Module 2-Sophie

An Effective Leader

Most effective leaders can come in all shapes and sizes, and the change they cause doesn’t always have to be positive to be effective. The effective leader that I will describe is a short older woman, she has been teaching for many, many years even though she didn’t go to school to be a teacher at first; teaching was sort of thrust onto her.

When I met her, she taught how she was taught, rote memorization and worksheets. She also taught with a firm hand, some would say that she bullied the students into submission, others would say that she had high expectations and demanded that the students lived up to them. I saw her as the kind of woman that got stuff done and as an intimidator. I knew right from the start that this woman was someone that I had to have on my side or she would persuade everyone to be against me just by saying it. When she was showing me around the school for the first time, she made the comment that “we let the principal think she is in charge, but we really run this place” and by “we” she meant she.  

I was one of the few lucky newbies that year. I slipped through the cracks and didn’t get much attention. I wasn’t her best friend but I didn’t do anything that could cause reason for her to turn on me. She was the kind of person that if she liked you, she would bend over backwards to do anything for you, but all it took was one thing, and you were on her “list” for the rest of her life. If you made it to the “list” there was no way you could ever get off of it and she would do everything in her power, passive aggressive or aggressive, to shove you out.

I saw her raise people up to their highest potential, praising them and pushing them to be better than their best. Encouraging them and forcing them to try again. I saw her comfort them in their failures and then push them to get back on the horse. It was like, if she believed in them, then they could do anything. She also loved them, and babied them, and took care of them like they were her own.

I also saw her tear people down and stomp on them, figuratively, until they felt like they were worthless. I saw her pull a kid out of the crowd for talking and yell at him in front of half of the school and embarrass him by making him stand in the corner. I heard her, through the walls of our rooms, belittle students for not understanding and ridicule them because they weren’t following along.

She would do this to grown adults and to the students, she didn’t discriminate.

If she believed in a cause or movement or change in the school, then she would push everyone in her click to do the same, no one dared speak up against her. Then her click would look down upon those who didn’t follow suit until they either left or changed with them. However, the exact same thing would happen if she didn’t believe in something. If she wasn’t on the bandwagon, you might as well forget it.

She did see the importance of technology even though she didn’t understand how to use all of it. She would do everything in her power to incorporate as much technology as she could as long as she didn’t look silly. She would have to learn how to do it all before trying to use it in the classroom. However, once that happened, then no one else in the building could justify not implementing the same technology. If she could do it, so could they.

Some parts of her leadership style were not that bad, however, the majority of her style was based off of intimidation and belittling. I do not think that her leadership was the best way to go about it.

My Leadership Skills Assessment mainly had three to four stars across the board, with a couple exceptions; the overall score was a 60. I was a little surprised at this because I didn’t think I was that great of a leader because I have tried to make some changes in the schools I have worked, and have been unsuccessful.

Personal Characteristics went as follows:

·         Self-Confidence: 3/10, 1 star

·         Positive Attitude and Outlook: 6/10, 3 stars

·         Emotional Intelligence: 6/10, 3 stars

·         Providing a Compelling Vision of the Future: 6/10, 3 stars

·         Motivating People to Deliver the Vision: 9/10, 5 stars

·         Being a Good Role Model: 8/10, 4 stars

·         Managing Performance Effectively: 7/10, 4 stars

·         Providing Support and Stimulation: 15/20, 4 stars

Apparently I need to work on my self-confidence. With me having depression and anxiety, I am constantly questioning myself and thinking that I’m not doing a good enough job (*see extra-long blog postings). I have been working on this and I am making progress. I did think that I would have gotten more than one star based on the progress I have made, but, oh well.

My strongest characteristic was motivating people. I guess I am good at getting people to embrace change and work together. I do believe that I am good at getting students to do these things; however, I don’t think I am any good at getting adults to do this. Most of my classroom settings have been group work and student centered. I just don’t feel comfortable doing those same things with adults (goes back to my self-confidence).

What kind of leader do you aspire to be?

I would love to be the one the boss turns to when they need to get a job done. I want to be trusted and respected. I would love to be someone that is a well known professor in technology education and integration at an ambitious university. I dream that I have written many books that are being used as education education textbooks. I dream of becoming a person that the school districts contact when they need PD on the subject. I dream that my books are bought by schools and the teachers are to read them and have kind of book club meetings about the topics brought up in them. 
My dreams are all well and good, and there is a slim chance that it might happen. More realistically, I will be the person that is a leader when I am asked or needed. I have learned that I don't have to be a leader all the time, some times I can be an awesome follower, the best follower that the leader has. As long as I am appreciated, respected and informed, I will be happy lending a hand whenever it is needed.

