5311 Week 5 Discussion Board
In Case Study #2 (Martin, 2019), I determined that the poor implementation of the new program was the root cause of the bad morale on campus. I don’t think that his decision to put it in was off base or incorrect given the circumstances. Where he fell down was in several areas of implementation as highlighted in competencies 7–12 (Martin, et. al., 2022). First of all, he did not include any of the campus staff in the planning and rollout. There is a lot of experience there and would have helped tremendously. Second, he did a “one and done” training session and expected everything to change immediately. This was made worse by the poor evaluations. Instead of giving small, short targets to move things forward, he only pointed out what was wrong. For my field experience, one area that is an option for me to add in is creating a PL experience and plan for the staff. Our campus has started into a long term implementation of Understanding By Design (UDL). This is something that I am very familiar with and do in my class regularly. In my class, I routinely have a wide range of learner abilities and levels. For example, in my current 10th graders, they range in math ability from those struggling to stay afloat in geometry to students excelling in pre-calculus. Last year, I had one who was in calculus already in the 10th grade group. UBD helps me in providing rigorous opportunities for all of my learners to reach the class goals and demonstrate their learning growth. Our overall campus has this kind of dynamic throughout it. UBD can give our teachers a method to maintain high standards while providing support for students to help them achieve those standards. We were about to roll it out campus wide, but it had been slowed down tremendously due to complications from COVID and the past two years of difficulties. For me, my biggest area of growth in this program is working on bringing my experiences to the campus without it being a comparison type situation or rushed because it was something I was used to doing. This will be a win-win for me and the campus along with something that I and others on the campus are passionate about. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #2. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge.
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In Case Study 1 (Martin, 2019a), I determined that the root cause of the problem that King Community College brought up was a lack of a direct connection between the the school and the students’ immediate needs at home. KCC complained that students were not prepared and did not finish the program. The teachers said that the students were not motivated to come to school and were more worried about getting home to go to work. The demographics point to a low socio-economic situation in the community. This points to the curriculum and KCC as not being relevant for the students’ immediate needs.
The second case study (Martin, 2019b) deals with a new principal, Mr. Kelly and his efforts to implement a new literacy program at his school. The program is proposed by the district administration and is in line with district policies. After the program is implemented, Mr. Kelly is pointing out where teachers are falling short on the program and morale among the staff is starting to fall. Competency #7: Managing Group Processes This competency from Martin, et. al., (2022), mostly deals with meeting and making the best use of time. At the end of the section, it brings in working with groups to meet goals and manage activities. Mr. Kelly did not do well in this area as he brought in the new program. He started with about 20% of his teachers already struggling before the new program was put in place. Starting a new program takes time and a lot of practice. Utilizing the leaders on staff to help with grouping the teachers to collaborate on the new system would help with the implementation Competency #8: Supporting Others with Appropriate Leadership Style Mr. Kelly seems to only have used a Directive leadership approach. He never involved any of the staff in the implementation or review of the new system. The staff had no input at any time on the system or how to bring it into the classroom. After it was brought into the classroom, the only feedback and information came from Mr. Kelly himself. Competency #9: Using Power Ethically Mr. Kelly was not overtly abusive of his position of power. At the most basic, he employed a coercive power model. It is not a strong use of coercion. The expectation was the staff implemented the new system and he would evaluate them. At the same time, he was exercising his authority under a Legitimate Power model. The biggest problem was that he really did not do much with the opportunity presented. He might have done better using a referent or expert power model to work alongside the teachers and leverage the abilities of those on staff. 25% of the students are scoring high, so not all students and not all teachers were struggling before putting in the new system. Competency #10: Crating and Managing a Positive Culture and Climate The area is a huge shortfall for Mr. Kelly. The school was performing poorly and implementing a new program to help change things. Mr. Kelly needed to do a better job of building up the staff and building on the things that were working in the school. Mr. Kelly did not look for other factors that could be contributing to the over all school performance and the performance of the 20% of the teachers who’s students did not keep up year to year. Through the implementation and the evaluations, it seems that Mr, Kelly was trying to fix the school instead of lead it. Competency #11: Initiating Change The feedback was mostly negative which only hurt the climate as they were going through the difficulty of implementing a new program. Change takes time to bring about improvements. The staff does need to watch out for the areas they are not doing well with in the new program. At the same time, they need to know what they are doing well and they need their efforts to be recognized. In addition, new programs require a lot of on-going training and evaluation. Mr. Kelly only put the training at the beginning. As the year progresses, it is hard to maintain the drive with the new program without constant reinforcement, support, and training. Competency #12: Evaluating Student, Personnel, and Program Performance The evaluations given by Mr. Kelly seem to be very limited in scope and understanding. He seems to be expecting huge and lasting changes immediately after a single 2 day training after he went to a 2 week training. None of it matches up and leads to a successful implementation. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #2. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge. Case study #1 (Martin, 2019) presents a scenario with a new principal, Mr. Rogers, facing several negative situations related to the students and their post-high school prospects. In analyzing the situation, there appear to be a number of areas to focus on. Martin et. al. (2022) provides six leadership competencies and questions to help in the analysis.
Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge.
1. Developing Trusting Relationships: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with building trust. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. There was no clear evidence that Mr. Rogers spent time developing a relationship of trust with the staff (Martin, 2019). All of the peer responses that I read in the discussion board were in agreement with this assessment. The analysis of the question in Martin, et. al., (2022) about relying on others is a key indicator of this shortcoming. Mr. Rogers did not meet with campus members to analyze the problems or look for common solutions. Instead, he came in with his own solution at the very start. 2. Leading in the Realization of the Vision: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with the realization of the vision. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. The consensus among the peer discussions reviewed and my own analysis point to a lack of vision on the part of Mr. Rogers and by extension, no shared vision between the stakeholders in the school. The first question in Martin, et. al., (2022) about a clear vision is missed in the scenario. From the actions of Mr. Rogers, such as doubting that the teachers would use new equipment if they had it and worrying about the college making their concerns about LHS public, it seems that Mr. Rogers is reacting to problems instead of analyzing the situation in comparison to a shared vision for the school. 3. Making Shared Decisions: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with shared decision making. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. The assessment from my analysis on shared decision making is in line with that of the peer discussions. Mr. Rogers is making decisions independently of the teachers and the community. In the first year, he started planning to implement an early college program without first consulting the teachers. Many of the faculty leaders have been at the school for more than 15 years. Discussions with these individuals would have provided insight and helped forge alliances by making collective decisions about the direction the school should go in. 4. Communicating Effectively: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with effective communication. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. Most of the discussion posts reviewed pointed to an ineffective communication strategy employed by Mr. Rogers. In the first year, he came out and announced a radical change to the school by implementing an early college program. This idea created a lot of push-back from the staff that signaled a lack of a safe and open communication system between them all. In the second year, Mr. Rogers held a faculty meeting where he announced the poor review of LHS by the college. 5. Resolving Conflict & Issues: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with conflict/issues resolution. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. The consensus among my peers seems to be that there is conflict within the staff as indicated by the negative and low perception of the students by the faculty. A few noted the conflict between the faculty and the college as well. In all of these cases, the conflict was not dealt with by Mr. Rogers and was instead either ignored or he took sides. 6. Motivating and Developing Others: State a behavior (or lack of behavior) that interferes with motivating/developing others. Provide evidence and/or an example from the case study. All of the peer discussions reviewed indicated a lack of motivation by the faculty and a lack of effort to meet the needs of the students and staff to help drive motivation within these groups. Mr. Rogers was reacting to the individual events and pushing for changes without working to meet the needs of those he was seeking to induce a change within. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge. The primary problem introduced by the case study (Martin, 2019), is that few students from Landon HS are attending King Community College and of those that do, few finish the program. The remainder of Cast Study #1 provides demographic information about the school and community, a brief history of the principal’s (Mr. Rogers) interactions with the staff, and a few other background pieces of information such as the changing demographics of the community. The school is in a rural community with a large population of low socio-economic families. The community is starting to see an increase in families moving to the area that are in higher socio-economic brackets. The school faculty do not seem to be in alignment with the principal and KCC over the prospects of the students. From the scenario, there are several near-by colleges that students from LHS attend after graduation. There are also several demographic groupings at LHS. Currently, approximately half of the student population come from families that did not attend college. At the same time, more professional families are moving in which will alter that percentage. The information given does not indicate what group of students are performing poorly at KCC and there are no concrete indicators given as to the