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Monday, September 9, 2013

Transformational Leadership: An Individual Reflection



Transformational leadership according to Leithwood (2007) is when a leader focuses on the "personal goals and values of their organizational colleagues and" works "to both elevate and transform those goals and values" in the shared vision. (Chapter 13, Section 2, para. 7) This type of leader will captivate and inspire others with a shared vision, model best practices, encourage and support others, give opportunities for growth, and challenge the thinking of those in the organization. (Leithwood, 2007) 

This type of leadership can flourish in a learning environment by developing a shared vision with the school. The members of the organization must be able to participate in the creation of this shared vision and school values. With everyone working towards a common goal, there will be opportunities for others to take leadership roles and move everyone towards the common goals. Transformational leadership will impact the way an administrator leads the school.  It definitely does not stem from a focus on the administration, the administrator's own personal mission, wishes, or plans. This type of leader helps others to see their strengths and then offers opportunities for them to share, collaborate, and model best practices so that others with different abilities can learn and grow. The administrator must always keep in mind the shared vision and be consistent with high expectations for meeting those goals.  

If an administrator is truly leading in a transformational way, they will integrate technology with instruction in a purposeful and thoughtful manner. They will question whether certain tools and practices fall in line with the vision of the school. Professional development and collaborative learning will focus and support the common goals of the school.  Surveys will be send out to see what the needs of the staff are. Teams and various leadership committees will be consulted to come up with meaningful goals for the school. Teachers as well as administrators will model best practices.  I am seeing this first hand at a current school I am working with. Staff was surveyed at the end of last year.  A team of administration and teachers got together over the summer to rewrite the Technology Plan for the school.  I had the opportunity to be on this committee. The professional learning opportunities that are being planned this year go back to our goals that we set for students, teachers, and the community.  Teachers will be leading some of the sessions for others in the school as well as the community.  This is transformational leadership at work!

References

Fullan, M. (2007). The Jossey-Bass reader on Educational Leadership. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Building Trust #SAVMP

This week we were asked to respond to one of the following prompts for #SAVMP:
  1. How do you work to build trust starting in a new place?
  2. When you lose trust, what do you do to try to regain what you do?
  3. In a world with social media so evident, how do you use that technology to create a transparent culture within your community?
I am definitely more of a visual learning, so instead of expressing myself in words this week, I have created a collage to answer, "How do you work to build trust starting in a new place?"

Building Trust collage
Building Trust collage created using PicCollage.

Reflections on "Starting Off Right #SAVMP"

Leadership Wordle
Wordle image - Made with leadership tips from the comments below.
After reading through the comments of many administrators and educational leaders on the post, "Week 3 - Starting Off Right #SAVMP," created by George Couros, I wanted to highlight some that spoke to me.  If you are in any type of leadership position it is definitely worth it to read through the post by George and the comments that follow.


  • Andrew Maxey – Asking staff and parents – What are the “things we do very well, what do we need to do differently, and what do we need to stop doing immediately.”
  • ddrinkwalter – “Remember paperwork can wait until after hours when students are gone.Compliment-spotlight and highlight great things that staff, students and your school as a whole does.”
  • Tiffany Wright – Frequent Flyer student/parent positive communication
  • Adam Welcome – “I was in EVERY classroom, EVERY day for the first 90 days.” Wow!
  • John Weidrick – “effective educational leaders engage in treasure hunts, not witch hunts. As you visit classrooms or complete observational walkthroughs communicate only the positives for the first months of the school year.”
  • Darren – “Visibility! My first 6 months was teaching along side each staff member…”
  • Mick Kerin – “Listen to respond not for my turn to speak.” Very powerful for teachers to do as well.
  • mcquirp – “Maybe you can’t wait to get started, but teachers may not be there yet so keep the e-mails etc to a minimum!”
  • Joe Sanfelippo - "Take the time to listen-change will come in time, but listening first is so important."
  • Sandra Trach - "Wish staff good morning and have a brief exchange over morning coffee, greet students as they disembark the bus and arrive to school, circulate throughout the school and be visible, attend to needs as they arise and follow through, interact with students at lunch, and support and engage parents. The hardest part of all of this will be taking time for you. Go slow…remember to eat, keep a good sense of humor, lean on others (ask for help!), show vulnerability and be rested. All of this is necessary to be present and centered."
These are such great tips and I am so excited to be learning from so many others through #SAVMP.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Vision for Schools: Interesting, Relevant, Real-world,Thought-provoking, Connected! #SAVMP