Summarize two of the Six Secrets of Change.

Fullan Change Secret #1: Love Your Employees. I love that this one is number one; I think it is the most important. The “love your employees” secret of change mainly says that the leaders should trust and support their teachers and staff unconditionally. The leaders should encourage all the faculty as they strive to achieve community, school, and personal goals.

Fullan Change Secret #5: Transparency Rules. I believe that the best professional development is right there in the halls of your own school. The “transparency rules” secret of change suggests that the teachers observe each other teach, learn from each other and share ideas, tricks, and tools…etc. with each other. However it shouldn’t stop with the teachers, the leaders should also observe and share their ideas, tricks, tools…etc.

What is your philosophy of how schools can/should use social media?

When it comes to blogs, Facebook, Twitter and so forth, I think they should be used in the classroom. If students are using them all the time outside the classroom, then why not use what they know to encourage them to learn and be active members of the learning environment? Blogs are a great way to keep the entire class, their parents and the community up-to-date with what is happening in your classroom, tests, homework, and activities. Facebook and Twitter are great tools to use outside the classroom for support and reminders. You can even create discussions and virtual classrooms so that even absent students aren’t really absent. Implementing tools like these can remove the need to make up snow days because students can just log onto their accounts and have class at home. This kind of integration also gets them ready for college classes.

I love the idea that my students can contact me whenever they need me. I have a second Facebook account that I created my first year of teaching. I didn’t feel comfortable with having students on my first account since I started it my first year of college, and while I have deleted and blocked many things over the years, I wasn’t 100% positive that it was all suitable for middle school children. Plus, while I was now mature and posting appropriate items, my friends might not be on the same level as I was, so I created a second account.

I used this account to connect not only with my students, but their parents and the community. I would remind them of an upcoming test, support them during their successes and their failures, and I would wish the school teams good luck at their next competition. With the private messaging, I was able to help students with their homework, study for a test, and help them work through a tough situation. I was there for them even when I wasn’t in the same county.

If the schools that I taught in would allow phones, I would use them as learning tools. I would have them text me their answers to the bell ringer and send them calendar reminders of upcoming activities. I would also do some research and find out other cool and inventive ways to use those tools to enhance my classroom.

Module #2 - Blog Post Carolanne Keim

I have observed multiple types of leaders over my life. I have had 3 supervisors since I started my career after graduations. All have taught me a great deal on leadership and how I want to lead my staff. I feel though the most beneficial supervisors I have had would have to have been my first supervisor as a professional, Dan Gockley.

Dan Gockley, Tish Cavicchio, Carolanne Keim

Dan pushed me as an employee to think and act outside my comfort zone. In these pushed though he guided me along the way and was always their for advice. I never felt like he pushed me to hard or not enough. He also would let me guide what areas I would branch out into. He was very supportive of the work I was doing and always pushed me to continue and do my best. 

Dan also was great at creating a strong team. He always gave you his full attention when speaking to him. He would then give very sound advice on any situation be in professional or personal. If we had disputes among the staff he was very neutral and proactive on getting the situations under control. 

Thinking back on his leadership style and of my other supervisors leadership style it has gotten me to think about my leadership style. I really enjoyed the “How good are you Leadership skills?” quiz. I thought it was one of the shortest leadership quizzes I have ever taken on leadership but felt it was very effective. The evaluation and results I got was very accurate to what I have already understood to be my strengths and weaknesses.  

The 2 areas I scored the lowest on were being a role model and positive attitude and outlook. I feel the reason I scored lowest on these areas is due to my stress and worrying. I do my best to not show this to my staff but at times I know I appear to be overwhelmed. This I feel can hurt me as a leader, as it doesn’t show that I am strong and sound in my work.

The areas I scored the highest in was motivating people to deliver the vision. I feel strongly in pushing my staff to do their best (personally and professionally) as well as praise them when they do well. I feel if they see the gratitude from me for putting in the hard work they will continue to work hard. I also am not perfect and want them to feel comfortable telling me when I make a mistake or they feel there may be a more effective way. I want to create an open environment where you can communicate freely about the workplace without the fear of any repercussion.

I think these qualities of my leadership style will be similar till the day I die. Similar but I know I will have evolved in some aspects of these styles.  We are humans and we are always evolving and changing with the environment. I am only a young professional but I have seen over the years how I have changed and adapted. Looking over the six secretes of change I have used all of these at some point over the 4 years. 

I strongly agree with Loving your Employees. The word love might be misinterpreted by some but I view loving your employees as gaining their trust, support their work, creating a safe environment, encouraging them to take risks, and so much more.  Showing them love will empower them to do more for themselves as well as work harder for your company.

