Final Leadership Reflection

I don't think my definition of leadership has changed at all. I do think that this class has helped me organize my thoughts on leadership in a much better way. I guess I always knew what characteristics and qualities I thought a leader should have but know have a much better understanding of how to put these characteristics to use.

My definition of teacher leadership is someone that wants the best for their school, students and community by promoting and supporting positive changes. They are also a person that takes risks when needed, volunteers when they can, accepts challenges with an open mind and values teamwork and collaboration.

I completely agree with the books assertion about "improving education from within". To me this concept is very similar to the "you have to love yourself before you can whole heartedly love anyone else." If we as the educators don't try to improve the education system, who will?

I know that I try to make our school a better place for students, staff and the community. I am very involved with our building and extra-curricular. In addition I feel like i am the students best advocate. I see and work with them everyday.

I enjoyed this class a lot and feel like I learned tons about the change process in schools. I know that it is not an over night event and that real change (meaningful and successful change) is long term. This class also made me realize that many of the duties I take on in my school are leadership roles.

Leadership week 5

In chapter 6 tehre are a couple of things that really stood out to me and I would like to take minute to reflect on them.

1. Map the Curriculum- really cool idea for not just incoming teachers. I think this would allow teachers to be more flexible and realistic with their lessons, instruction and activities!

2. Use assessments as teaching tools- feedback, feedback, feedback! Students need to be assesses both formatively and summatively and meaningfully. Why assign something if you are not going to be looking at it or grading it? If we expect the students to take time to learn/study/complete it, we should also be expected to give them meaningful and effective feedback.

3. Teach study skill- in the middle school we are just starting out this process and I firmly believe we need to start very basic. If we tell them and model successful ways to take notes and study in school, they will be more successful. We can't just expect them to know how to do these things.

4. Communicate with frequently parents- I like the analogy the books used about being a team. If you only communicate with the students you are basically only inviting half a sports team to a game. I also think that its super important to communicate with the parents at good times in the students educational career as well. At my school we have positive parent contacts. This is a great way for us to reach out and an praise students when they are doing well in class and being to build a friendly relationship with parents. By building this relationship right away, parents feel like you are not just a negative person but rather truly concerned about their childs' education-the good and the bad!

CEDO 565 week 4

It feels like it has been forever since we last had class yet I feel like I didn't get a break! With the school year in full swing it was great to have the last couple of weeks off to focus on my classroom, instruction, new digital art lab and our new 1:1s!

It has been a CRAZY year so far with all the new technology changes in our building. We started all of our 7th graders with netbooks this year and have been attempting to go "paperless" with them. As a specialist, I also have 8th graders so this task is quite daunting. Many of my classes are "mixed" sections so not all of my students have access to the net books.

I am really glad this course landed in our cohort schedule when it did. I have found myself becoming more of a leader in my school for our technology and LOVE it. I enjoy being able to share new ideas, apps, & processes with my colleagues as we all make this 1:1 journey together. I am also seeing how neccessary change is to education yet how difficult it is for many teachers to make. I like being able to help when I can and stay positive about these HUGE changes. Many of our staff members are scared and overwhelmed with the new initiave and dont want to embrace it with open arms yet. I am hoping to help lead some of these colleagues and give them the confidence to just try it and jump in!

The game

This weeks class was interesting. We played one part of a simulation game on schools and change. I found it really interesting as we continued to move through the game that our players didn't move as fast as we wanted them too and were becoming frustrated. When I look back at how slowly change actually occurs in a school, I am actually amazed at how far our "players" got in their first year. We had everyone move at least one spot and some are actually advancing pretty quickly.

I also realized how important talking and learning to communicate with colleagues is. Our players eventually made progress by learning to work together and discussed issues. Change can only happen when everyone is part of it and whole heartedly believes the change needs to happen.

Another thing I reflected quite a bit on this past week was the In tune article. I graduated from college in 2008 and find many of the characteristics they used to describe Millennials to be very correct. In fact, my school district hired 21 new staff members the year I was hired (many of us being new graduates) and our entire district had an inservice on the differences between generations because they realized how important it is for all of us to understand where we all are coming from. Without this background, many of my veteran teachers would be put off by us "newbies" and many of us newbies would have very little patience for our veteran teachers. (ie. new technologies, strategies)

week 2

I really am enjoying the text we are reading for this course, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader. It is giving me a number of great ideas for my own leadership qualities as well as how to continue to grow as a teacher leader. My favorite parts of the last 2 chapters (2 & 3) were:

1. Teacher leaders as part of the interview team *
2. Characteristics to look for in a new applicant
3. Learning how to prepare for being part of the interviewing process as a teacher leader
4. Keeping things positive

*In my district we have our teacher leaders sit in on interviews and also are part of the hiring process. Usually the new teacher is hired and then meets the principal and given a basic school tour and then the teacher leader (or chair) meets with the new hire for a more thorough meeting/tour. New hire orientation is done at the district and building level as well followed by a mentor/mentee program.

My leadership roles

While reading the preface and chapter one of How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader I felt as though my principal could have written it. She is very encouraging to her staff and allows us to "take the reins" when we feel we can. She also empowers us by creating a number of different committees that we can be a part off to create a sense of community, purpose and drive.

In my own building I would have to say I have a couple of leadership roles. First, I am on the team leaders committee. This committee is a group of teachers that gathers to discuss, problems solve and communicate for the entire school. We meet regularly with our principle, tech dept. and other administrators. We have also gone to a number of leadership conferences. Another leadership role I have is that I am "chair person" for our district art department. I go to our articulation meetings with the high school and other feeder schools (we are a k-8 district) and set up art shows for the community. In just this last year, I have also become an instructional leader for my building. We have been undergoing a big shift in our instructional process and have had the pleasure of working with Jane E Pollock. The instructional leaders are teachers that have attended a special summer workshop last year and are implementing Pollock's GANAG instruction in our classroom regularly. We are working with our colleagues and helping (coaching) them on ways to improve instruction by using the GANAG process.

I also served on the team communicators, a group that voluntarily meets every wednesday before school to "hash" out management type issues and relay information between teams for better school wide communication. We then email the entire school and other the administrators the minutes so everyone is up-to-date!

D-O-N-E

i can't believe another class is done and over with! Its exciting to think that only 2 more classes and this program will be finished!

Anywho...

So I was thinking about how daunting this e-portfolio seemed in the beginning and how I was hesitant to start it because I was too overwhelmed. Its funny how I actually enjoyed creating it now because it caused me to go back and take a sincere look at all the work we have done so far. WOW! I have really come a long way since last January. I also found that by the weekly blogging I was able to compare the work I completed and with how I was feeling to the present. Some of the reflections seem silly now and yet others, still very relevant.

Perhaps the best thing about this course was learning how easy putting an e-portfolio together can be. I feel so much more prepared for my PDP portfolio and can't wait to start my culminating experience!