areas they are struggling with. All that is provided is that they are not finishing the two-year program. The first information needed would be to find out more about the students who are attending KCC and what specific areas of deficiency they are experiencing. From the information given, the next area for investigation is why students are not performing well at LHS. The teachers say that they are more interested in going to work than going to school. There are several options to explore at this point. The scenario discusses the Mr. Rogers views and the teachers views along with demographic information. It seems that most students are in a low socio-economic demographic. Their parents work, but do not make enough money for the family and the students have to work as well. This does not help the students to see a value in school. This would lead to exploring why the school is not partnering with the community and the college to improve employment opportunities through avenues such as trade programs and associate degrees. These questions lead to a more root problem of a lack of unified, shared vision for the school that incorporates the school, students, parents, community, and college. Each group has their own goals and agendas which are not aligned and creating conflict. Additional data still needed to verify this as the root problem and help with moving toward solutions would be related to the local economy and the school. There is only some data given about the demographics. It would be helpful to have better information on what students do after leaving high school. How many go straight to work, how many go for some secondary education, how many go to college. Additionally, data on how many students work during high school will be informative. From there, data on teacher interventions and classroom activities along with the results of those will help in identifying strategies that work and strategies that do not. Another area of inquiry would be to find out what the objectives were for the students who went to KCC. Were they looking for a trade certificate, a 2-year degree, or looking to move on to a 4-year college? This data will help in discussions with all of the stakeholders to clearly identify the needs of the students. From this analysis, there seems to be a need for all of the stakeholders to work together to create a shared vision for the school. If the students and families are more worried about paying current bills than going to school, then traditional educational incentives and opportunities will not be as relevant. By working together to include the parents and the community in the vision planning, Mr. Rogers can help to align the school with the current needs of the students. From the information given, it does not seem that the educational work at LHS is aligned with the job market needs locally. By including teachers in the discussions, the teachers are able to build upon the strategies that have worked in the past and better align them with the students. Having conversations and an aligned vision with the community will help the teachers provide activities that are more motivating to the students because they are more relevant to their current situation. Having KCC involved in the building of the vision and action steps helps the college to align their offerings with the community and educate the community about the opportunities and support they offer. As these groups work together, they will also have a chance to include in their planning support for the current economic needs of the students. The scenario states that working is a top priority for the students right now. If the school can work with the community and the teachers to better accommodate this environment, then the students will be more motivated to continue with their studies to meet their goal. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge. Case Study #1 (Matin, 2019) was an interesting scenario that I have seen in various ways many times. I was very interested in seeing the viewpoints and analysis of my peers. I had my interpretation of the reading, but I am very aware that I bring my unique viewpoint that has its own blind spots. I have enjoyed reading through the posts and seeing the various ideas and thoughts. In general, we were all in alignment together. Just like any concept that deals in averages, everyone has various divergences. I found many that went into greater depth than I did on some competencies (Martin, et. al., 2022). The theme was in alignment, but I was able to see a different viewpoint and nuance. I have learned that what is important or substantial to me is not necessarily the same for others. I have a very strong dislike for making avoidable errors. I am very willing to take a calculated, researched risk knowing that the result may not come out as intended. At the same time, I prefer to get as much input and outside information as I can before deciding, so I don’t make preventable mistakes. It would be interesting and informative to see how each person’s unique analysis coalesced into a final root cause. It was not always obvious, but there did seem to be some that could reasonably go to a different conclusion than mine did.