Staff from 2012-2013 School Year

Going along with doing more for themselves and their job, I feel learning by working is also very important. Encouraging people to learn more about something or follow an interest has multiple benefits. Once an employee has learned a new items they can share what they have learned with other employees. This will then educate your whole staff and give the employee who learned gratitude and support for doing her research. 

I believe the supervisor also has to demonstrate learning while working. I personally have tried to go away to a conference each year and if possible take a few staff members with me. After each conference, the people who attended are I ask to do a recap of what they took away from the conference. Then as a group or individual they will share the informant with some if not all the staff. This concept has helped me grow also as a leader. When I am able to come back excited about new innovative items to share with the staff I am excited for the future and can’t want to get started. 

Another great aspect of going to conferences is making connections with others around the state/county that have similar jobs to yours. I have found becoming part of the social media groups from the conferences has also helped me bring new items and ideas back to the work place. It has also helped me stay connected with he people I have met along the way.

Social Media has become a very hot topic with education. Before I go into my philosophy of social media I just want to state that I use social media daily to connect with students at the University. I have a different outlook then most in this class as I only deal with college age students outside the classroom.

About 3 - 4 years ago we created the Office of Residence Life and Housing Facebook and Twitter page. We started with these pages as they were free and what our students were using at the time. We still currently have these pages and are looking into how to connect more to our students through social media.

So with that back story, I feel you might know my philosophy already but I strongly believe that social media should be used at the college age level of education. We have found that attendance for events has increased as well as knowledge of important dates has been communicated faster. Social media helps us as most students check this multiple times a day vs. maybe checking their e-mail once or twice a week.

The seven Pillars are a great reminder of how to use social media for education.

1. Communication
2. Public relations
3. branding
4. professional growth and development
5. students engagement and learning
6. Opportunities
7. learning environment and space

I believe, if we are using these 7 pillars, properly  then we are using social media for our students to better them. Today there is a new social media society, that is becoming such an important part of our culture today. If we can tap into this society with education we are going to engage our students more and let them grow in this society as well.

Leadership and social media can be very controversial topics. I know some people might not agree with my stance on these areas but I feel I am doing the best I can currently. I know even by tomorrow some of the items and concepts I use will be outdates and need revamps. Changing and adapting is key to both leadership style and social media. 

Module Two

MODULE TWO

An Effective Leader

        According to the resource Leadership Characteristics That Facilitate School Change, “Leaders of educational change have vision, foster a shared vision, and value human resources.” 

        One of the most effective leaders I have worked with has been the principal at my school. One of the changes she has been working toward with diligence has been implementing teaching strategies in our classrooms that will challenge and engage students and require them to use higher order thinking skills.  What initiated this idea was the realization within our school that our students served by the special education program were getting left behind in some classes and subjects, and by some teachers. There was a large progress gap between these students and the regular education students. We needed more student engagement in the classroom, but we also needed to challenge students at a higher level.  We needed to make a change across the board to implement this vision that our principal brought to us.

        The first, and most important thing she did was to clearly communicate the need and vision to us, and give us some time to discuss possible responses.  To foster a shared vision, she put committees together at the school-wide level, and also broke us up into grade levels to brainstorm and discuss possibilities.  When we all became part of the solution, we felt more valued. 

        She then made use of the human resources available to her, and rather than lecturing us about her plans for a solution, or bringing in an outside element to speak to us about our shortcomings and how to solve them, she has had us teaching each other.  The other reason why this is so effective is because even the teachers guiltiest of contributing to our progress gap with special education students are required to teach others how to lessen that gap.  We’ve been charged at each grade level to work as a team to come up with examples of activities we do in our classrooms that engage all students and require higher order thinking skills.  Each team is given two hours of professional development time to pass on the activities via teacher participation activities, videos, and demonstrations. 

        Even if all teachers didn’t share in our principal’s vision at the outset, we’ve all been valued in becoming a part of the response.  Through teaching each other, we’ve been able to more readily see our own shortcomings and gather ideas from sources close to us, which has made the response more meaningful and lasting.  We’re all keeping each other accountable, because we all have a stake in the process.

Leadership Skills Assessment

       According to the Leadership Skills Assessment on the Mind Tools web site, the skills I was strongest in were motivating people and being a good role model. These are probably my strengths, because they are also things I look for in a good leader, things I value quite a bit, and I can’t say that I’ve really found them very often.  I think these two skills go hand in hand. I’ve always felt it was important that a leader be a good role model, have integrity, be someone of trust, a person who will do what they say they will do.  When someone like this is leading you, and they have a vision for something, people are likely to feel very motivated, and do whatever they can to help carry out the vision.