What is school for?  Why should students go to school? What is the purpose of education?

It is an interesting question that every educator should ask themselves.

The role of school has changed throughout time.  George Couros (#SAVMP) asked us to take a look at the following Tedx Talk video from Seth Godin.  It definitely is worth the watch.




We have gone from an Industrial model in schools to ___________?

It really seems that many classrooms still look and feel like factories.


We need school to be interesting, relevant, real-world, thought-provoking, connected!

We need school to be less lectures, less worksheets, less packets, less memorizing, less boring!

It was also interesting for me to watch this TedxTalk video: Why Kids Hate School? by Nikhil Goyal.  


How do we shift our thinking?  How do we change?

I am still looking for those answers...

Here are my thoughts so far...

The school environment should enable students to seek out facts and construct answers to questions in their curious minds. Learning is a lifelong process and students should be taught and encouraged to learn not only from their teacher, but also from their peers, their parents, their community, and from the world around them. The educational process works best when learning is connected through the roles of the student, the teacher, the parents, the school, and the community. 


Teachers and leaders should provide a safe, caring, and motivating environment to help students grow and learn both intellectually, emotionally, and collectively. Educators guide students to construct knowledge through discovery, hands-on tasks, and real-world authentic experiences. The teacher needs to provide appropriate resources, tools, time, and strategies for this discovery to be meaningful. Learning needs to have a correlation with the community and world in order for students to see the purpose and to keep hold of the new information learned. 

Teachers and leaders should be motivated to learn more, try new ideas, encourage and collaborate, and inspire students to achieve to the best of their abilities. 

I believe the role of the parent is to participate and be informed about the education of their child. This responsibility is as important as the roles of the student, teacher, and leaders. In defining participation I mean, encouraging their child to do his or her best, staying informed of events and projects that are occurring in the classroom, communicating with the teacher about their child’s progress, modeling good character in the home, showing eagerness to be a lifelong learner, and volunteering and helping out whenever possible at school and in the classroom. Without the support from home, a link in the educational process is broken. Parents need to be a part of the education of their child.

Many of you have most likely already seen this video.  I enjoy going back to it from time to time.  It makes me think some more about our current system.
There are many out there trying to help make a change for our students.  I really want to be one of them!  




We need school to be interesting, relevant, real-world, thought-provoking, connected!

We need school to be less lectures, less worksheets, less packets, less memorizing, less boring!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Best Quotes on Leadership

In 2012, Forbes posted an article on the 100 Best Quotes On Leadership.  As I am learning more this year on how to be an effective leader, I will reflect on some of these quotes and see if my viewpoint changes.  I wonder if other educational leaders have found some great quotes that they would have added to the list. 

100 Best Quotes on Leadership from Forbes
Kruse, Kevin. "100 Best Quotes On Leadership." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Oct. 2012 

Focusing on quotes 1 - 10, I was drawn to:

  • "8 - Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch"
  • "10 - You don’t need a title to be a leader. –Multiple Attributions"
These quotes both speak for themselves.  

I do realize that educators/leaders need to promote and grow themselves, but I do believe a true leader is focused on growing the community along with themselves.  There is a greater picture.  The quiet success of a leader is in the prosperity of the community and the people around them. 

Even though I am actually working for that "Title" this year, there are so many opportunities for anyone in their professional and personal lives to be leaders everyday!

