Ced0565: Week Six - Final Thoughts

Now that we have completed Leadership and Planning, I have gained some new perspectives on what it means to be an effective leader in the educational system. Some of the things we learned, as well as the descriptions listed in the textbook, we not necessarily new to me, but it helped to have everything laid out in a way that was easy to understand. Many of the leadership skills I always search for in my co-workers and superiors were very much reinforced in the class; I think all of us want leaders who are assertive, organized, good listeners, insightful, and progressive. In addition, we want leaders who reinforce what we do in our classrooms, and those who are not afraid to "walk the walk" and jump into the trenches along side us. Finally, as the textbook described, we want leaders who value our knowledge and who ask for our insight on important decisions that go on everyday in our classrooms. These skills I have always held to be of the utmost importance, and I was thrilled to see them developed both in our discussions as well as in the textbook.

What I did find most revealing, although not necessarily new, was the whole concept of change within and planning for change. I don't know how other teachers feel, but when it comes to making changes, I have always felt ultimately powerless. I know there are many important things I do to help the school along, but when it comes to implementing changes, the decision always rests with the principal. Therefore, although I found the suggestions and strategies helpful, I'm not sure how effective they would be in my setting, and I wonder how many other teachers had the same gut reaction. Perhaps others find that their administrators are much like our author - someone who really seems to view his teachers as the stakeholders they are. In my rather limited experience, I have really seen a wide spectrum of leadership - those who relish that team feeling and those who see themselves as the wise and powerful Oz who hold all the answers. The hope, of course, is that more and more administrators, teachers, parents, and community members acknowledge their importance as a group.

As for my view of my own leadership potential, I do think I have many of the skills necessary to be an effective leader, but I also know that there are several areas in which I could improve. I think what I can do to help most in my current position is to continue encouraging and motivating others to go outside their comfort zone and get excited about new ways to teach. So far, I think I have been a fairly good resource, but I need to find time to be even more accessible to others when needed. I also clearly see that I need to start saying no to some of the bigger projects and focus on my students more. Right now I have my hands in just about every facet of the school and church building, from programming the A/C to updating the software for our heart machine, to reviewing security tape, that I am beginning to run out of steam when teachers are looking to me to spearhead classroom projects. I desperately need to refocus my attention and remind myself of what my first priority at my school should be.

Cedo565: Week Five

Okay, after last week's disasterous game playing, I'm happy to report that we finally got the hang of it this week. It's always interesting how one can go from completing lost to catching on. Normally, I'm very slow to catch on, at least when I'm working alone. Example; I purchased this very appealing app from my Droid that has me trapped in a very creepy room, and my goal, apparently, is to get out of that room. I have spend hours on this app, but I have yet to find a way to get out of the creepy room. It seems everytime I try to pick something up or gather a clue, I'm told that I cannot proceed. I totally don't get it, and I'm like that rat in the maze that has cornered itself and cannot move any farther. Last week, I was feeling the same way, in terms of our role playing game. It seemed everytime we made a move, we discovered that we had taken a step back instead of forward. It was very frustrating, and I was not seeing clearly the point.

This week, however, we all took a breather and spent several minutes really talking about what we maybe did wrong and what new direction we needed to take. With Jenny leading the way, we shared the notion that in order for a change to take place, the first steps really have to involve communication, communication, and more communication. You have to make sure everyone has at least knowledge of the change you'd like to take place before you can start creating the team and working toward implementing the change. Clearly, we weren't doing that before. Once we met and talked and talked again to various members of the community, we started to see progress. We also learned quickly that there are always going to be people who are not on board, no matter how many times you talk to them and listen to their concerns. Once we started making progress, everything else just seemed to fall into place, and the game became very enjoyable.

Honestly, at first, I wasn't sure of the significance of this role playing game, and I wondered why we were spending two class periods on a "pretend" activity. At the conclusion, however, I really was glad we had invested the time, and I found the game incredibly significant. In fact, I'm saving all the handouts. I know in the next year, there will be numerous changes taking place, and I think the handouts will be a good reminder for me to include the important people and take the right steps. In addition, the game was a perfect reminder of how one can stumble indefinitely if one does not take the appropriate actions before implementing change.

Cedo565: Week 4 - Lessons in Leadership

Wow! What a disaster! This week taught me so much in leadership it's mind boggling. In teams, we played a leadership game,selecting from a wide variety of scenerios that mimic much of what we do in school. The object, I think, was to choose the correct path toward making our school into an ongoing learning community. I really thought this was going to be a breeze, especially when I discovered that we didn't actually have to create the tasks, just get them in the right order. I couldn't have been more wrong, and now I have no idea what I'm doing for the continuation of the game this next week.

Overall, there were really two paths of leadership we were following. The first was the game itself which asked us to decide what steps we need to make to initiate change and keep it ongoing in a positive direction. As stated above, I was a flop. The second path, however, was just as meaningful and in some ways taught me even more, and that was the dynamics happening in our team. Of the five or so, I would say three for sure were outspoken, myself included (no surprise there). The other two were very helpful but were more on the quiet side and had difficulty getting their ideas out there for the rest of us. And of course as it turns out, one of those people, in particular, is extremely knowledgable. We should have listened to her much more, but the more talkative ones were too anxious to make decisions and attempt to get the game moving forward. We were definitely Scurry and Sniff, but unlike these two rats, we never made it to the golden pot of cheese. The others were more Hem and Haw, but Jenny in particular was Haw, conservative, reflective, and questionning. Too bad the rest of us didn't pay more attention to her. We'll know better next week.

So, again, I'm thrilled that we participated in this activity because it taught me a ton. I used to think I would want a bunch of Sniff and Scurrys on my team, but now I see there is a real need for Hems and Haws to question the paths and to articulate the correct order of things. I hope this week's game-playing goes better, and my goal is to try to listen to my "Haw" a little more.

Ced0565: Week Three

I liked this week's focus in particular because rather than center around the skills needed to be a leader, much of the material focused on various qualities of leadership and how all are important in some way. I used to think that on my team I would only want those who are "go-getters" and leaders themselves, but now thinking about it, I think I would need people whose qualities complimented mine, and I have to be honest and admit that being somewhat of an alpha, I would probably have a difficult time working with another alpha. I don't mind people who have great ideas and are assertive, but I have worked with those whose opinions only matter - people who tend to have the I-know-what's-best attitude, and it makes me crazy, to say the least. Thinking about the "Who Moved My Cheese" story, it's the Haw type of personality who makes me crazy. After awhile I get fed up with trying to convince someone that change is important. In fact, I've quit committees before because of these types of personalities. Contrary, I think I would rather work with enthusiastic people who aren't afraid of change. Of course, there's a downside to these types of people as well particularly those who are all mouth about change but then don't actually DO anything. Instead, they just blurt out all these tasks that should be done but then expect everyone else to do the actual labor. Those types make me equally crazy. In the end, we have no choice. Unfortunately, most of us don't get to pick our team and are stuck with all types of personalities. The key is to continue looking for ways to work with everyone ... or find better ways to avoid them. Hmmmm, I've done that as well.