I have always taught my students to trust the process when making decisions and working through a problem. The work of analyzing the competencies for mistakes and successes was very helpful in making an in-depth determination. I also found a great deal of benefit in reading through the peer discussions. I did not make any large shifts in my analysis, but I did see other nuances that came to the surface. One in particular was my consideration of trade programs. Ironically, I teach a CTE class, but my initial analysis did not include that on the list. I was originally focused on 4-year college analysis. Bringing in the different viewpoints helped me to see more than I had seen otherwise and also to be aware of things that I overlooked myself. I do believe that I worked down to a useful and workable root cause of the problem. Doing a root cause analysis is something that I do routinely. I enjoy puzzles and solving problems. Root cause analysis is something that I teach my students as well. We spend a great deal of time and effort into collaborative problem solving and analysis. At the same time, I am very confident in my analysis because the situation presented in the case study is something that I have actively been working on with schools around the country. I have been fortunate to be a part of a team working with low socio-economic school to create a collaboration between the teachers, administrators, students, parents, local business and industry, and community colleges. What we have been doing has been making an impact in those communities. My experience along with the detailed analysis process gives me a high degree of confidence. References: Martin, G. (2019, October), Case Study #1. [PDF]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Martin, G. E., Danzig, A. B., Flanary, R. A., & Orr, M. T. (2022). School leader internship: Developing, monitoring, and evaluating your leadership experience (5th ed.). Routledge. On going self-reflection is a key component of being a life-long learner. In Dr. Fong’s lecture (2022), she touched on several key aspects that leaders need to be aware of. As the instructional leader, the principal sets the tone for the rest of the school to follow. Being aware of my own strengths and weaknesses puts me in a better position to develop strong relationships with the staff, the students, and the community. I’m not perfect, but I can always improve. By practicing self-assessment, I implicitly give others the approval to do the same. It does not have to be overly explicit. Simply showing others that I am aware of my current state of being and willing to grow goes a long way.
Self-reflection is something I do currently as a teacher and with my students in class. I’ve found that it helps me to better understand my students and their unique situations when I allow myself to look for, admit, and work on correcting mistakes. When I do that, the problems we have encountered are not nearly as bad as they could be. Along the way, we have all been able to show empathy and grace for each other. In that spirit, we have helped each other to grow and learned something new about each other along with ourselves. As an instructional leader, I know that I will be nowhere near perfect. To make things even harder, when dealing with people, things are almost never black in white. It seems to always be some shade of gray. Going back to Dr. Fong’s lesson (2022), I can see where being aware of my ethical and moral positions, along with my own biases is crucial. Each decision is a challenge and that challenge is happening on a stage with a lot of eyes watching. Through on-going self-assessment and self-reflection, I have a better chance to make the best decisions I can today and then make even better decisions tomorrow. References: Fong, D. (2022, January 24). _Fundamentals of Leadership: Modular 2 Lecture [web-conference, PowerPoint slides]. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Not long after graduation from college, I found myself in restaurant management. I had an economics degree but didn’t want to go into that field any longer. I kept waiting tables until I moved up to management. I worked for several different general managers and alongside even more assistant managers. Each had their own styles and approaches. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time under one GM, Larry. He had a more “human” approach to management. It resonated with me and still impacts my work today. Larry was always willing to give people a chance. When setting goals for the restaurant we included servers and cooks, so they knew what we were trying to do. Instead of assigning servers to their stations each day, the front-of-house leaders set it up. They knew the staff and flows better than we did. Most importantly, no matter how bad someone might be at their job, if they tried, they always got another chance.
