing) technology in teaching...and as it says in the blog post title, that technology use in the classroom isn't optional anymore but a must! Check it out!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
CED0 565 Week 2 Reflection
For class this week, one of our assignments was to read the next two chapters (ch. 2 & 3) in our text, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader. I loved reading Chapter 1 as it described many leadership roles that a teacher could select besides the one role that most teachers think they must choose to be in a leadership position - administration. Chapter 2 was more difficult for me to be really excited about like I was in Chapter 1; Chapter 2 was all about "assembling your team" which really boils down to finding and interviewing candidates. The author really stressed making sure that teacher leaders are part of the interview team and even suggests that the teacher leader(s) should run the interview. The analogy that Gabriel uses is this: "The front office and ownership make suggestions, and many of them can be fruitful, but it is the coaches - who are not as distanced as management because they are on the field with the players day in and day out and best understand what must be done - who make the logical personnel decisions" (Gabriel, pg 26). I could really relate to this analogy, and it drives home the importance of teachers being involved in the interview process since the teachers are the ones who will be working with the newly hired individuals the closest. The next part of the chapter is where I started to question if this is completely relevant in today's economy and teacher career environment...the part about "expanding the applicant pool". Is it necessary, in order to get enough and a variety of applicants to apply for a position, to go out and recruit for applicants at places as the author suggests - practicum & student teachers, professional memberships and conferences, churches, bazaars, & community events, etc? Any friend or colleague that I've ever talked to about the applicant pool when he/she would send in a resume for an opening says that there are always SO many applicants in the running. A few years ago a friend of mine who teaches at the elementary level, said that she was told that there were 300 applications put in for ONE position! That leads me to think that "expanding the applicant pool" might not be as necessary as Gabriel makes it out to be. It seems like posting a position on WECAN, DPI, the school website, and maybe an email out on a professional organization listserv will probably do the trick of getting the word out to more than enough people. Am I off base when I say this? Again, on page 41 Gabriel starts off his "Placing Your Hires" section with this: "With such high turnover in education..."; is this true? I don't see the education field like this.
Chapter 3, entitled "Interpersonal Leadership - Communicating Your Leadership" was a lot of the same principles that I teach my Intro to Business students about softskills/employability skills. One of the first paragraphs of this chapter talked about work-related email being formal in nature and that the format should reflect that (Gabriel, 47). In regards to this statement, I couldn't agree more. When sending a work-related email I think it should always start with a greeting and end with a signature. It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when an email is sent when the email just jumps right into the message without evening saying my name or "hi" in the beginning or when it just ends promptly without the sender saying his/her name. The text goes on to talk about being a responsive leader and responding to emails within a 24 hour timeframe. This is what is expected of us at school. With so much of the communication taking place between people taking the form of email or some other digital medium, the expectation is that the messages should be professional and timely. I look down highly upon messages that are so obviously sent without much thought, time, or respect for the recipient(s) but instead in haste. It is all part of the job to be an effective, respectful communicator 100% of the time.
The last part of the chapter talks about setting goals and creating a mission statement to help provide some direction to the leadership of the group/department/committee. This suggestion is such obvious advice but something that I would really like to bring to my department as well as to the Tech Committee and the 1:1 Committee. Especially with the Tech Committee, I felt like we were spinning our wheels last year without a whole lot of leadership, guidance, or direction. It was difficult to feel really productive after leaving the meeting; we always would have really good discussions but it would often end at that. Establishing three SMART goals and drafting a mission statement would definitely help this group of people see the end in mind and then be able to create some action steps towards attaining the goals. We have a meeting on Tuesday so I'm excited to suggest this to see what their response is. Whenever we are talking about a topic, money is usually the driving force behind whether we do it or not. If we wouldn't focus on the obstacle but instead on the goal, we can then put together an action plan of how to make the goal attainable.
Keyboard pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1208426
Football goal pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/241906
Chapter 3, entitled "Interpersonal Leadership - Communicating Your Leadership" was a lot of the same principles that I teach my Intro to Business students about softskills/employability skills. One of the first paragraphs of this chapter talked about work-related email being formal in nature and that the format should reflect that (Gabriel, 47). In regards to this statement, I couldn't agree more. When sending a work-related email I think it should always start with a greeting and end with a signature. It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when an email is sent when the email just jumps right into the message without evening saying my name or "hi" in the beginning or when it just ends promptly without the sender saying his/her name. The text goes on to talk about being a responsive leader and responding to emails within a 24 hour timeframe. This is what is expected of us at school. With so much of the communication taking place between people taking the form of email or some other digital medium, the expectation is that the messages should be professional and timely. I look down highly upon messages that are so obviously sent without much thought, time, or respect for the recipient(s) but instead in haste. It is all part of the job to be an effective, respectful communicator 100% of the time.
The last part of the chapter talks about setting goals and creating a mission statement to help provide some direction to the leadership of the group/department/committee. This suggestion is such obvious advice but something that I would really like to bring to my department as well as to the Tech Committee and the 1:1 Committee. Especially with the Tech Committee, I felt like we were spinning our wheels last year without a whole lot of leadership, guidance, or direction. It was difficult to feel really productive after leaving the meeting; we always would have really good discussions but it would often end at that. Establishing three SMART goals and drafting a mission statement would definitely help this group of people see the end in mind and then be able to create some action steps towards attaining the goals. We have a meeting on Tuesday so I'm excited to suggest this to see what their response is. Whenever we are talking about a topic, money is usually the driving force behind whether we do it or not. If we wouldn't focus on the obstacle but instead on the goal, we can then put together an action plan of how to make the goal attainable.
Keyboard pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1208426
Football goal pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/241906
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Reflecting on Today - Day 1 of Teaching Tech Grad Class
Today was day one of two teaching a grad course for UWGB on technology integration. After 8 hours of learning new technology tools and applications, many of the individuals taking the class were completely overwhelmed. With about a half hour left in the class for the day, I could see them starting to have a complete meltdown...without saying anything, I could see it on their faces that they couldn't handle learning or thinking about technology for even one minute more. I have been there and can sympathize with feeling overwhelmed when faced with something new...kind of like how I felt at the start of CEDO510 (Computer Systems & How They Work) and CEDO540 (Decision Making Using Data Collection & Analysis). When trying to think of a lighthearted video to start tomorrow (day 2) out with, this is what I've come up with. I think many of the people in the class will be able to relate to the dad in the video but will hopefully come tomorrow with a good night's sleep and a fresh outlook and ready to learn more with an open mind.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy
I thought this YouTube video was applicable to the Leadership course I'm currently taking. I've used this in inservice presentations before but just remembered it and thought I'd share. During the inservice presentations on technology, I said this to my audience "Are YOU ready to be the "dancing guy" in your department or school in regards to technology integration? Come on...Let's all join in!"
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