CED0599 Week 1

The end is quickly approaching.  This is the beginning of the last class of this graduate program.  For this week's class I need to create the timeline for my final project.  While it seems easy, I always find it a challenge to put times with various tasks.  I'm more of a doer and less of a time keeper.  I think that's true of a lot of people.  I also wasn't quite sure if I was making the timeline of MY hours for setting up the projects or my students time.

As I'm working on my work, I feel like I can't wait for this program to be over.  On the other hand, I feel like is it really coming to end?  Where has the time gone?  What will I do to fill up my Tuesday nights and ALL that time I spent on coursework?  Okay, I have plenty to do, but it will feel pleasantly odd for a little while.

CED0565 week 6

While this course was informative and just like any class you take away information, I wouldn't say this course has altered my definition of a leader or teacher leadership.  I feel a teachers' role is to educate students and with that comes various other responsibilities.  I've always seen teachers as managers, if you will.  Instead of working with profit and loss statements, we work with people.  We have budgets and need to work as efficiently as any other profession.  I've always viewed teachers as leaders, some better at it than others.  Teachers, hopefully, are involved in their school, district, and community.  We are constantly learning and integrating that new knowledge.  Just like any leader we need to listen and communicate, grow, and collaborate.  It is through this that we will improve education from within.  If we work as a team, changes will take place.  Teachers do need to make more of an effort to learn, grow, meet, and collaborate.  Unlike in other professions we aren't always given time during our "work day", so we need to make that time.  It's during that time that real changes happen, even though it can be challenging and difficult at times.  I wouldn't say that my leadership potential has changed.  I'm constantly trying new things, collaborate with my peers, and have joined various teams that I feel play a leadership role in our building.  I'm always look for ways to grow and to use that knowledge in my profession.

CED0565 Week 5

This week we finished the simulation.  While it was interesting, it would have been better if the material was there sooner to figure it out.  I wouldn't blindly walk into a meeting of this magnitude without being prepared.  If you did you would get what we did, trial and error (blindly) sometimes.  Change is always interesting, and many times the people involved in the changes are too.  The part that was missing for me was the "change" in the simulation.  What were we changing?  Depending on the change their are usually different "key" players.  Having worked in other professions and positions, I'm aware to some degree how changes take place.  Schools are different in some ways because the stakeholders are different, and their are a lot more of them.  Isn't that the part that we teachers like?

So am I leader?  I would say yes.  I've been fortunate, or unfortunate depending on how you look at it, to have held leadership positions.  Now as a teacher I feel I've brought that experience with me and I'm a leader in the classroom and technology.  A skill I've learned fairly well is to look outside the box at the broader picture.  I feel this isn't as common these days, especially in school settings.  So many times we are only focused on the here and now.  I been a leader in various capacities.  In my younger years I would have been a more subtle leader (quieter and more soft spoken.)  Today, I can be more vocal when I need to be and feel I need to be.  This helps in special education when I feel I need to advocate for the student or students.  So many times we think of teachers as leaders only in the classroom, but teachers are leaders in meetings, their school building, their school districts, and in the community.

CED0565 Week 4

This week in class we did the 1st year of a 3 year simulation.  The simulation is suppose to represent a school environment and various stakeholders.  The stakeholders also verified in their willingness to change and their ability to influence others.  It took a little while to get started, but my group worked rather well together.  If something didn't work we found another solution.  Having been in management before this is how change happens.  Things aren't going to go the way you always want, it means stepping back and revising when needed.  In a school environment we also need to keep everyone involved.  My group worked well together and did just that.

The other part of our coursework was thinking and discussing our work environments and the overall morale.  How do these things affect, if they do at all, the school environment?  Both are critical to the success of a school (or any environment). You can only be surrended by negativity for so long before it will affect you.  People need to feel they are part of the team through actions and not just words.  Once they do they will take more ownership in the environment and the overall morale.  I've worked in both positive and negative environments.  Morale is a direct correlation to the environment.  After awhile you don't want to be there and you certainly don't feel like going above and beyond.  If you do, others won't, leaving you to pick up the slack.  Students need to feel the positive energy to want to do their best too.

CED0565 Week 3

This week we watched an animation video of Who Moved the Cheese.  I read the books a few years back and really liked it.  I've been taught to think outside the box and to look at the bigger picture.  I feel that sometimes these qualities are lacking in the teaching environment, just like in any other profession.  Unfortunately, it's easy to do when teaching.  We teach all day in our own little world (the classroom) and are sometimes to isolated, sometimes by choice, other times by design.  We also watched videos on systems thinking and leadership.  We also read an article called Tune In.  I found the article offensive, not because of when I was born, which I refuse to answer on principal, but because it lumps people into groups.  I am the type of person that doesn't see stereotypes, but rather as individuals.  As individuals, each person has different things to offer.  I don't like to be stereotyped and I don't do it with others.  To be honest, I feel that's how people get into trouble.  As a leader, I feel that ALL of the "parts" should be given the same opportunities.  Some will resist, some with need reassurances, some with jump in with both feet.  A leader knows their team and knows which individuals not groups need which.  People will respect and respond that type of leader, over the type that stereotypes them, and they will get great results.  

CEDO565 Week 2

This week we explored the WINSS site.  In WINSS we are able to look at various types of data, including how each school in the state perform on state assessments.  This is information that all the stakeholders would be interested in.  How does the school I teach at perform?  How does it compare within the district, neighboring schools, the state?  It also shows demographic information and economonic status.  The user is able to compare to previous years as well.  Typically this site might be used by principals and data team members, and then shared with the school.  That's how it's done in my building.  I have used the WINSS site for my PDP. Other stakeholders like parents and the community might find this information interesting as well.  When looking to buy a house, especially if moving to an new unfamiliar area, home buyers might be interested in this information. While it shows if a school has met AYP, as a home buyer I'd be more interested in the trends.  We also read the chapters 2 and 3 of How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader.  Chapter 2 was about assembling the team.  The team  and their roles, interviewing the applicants, and scheduling classes.  Chapter 3 is about communication - oral, verbal, and body language.

CEDO565 Week 1

This week we took several surveys to assess what type of leader we are.  We also started examining what makes a good leader - what skills do they need?  Can everyone lead or is only natural born leaders?  Pat Awuah (TED talk video) says that leaders need to be trained and they need to serve humanity.  Leaders need to have courage, think critically, have the ability to confront complex problems, creative, engaged, ethical, empowering, the ability to challenge, and integrity.  His most powerful statement was every society must be intentional about how it trains its leaders.  This is especially true in today's world.

Am I leader?  Prior to becoming a teacher I have held management positions in the corporate world.   Today, I'm a teacher and I do consider myself a leader in my school and district.  I am engaged in my building and with my students.  I question things and offer different approaches and solutions when I feel there are alternatives.  I use my creativity in my lessons and activities and I share with my colleagues.  I have been instrumental in creating a CDB curriculum and getting the funding approved for it by the school board.  I enjoy being engaged and sharing ideas with my students, peers, and colleagues.  I'm a teacher, case manager, committee member, and a team member.  In these roles I've been and continue to be a leader, even though there's no recognized authority or compensation.  I've been a leader of technology and incorporating in into lessons and activities.  Why then do this?  Because I care about the students, the school, the district, and our community.  This is what a leader does.