We had a cook trainee that just didn’t get the hang of it. His training week was supposed to be over, but he still couldn’t run the station alone. We kept him on because he was always on time, tried his best, never complained, and never gave up. The manager on duty always had to be working alongside him during busy times because he could not handle it alone. This went on for four weeks. One day, things clicked, and he could work on his own. Two weeks later, he had learned the other four stations. This was something that might take a couple of months normally. Two weeks later, he was able to run all four stations by himself during the slower periods. In one month, he went from our worst cook ever to one of our best. Never giving up on people plays large in my values, beliefs, and attitude today. My first job was as a long-term substitute for math. The teacher had a policy of giving a completion grade for homework to encourage them to try. In class, she would go over the work and concepts until all the students understood. Only then, would they be given a test. Learning was not calendar dependent in her room. I took this experience along with my restaurant experience into my own classroom. It did not matter if I was dealing with students, parents, or co-workers. If they didn’t understand, I would keep working it in different ways until we were successful. I took it on myself to look for new methods to approach others. If they were willing to try, I would keep at it. It wasn’t until the SDE conference (Brown, 2017) that I really understood the neurological foundations behind why my students and parents responded so well to my methods. After that conference, I was able to be more intentional about my adaptability and resilience in working with others. Desravines et al. (2016) explains the five levers of leadership. Over the years, I have found that I employ these day-to-day in my school. I didn’t start out teaching this way. It has been a result of me always being reflective in my practice and looking for areas of improvement. When I go into an evaluation, I am usually aware of my strengths. The areas I am most interested in are my weaknesses. I want to find them and improve there. Lever 1 is about being belief and goal driven. I have always believed that people can achieve and grow. At the same time, equity is just as prevalent and important. When I learned about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), it resonated with me right away (Novak, 2016). I find that these same UDL principles that work so well with students also work with my parents and other teachers. I have incorporated them into everything I do when I can. My parents get newsletters with information in both graphical and written formats. When I do teacher workshops, I employ a variety of methods for participants to access the material. Our student population is very diverse with a wide range of ethnicities and backgrounds. I want them all to feel welcome and safe in my classroom and my school. This is something that we do overtly in my class, my club, and our booster club. Equity is very important. Each of our leaners, parents, and community members is unique. I cannot treat them all the same. To be effective in working with them all, I must be open and have a good working relationship with them. Their voice and ideas make my class stronger. It also makes my relationships with others stronger because I can take what I learn from one person and use it elsewhere. Early on, I created a booster club for my classroom and program. I wanted a good way to stay in contact with the parents and the community. I routinely meet with them to look at everything we are doing in and out of the classroom. These open lines of communication help me to be more responsive to the needs of my students, changes in the community, and opportunities throughout. It is not easy to ask students, parents, and community members to give their opinion of my classroom and their suggestions for what should be done. I have found that it is invaluable. Everyone is more engaged and responsive. My work with the booster club and its role as an advisory board is an example of both Interpersonal, Adaptive, and Resilient Leadership (Desravines et al., 2016). A huge influence in my approach to working with my fellow teachers, students, and parents has been the administrators on campus. One principal has had an outsized influence. It is mostly because everything she does is focused on brining everyone forward together. Her care and concern for others is only matched by her high standards for everyone. She has shown that being supportive and gracious to others does not mean you have to lower your standards and expectations. As I progress in my career, my belief in people and my push for community will be at the center of my work. References: Brown, T. (2017, July 14). Cracking the Code on the Teen Brain-Exciting new discoveries from neuroscience. [Conference session]. SDE Discipline I Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada. Desravines, J., Aquino, J., & Fenton, B. (2016, March 22). Breakthrough Principals: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Stronger Schools. Jossey-Bass. Fong, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Leadership: Week 1: Lecture 3 [video]. Blackboard. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Novak, K., & Rose, D. H. (2016, September 1). UDL Now!: A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today’s Classrooms. CAST Professional Publishing. “As long as there have been leaders, there have been those who tried to determine how and why they were successful. Leadership itself has not evolved, but our understanding of it has” (Leaders Excellence, 2019). Dr. Fong’s first Introduction to Leadership lecture (n.d. a) gave an overview of the shifts in leadership approaches over the last 120 years. At the turn of the twentieth century, leadership was viewed in a very controlled, top-down approach. Authority came from the position and those subordinate to that position were expected to follow accordingly. As the century progressed, the views on leadership and the relationship between leader and follower changed. Throughout the first decades of the twenty-first century, leadership approaches have become more collaborative and more open.
