This week's blog deals with leaders in a building, specifically me. Am I a Leader? How do I Lead? Why do some people Lead while others Follow?
The simple answer is that yes I am a leader in my school.
The long answer says not yet.
Am I involved in decisions? Yes.
Do I take active roles in professional development? Yes.
Do I participate fully in committee activities? Yes.
Do I share my views on issues that face my school? Yes.
Do some people value and consider my advice on issues? Yes.
Do I lead our building towards positive and real change? Not yet.
It is this final not yet that results in my long answer being the way it is. I don't view myself as a leader because I have not yet led anyone or any group down a road to positive change. I have been a partner in bringing change, but I would not say I was the catalyst, or the leader. There is hope for me yet, it is early in my career. I'm confident that if I can carry out the visions and plans of my mind I can become a leader in my building, but that is still future tense.
With my current projects in progress for PLP and my MEIT proposal, I see no reason for them not to be ideas that could lead to significant change in our building for both students and teachers. If they are successful and spread, then I would feel more comfortable with the label leader.
My PLP project involves creating online presentation portfolios (sample) for students to reflect and share their work and learning with teachers, parents and other students. Our school previously had these in binder form, and we are actively working to improve the process and bring it and our students into the web 2.0 era.
My MEIT proposal has been discussed in other blog posts, but I feel like it will do for me, as a teacher, what the SLC does for students. It puts my work out there for others, it allows me to collaborate with peers, and it allows my students to expand their understanding of curriculum and their world simultaneously.
As I mentioned before I am excited about both of these ideas. I know it will be a lot of work and there will be setbacks, but I'm excited nonetheless. The last statements go for being a building leader as well.
Jason, I'm sure you are under estimating your skill and potential. Sounds to me like you are on the right track. The most important aspect is to be ready to change and move in all directions. As you know the school year has so many things going on that just focusing on one thing at a time can be exhausting. Like you said, you are a leader.
ReplyDeleteJim, I'm not trying to underestimate my skill and potential. As stated in the last section of my post, I feel I'm on the verge of real change and I'm on my way to being a leader. My only thought is that we have a lot of people who do the committees, and participate in decision making processes. My question is, are you a leader if you help an institution continue to move in the same direction. I'm valuing change and improvement as the determining factor of leadership for this post.
ReplyDeleteHi, Jason-
ReplyDeleteAs someone who worked with you for five years, I do think that others see you as a leader! And, I think that electronic SLC portfolios would be wonderful at the middle school. Have you introduced the idea to the staff? Are you having difficulty getting some people on board, or is everyone excited about your new idea?
The SLC idea is going well and so far has been very well received. In fact we are starting the pilot group next year with 8 home bases, and at the staff presentation a lot more people were interested in piloting. All the signs are pointing in the right direction, but I know we will have a lot of preparation work this summer and many obstacles to overcome next year. I hopeful, and optimistic but that is it at this point.
ReplyDeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteI think we all struggle with the last component of your long answer - leading towards positive change... it's truly a tough one. I also have to ask you to share any insights you have on the SLC program - our middle school has 8th grade portfolios (still in binders) and I'm working on continuing the process in the high school with a digital version.
Ann, we are still in the early stages, but the concerns we at with the current SLC format were:
ReplyDelete1. They were pieced together, often at the last minute with not much emphasis placed on reflection and most placed on compilation.
2. The personal side of students wasn't showing up in the binders because they didn't care about the binder and didn't see it as part of their growth.
These were our two primary concerns and we felt that in addition it was important to move away from collecting every piece of (usually) meaningless paper that comes over the course of the year. The natural direction appeared to be student blogs that would allow personalization and customization to reflect an individual, while at the same time showing learning over time. My hope is that the ability to go back and see 7th grade posts and work as an 8th grader will show the students how far they have come and they'll be able to identify the areas of growth.
In case you missed it there is a link in the post to our sample SLC blog, or you can go to:
http://jmsymes.edublogs.org/
Like Ann alluded to in her post, I think we all really do struggle with the last one no matter how many years we've been teaching for. It certainly becomes easier as we progress in our careers as more people are willing to listen to someone who has been there and done it than some smartass kid fresh out of college. With that being said, any time you try to enact change in a place of employement where you have numerous employees who all believe they are experts in their particular areas and thus do not need to change, this is going to be a tough act to undertake. Having worked with you for over a year now I firmly believe that if anyone can accomplish it, you can, so best of luck to you.
ReplyDelete