It will be interesting to reflect back on these quotes and others as the learning process continues.



Sunday, August 11, 2013

Why I am an Educator? Why I Lead? #SAVMP

Many years ago as I was starting out in college, I dreamed of going into accounting and being a successful business woman.  As I continued to take the first few accounting classes, I very quickly realized that this was not going to be the career for me.  At the time I was working to help pay my way through college as a daycare assistant, nanny, and home health aide for the state with adults and children with disabilities.  I would help with range of motion exercises, learning activities, and general care.  I had always told my family, "I will never be a teacher! That is the last thing I would ever want to do!"  To this day I have no idea why I ever said that when I was young. 

All I know is that as I worked with children of all abilities, I really felt a change in my heart.  I get emotional thinking about it because that year I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a teacher!  I really wanted to help others learn and enjoy what they were learning about.  I loved working with children and knew that I would try my best to make a positive impact on as many students as I could.

I taught in elementary school for nine years in Frederick County Public Schools.  There were so many rewarding and challenging times along the way. I believe the purpose of education is not only to acquire knowledge, but more importantly to fashion productive citizens with character and to inspire individuals to learn and seek out information.   The school environment should enable students to seek out facts and construct answers to questions in their curious minds.  Constructing knowledge leads students to understand that there may be more than one way to solve a problem or may lead to new strategies and discoveries.  Learning is a lifelong process and students should be taught and encouraged to learn not only from their teacher, but also from their peers, their parents, their community, and from the world around them.  

As I was teaching I became enthusiastic about learning more about EdTech and how it could help my students to connect, publish, and collaborate. We blogged, created podcasts to share with others, increased our fluency through recording our voices and critiquing ourselves, and so much more.  My students were engaged and excited about learning. 


Blogging with Third Graders 2003 - 2006

I continued to learn more as I got my masters in Instructional Technology from Johns Hopkins.  That program was some of the best learning I have ever experienced.  As I finished my degree, a new position opened up in our county as a Teacher Specialist for Instructional Technology.  I was so fortunate to be able to work in this K - 12 position for six years with teachers, admin, students, teacher specialists, librarians, curriculum specialists, and other staff members. What a rewarding job to be able to help schools integrate technology through the curriculum.  I learned so much more in the six years in this position.  The strong team I was on learned from each other and helped foster growth in the schools as well. During the past year Technology Services in my county was restructured and our jobs were repurposed.  I am going to greatly miss working with such an amazing group of people!


Technology Resource Teachers and our Amazing Boss
The Technology Resource Teachers and our Amazing Boss

One of the many products we produced together is a website to help teachers as they integrate technology. -
http://education.fcps.org/trt  

TRT Website 2007 - 2013
FCPS Technollogy Resource Teacher Webpage 2007 - 2013

Currently, I am on sabbatical this year pursuing a graduate certificate through Johns Hopkins University in School Administration and Supervision in Partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). I am so excited to be able to learn effective educational leadership strategies and ideas.  

Leaders come in many forms:

  • The student that encourages others to save money and give to help out others that are in need.
  • The teacher that rethinks his/her practice in the classroom and shares experiences and ideas with their teammates.
  • The custodian that goes the extra mile to make sure the classrooms are clean and inviting for staff and students.
  • The Tech Coordinator that goes above and beyond to make sure all of the computers, printers, and devices are in great working order.
  • The administrator that takes the extra time to encourage staff with kind words and notes.
  • The parent that gets involved in the school to help bring about informative family nights and educational events for students.
  • The teacher specialist that works hard to find solutions and ideas to help a teacher be more effective and productive.
  • The curriculum specialist that brings devoted teachers together and works with them to create differentiated lessons and resources. 
  • The leaders at Central Office that fight to get the best resources for our teachers and students and encourage others to make a difference.
There are so many others that I am missing.  We need more people that will help to make a difference for our students.  This is why I lead!