Dr. Fong continued in the second video lecture (n.d. b) with the discussion of contemporary leadership approaches by providing much more detail about three distinct approaches: Transactional, Servant, and Transformational. It is easy to see these three approaches to leadership develop as the leadership eras evolved (Fong, n.d. a). While the three views on leadership have been growing over time through the same periods, they have many differences that make them distinct. Understanding the similarities and differences can be done by looking at four components of leadership as explained in Dr. Fong’s lesson: process, influence, groups, and goals. The process by which the leadership approaches work shows differences between all three of them. The transactional approach is done through a system of pay for work, the servant approach is accomplished through the leader working to help and provide for their subordinates, and the transformational approach is a collaborative effort where leaders and subordinates come to a consensus on both goals and means. The differences in process are highlighted in the differences in the ways that leaders influence the rest of the organization. Transactional leaders are very direct and exert influence by providing and restricting rewards. Servant leaders seek to influence through their efforts and sacrifices. Zig Ziglar is attributed with the statement, “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want” (Eha, 2012). This statement sums up way a servant leader influences the organization. The transformational approach to influence focuses on the individual and getting buy-in to the organizational goals and methods. While a lot of differences are seen in the process and influence actions of these three contemporary approaches, Dr. Fong’s lesson (n.d. b) show several similarities in the groupings and the goals. The group dynamics of a servant and transformational leader are not as clear cut and separated as previous approaches. The leader focuses more on the individual and does more work alongside those in subordinate roles. The goals of all three approaches focus more on the individual than previous approaches. Contemporary leadership approaches place a great deal of emphasis on the individual impact of each member of the organization to the overall success of goal attainment. The focus on the individual is a collectively defining characterization of all three approaches to leadership. The shift to open, collective relationships in leadership can also be seen in the classroom. Understanding By Design (Novak & Rose, 2016) provide explanations and resources for teachers to design lessons that take all learners abilities, needs, and preferences into account during the lesson design stage. Understanding by Design is a more collaborative approach to learning design that provides more input and choices for learners. This method of design seems to mirror the transformational approach to leadership. Mark Perna (2018) explains how the goals and motivations of youth today are different than those of previous generations. These differences are shown to need a different teaching approach more in line with the transformational leadership style. The evolution in leadership approaches has changed significantly over the last 120 years. Over that time, the approaches have become more focused on the individual and more open in communication of goals and methods. A similar shift in teaching styles has been seen in the classroom. Teachers and students collaborate more on the outcomes and methods for learning. The new and updated understandings in leadership will likely continue to evolve and grow as new understanding of people and organizations comes to light. References: Eha, B. P. (2012, November 30). Zig Ziglar and the Importance of Helping Others. Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225131. Retrieved January 23, 2022 Fong, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Leadership: Week 1: Lecture 1 [video]. Blackboard. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Fong, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Leadership: Week 1: Lecture 2 [video]. Blackboard. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline Leaders Excellence. (2019, September). The Evolution of Leadership. Leaders Excellence. https://leadersexcellence.com/the-evolution-of-leadership/. Retrieved January 22, 2022 Novak, K., & Rose, D. H. (2016, September 1). UDL Now!: A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today’s Classrooms. CAST Professional Publishing. Perna, M.C. (2018, September 18). Answering Why: Unleashing Passion, Purpose, and Performance in Younger Generations. Greenleaf Book Group Press. For me, I define leadership as the human aspect to the navigation of an organization or community. My view of what leadership is has evolved out of many years of working with my students and parents in a variety of projects and activities related to the engineering program at my school. We have a lot of people who hold an office or committee chair position but are not leaders while at the same time we have others who hold no official position, but are leaders in their own right. What I have witnessed, and in turn nurtured, is that our leaders set the direction and focus for our program. Their leadership may help or hurt, but it is undeniable. It is important to take this further than anecdotal evidence from my classroom. In this weeks lectures, a similar theme emerges. We learned in Dr. Fong’s first lecture (n.d.), that over the last 120 years or so, we have seen the way people and organizations look at and define leadership change. It would take a lot longer than we have in this short discussion board to clarify, but it does seem that the changes in leadership style and understanding have shifted with shifts in the culture and economy. For example, I cannot help but notice that the first era listed in the lesson ends around the same time as the start of the Great Depression. This correlation is not definitive, but it is interesting and might be worth looking into. In Dr. Fong’s second lecture (n.d.), we were introduced to more recent styles of leadership that are commonly in practice. The transactional style is very much in line with how I had conducted class when I started teaching. I would give students grades in return for their performance. I believed that the incentive of good grades would motivate students to perform better. In my experience, that expectation only went so far. Over time, I had adjusted my personal leadership style and how I worked with those in my educational community of parents and students. I didn’t realize it until this lesson that over time, I had moved to a more transformational style and was building that within the class. I use the term “more” deliberately. In the lessons, the eras and styles were clearly defined and delineated. What I witness when putting the academic theory alongside the practical application in the classroom is that the boundaries seem much fuzzier. To conclude this discussion, the lessons this week coincide with my current definition. I say current, because I am sure that over time, as I grow and learn more, my understanding and implementation of leadership will change. For now, leadership has less to do with position and duties and more with connecting with people to motivate and encourage action. References: Fong, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Leadership: Week 1: Lecture 2 [video]. Blackboard. https://luonline.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_183930_1/cl/outline |
About 5311This is my first course in my principal certification program. The course focus on leadership. ArchivesCategories
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