565: Week One - Leadership Assessment

The timing of this class was really interesting. I have been starting to take a closer look of what my role at my school should be. Originally, five years ago, I was hired to teach computer classes and be the librarian. Since then, however, my role has changed drastically and I find myself taking more of a leadership role as the technology specialist. Hence, I found taking the assessment as a principal helpful. Obviously I'm not a principal but the questions asked helped me define some of the areas where leadership is important.

Currently, my leadership role is rather undefined; yet, I'm constantly looked to for advice and to in-service other teachers as well as make financial decisions for our technology at school. Since my principal has limited technology knowledge, including trends and practices, I'm the one expected to direct us. In some respects this role is empowering and in many ways I feel fortunate that I don't have to deal with all the red tape others do. At the same time, I feel a huge responsibility and pressure to make the right choices when sometimes I'm not sure what the best direction is. Fortunately, each year I'm feeling more comfortable with my role, as I really work to define exactly what my position is.

This weeks lesson was also eye-opening after something that happened at school. At the beginning of the school year, the first and second grade teachers met and decided to modify the grade descriptions they give to their students. Since I help with our grading program, I had spoken to them and was aware of some of the changes. What we all discovered later, however, was that they had also drastically changed the grading scale, which affected all of us who teach specials. What was once an A was now a B or C. The change was that big. So at our last staff meeting I, once again, was going on and on about how frustrated I was with the change to the point that the first and second grade teachers were becoming frustrated with me. After I got home, I tried to carefully think through the reason behind my angst, and thanks to our lesson this week, I think I figured it out. Because the two teachers had made the decision without anyone else's input, they had ignored each of the four frames we talked about. They failed to get everyone on board with their decision. In the end, it's not that I necessarily disagree with the decision they made. In fact, in retrospect it makes sense, but they failed to explain the philosophy behind their decision in the first place. Also, they didn't take into account how many others are affected by their decision. I had no idea the scale had changed so when it came time for me to do my grades at the semester (specials only give grades at the semester), the grades were very different from what they were in the past because I was not aware of the change in the scale. In the end I apologized to the teachers and spoke to the principal about it. I explained to her why I was frustrated, and I think she understood. It has all been a great lesson in how leadership works - or doesn't.