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.
0 Comments
|
About 5311This is my first course in my principal certification program. The course focus on leadership. ArchivesCategories
All
|