Teach, Teach!

Yet another offering from my Ed.S. program. This time it’s my weekly reflection due to my afternoon professor. Enjoy 😉

    This time around I found that I was really drawn to a couple of key elements in the reading, Maxwell’s Leadership 101, due to their applicability to my own professional life and development as a leader. Maxwell’s focus on the stages of leadership, as well as his insistence that great leaders take on the task of developing and mentoring their successors, seem particularly appropriate to me as I venture onto the first rungs of the leadership ladder.
    Maxwell discusses the stages of leadership, and Dr. Berry also reviewed those stages in class, confidently asserting that most of us have made it to level 2, at which we at least know what we don’t know. I definitely feel that I am at level 2, acutely aware of my lack of expertise and experience. I find myself, for the second year in a row, in a new job, in a new place. This time, the setting is even more intimidating as I’ve made the move into the central office. Although my position is definitely an entry level one there, the expectations are high. As I was reading in the Maxell text, one of his suggestions really hit home. Maxwell cautioned that developing leaders take their time and allow themselves to fully develop their skills before attempting to advance into leadership positions they are not ready for. Too often, we let ourselves become too focused on advancement, without regard to our own readiness. One good thing I have experienced at the central office is an awareness of the many excellent leaders we do have at the district level. I know that I have much to learn from them, and that learning will definitely take time, more time than many might expect. But I think taking this time to learn and be mentored by others who are at higher levels of leadership can only benefit me in the long run.
    The other aspect that Maxwell mentions is a critical one for schools, and one I feel is missing in most: leaders mentoring and developing future leaders. In class on Saturday, one of my classmates made mention of the 20% of teacher leaders who tend to be the ones always asked to lead initiatives, those workhorses and go-to people who eventually get burned out from being relied on, and, some say, “dumped on,” too often. But there’s a big difference between being exploited and being acknowledged and offered opportunities to develop leadership. The best leader I have ever worked with has mastered walking that fine line. Quite simply, she is someone people can’t refuse. I’m not talking about a person who uses fear to prevent refusal. Instead, this is a leader who manages to make every request sound like such a great idea, who manages to make you feel honored to have been included, and who even manages to make you hope she’ll ask you to do this extra thing, which will likely be something you’re not even getting paid to do. But in addition to this talent, this woman has something else that makes it all work: She knows how to build leaders. And she does it by letting them lead, by providing opportunity, and by being available and offering guidance when needed. Unfortunately, I don’t see similar leaders much in the schools, leaders who are willing to take the time to nurture and grow other leaders. Both administrators and teachers need such mentors if they are to feel empowered and if they are to develop into leaders who can lead their schools, staff, and students to greater success.

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In the spirit of sharing, and because I’m actually doing a lot of writing right now, just not for this blog, I’ve included my most recent work below for you to enjoy. (I really hope you’re all sensing the sarcasm, here.) For my Ed.S., we are required to read and reflect on a number of texts. This is my response to our latest class reading, Smart Moves, by Carla Hannaford.

In Smart Moves, Carla Hannaford makes it clear that learning is certainly not all in our heads. Throughout this text, Hannaford emphasizes the necessity of understanding and using the connections between the body and the mind to facilitate and maximize learning in ourselves and our students. Even as the author focuses on the intricacies of the learning process and the many ways our bodies influence, create, foster, and sometimes, limit learning, she also emphasizes the importance of teaching, valuing, and developing the whole child. Again and again, Hannaford shares examples of how exercising the body can stimulate the mind and result in learning outcomes that both amaze and delight both learners and their teachers.

Hannaford emphasizes the importance of physical activity both before, during and after learning. She explains how the senses and our emotions are key players in the process of learning, even before we leave the womb. She describes how early childhood developmental milestones, such as crawling, are the building blocks of a child’s capacity to learn, as movements such as crawling “activate both hemispheres in a balanced way” (Hannaford, 92). Hannaford insists that real learning “starts with movement in response to a stimulus, then creates a context or experience to understand the sensory input” (99). Throughout, the author stresses the importance of teaching students in a way that honors the natural progression of skills and their bodies’ development. For example, she advocates postponing the emphasis on silent reading until after the age of seven, at which time students are more likely to have developed the inner voice that will enable them to accomplish the task successfully and with less frustration.

Much of what Hannaford recommends just makes good sense. While my high school English classroom was small and space was limited, many of Hannaford’s suggestions were commonplace in that space. I’m sure more than one administrator was less than happy about the noise level in my room. But I felt certain that learning required interaction with the material in many, varied ways. My students read, discussed, sketched, painted, taught, debated, wrote, play-acted, laughed and, I hope, learned. Hannaford affirms such practice, stating, “Most people need to discuss, write, or draw a picture of new ideas in order anchor them in the body with movement for memory and clarity of thought” (101).

Hannaford also details the impact of stress on the learning process, labeling those who are most afflicted by stress as SOSOH (Stressed Out, Survival-Oriented Humans) (145). She identifies a number of stressors that inhibit learning, from medical ones such as chronic ear infections to technological ones such as television, computers, and video games. Not surprisingly, Hannaford continues to make connections between these seemingly very different sources of stress, the body, and the mind. For example, chronic ear infections and the overuse of televisions, computers and video games can all contribute to an impairment of a child’s language acquisition. How? Hannaford explains that ear infections can affect hearing in general and can impact a child’s ability to hear the full range of harmonics. Over reliance on digitized sources of sound, such as that found in television, computers, and video games, does not expose children to the full range of harmonics. In both instances, children are being deprived and their language acquisition may be impaired since they are not being afforded the opportunity to hear and interact with the full range of a real human voice (Hannaford, 102). Again, it becomes clear that our classrooms must be places filled with many varied voices, the voices of our students as they teach what they’ve been taught, share their discoveries with each other, and practice the art of communication.

Throughout the text, Hannaford emphasizes the importance of relationships—the relationships between teacher and student, between body and mind, between heart and intellect. Hannaford insists that “It is the full activation and balance of all parts of our body/mind system that allow us to become effective, productive thinkers” (106).

I am so incredibly frustrated right now.

I am working on my Ed.S., and a big part of it revolves around a research project. I came up with a pretty good topic, one that is relevant to my current position and actually stands to benefit the district I work in (no small feat, believe me). I even managed to get it approved by our Office of Accountability (albeit after I don’t know how many revisions). And I got my professor to approve it as well.

So what’s the problem?

I have to secure the consent of every high school prinicipal in my district. I’ve already had two decline to participate.  Why, why, why?

I’m not asking them to do ANYTHING. All I need is their consent for me to include their students’ test data in the district averages. That’s it. And I’m not even going to be breaking out the data by school. There is NO risk to them. NADA.

But there is potential for good here. My research focuses on determining the relationship between remediation and exit exam scores. Does it work? If so, why? If not, why not?

If I cannot get the principals to agree, I’m not sure how to proceed. I don’t have time to come up with a completely different topic. My proposal is due Nov. 18. Bottom line, I have to sell this study to these administrators or I’m screwed.

AAAARRRRGGGG!

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I am in the process of getting my Ed.S. in Educational Leadership. We are reading all sorts of books on the subject, and I find myself getting a little tired of the repetition in these texts. Here’s what I’ve learned about leadership from these books:

• Great leaders are great people.
• Great leaders inspire those who follow them to be great people.

Alrighty, then. In all of these texts, the emphasis is on maintaining personal and professional integrity, being a great listener, a risk-taker (but not too much of one), and having the confidence to create a win-win sense of collaborative/team spirit within your organization.

I can’t say I disagree that these are all wonderful qualities for a leader to possess. But I’ve noticed others.

• Someone people can’t refuse. Think about it. Have you ever worked for someone like this? I’m not talking about the person who uses fear to prevent refusal. I’m talking about those individuals who manage to make every request sound like such a great idea, who manage to make you feel honored to have been asked, and who even manage to make you hope they’ll ask you to do this extra thing (might even be something you’re not getting paid for). I seriously need this skill. I seriously don’t have it.
• Someone who lets others lead. This is critical. Great leaders know how to get the ball rolling and then get the hell out of the way. But not disappear. They walk that fine line between being absent and being intrusive and micromanaging. They give support when it is needed. But they trust others to do a great job. And most of the time, others do.
• Someone who’s willing to do the dirty work. This is another biggie for me. I find it difficult to respect a leader who thinks he/she is somehow beyond a certain task now. Don’t get me wrong–obviously there are tasks that should be delegated and obviously a leader can’t be expected to do everything. But, especially in education, leaders need to show those they lead (usually teachers and/or students), that they’re willing to get their hands dirty too. I’ll give a personal example: I used to teach at a high school where none of the administrators did lunch duty. The task had been completely delegated to coaches and teachers. The message that sent to the faculty? “We’re too busy and important to bother with this.” On the other hand, at my last high school, not only did teachers and coaches do lunch duty, but also EVERY administrator, INCLUDING the principal, EVERY DAY. By the way, that principal also did bus duty every day. What message do you think THAT sent?

So, what do you think are essential qualities for effective educational leaders?

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