       A couple of the skills I need to develop are self-confidence and providing a compelling vision, which are two skills I also feel are intertwined.  I definitely tend to second-guess myself a lot, which can get in the way of putting forth a vision for others.  Once I’m clear about where things should go, I can get others motivated and lead by example, but getting to that point can be difficult for me. I listen to the naysayers and criticizers far too often.  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to listen to them less, and do what needs to be done, but it still proves to be a challenge for me.

        In looking at the leadership styles described in the resource Leadership Characteristics That Facilitate School Change, I think my leadership style is one of being a visionary who communicates and listens effectively.  There have been other leadership positions I’ve been in, previous to teaching, where I think these strengths were more apparent.  Teacher leaders have to have the freedom at their workplace to exercise leadership skills, and I don’t know that every school environment is conducive to that happening. Given the authority and opportunity, I think this would be my style of leadership, as well as valuing human resources.  I am not a leader who likes to micromanage.  As a team leader at my school, I’ve had to recognize the strengths of other teachers on my team, and delegate responsibilities accordingly, and I’ve never had a problem with that.

The Secrets of Change

        One of the Six Secrets of Change (Sheninger, 2014) is to "Connect Peers With Purpose."  In my description of one of the most effective leaders I’ve known, I describe a perfect illustration of this.  Making the teachers a part of coming up with and carrying out the solution when a problem is presented will provide purpose.  Also, going beyond the school and involving the students and community when a vision or change is going to be a sizable one, is a good way to ensure success.

        Another Fullan Change Secret is "Learning is the Work."  In the study by Gao, Wong, Choy and Wu (2010), the authors state, “As the participants explored constructive teaching approaches…they discovered their own ‘tech savvy’ strengths.” As teachers are given new tools for technology, and participate in the training to use those tools, they also will need the freedom and consistent support within the school environment to learn how to use them daily, in the classroom.  That is the real work.  Once this begins to happen, new leaders are recognized and can be utilized for even more support.

Social Media in Schools

       While reading Chapter 4 of the book by Sheninger, I have been struck by how willing he is to lead by example, even when it hasn’t been comfortable for him.  I think this is what keeps a lot of administrators and school systems from allowing social media in their schools.  They’re scared of what they don’t understand.  Building or school district administrators today do not regularly use many of the social media tools kids use, because the administrators tend to be older, and didn’t learn how to educate by using these tools.  They’ve heard horror stories about teen suicides and cyber bullying, cheating on tests and sexting, and they would rather not delve into the area of social media in the schools.  I think this does a great disservice to students today.  I think it is incumbent upon us, as educators, to do what we can to teach students to be successful in the world of their present and future, rather than teach them how to live in our world, or even the past.  Use of social media in today’s schools would need to be carefully regulated, and staff and administrators would need to have training that is comprehensive and long-term to implement the change, but it could also be a powerful tool to draw kids in, keep them motivated, involve the community, and help the school system be more successful in educating its students.

Trailblazing Technology Integration

Differences and Disconnect

According to Jukes, McCain, and Crockett,

“Digital learners prefer random access to hyper-linked multimedia information, but many educators prefer to provide information linearly, logically, and sequentially.”

 “Digital learners prefer processing pictures, sounds, color, and video before text, but many educators prefer to provide text before picture, sound, and video.”

My own experiences confirm these assertions. For a long time, I would teach something and then show the video afterwards. Now I can see the value in showing the video first. Modern learners desire having multisensory data as a springboard for further exploration and learning. Students without background knowledge gain a furrow in which to plant further seeds.

When doing research, my students frequently request to watch videos and listen to songs before reading text. They also really love doing 3-D virtual tours online. They prefer to have a solid image of what they are researching firmly in mind before they start digging into the facts. It took me some time to realize they weren’t just shirking duty. Thinking about my own patterns of investigation online, I also like to watch videos, listen to songs or interviews, and explore random hyperlinks to gain greater understanding on a topic of interest. Students who are not allowed or afforded the opportunity to enrich understanding through use of multimedia tools are undoubtedly feeling a large disconnect, considering that they are virtually immersed in multimedia technology outside of the classroom. In short, teachers need to realize that students desire more autonomy in regards to learning, and that granting them autonomy can open up more opportunities.

Essential Elements of Change: Leadership

Out of the ten guidelines presented, these are my choices:

"The principal must support early adopters and risk takers."

"The principal must be an active and public champion for all students, staff members, and the school of implementing a vision of fully integrating learning technology for the second decade of the twenty-first century."

These two guidelines resonated with me because they are crucial to the successful implementation of technology. If risk is viewed adversely by administration and early adopters are criticized instead of encouraged, the school climate will not be one that encourages innovation. I experienced this at my first teaching job. Such environments are stifling and result in stale pedagogy and discouraged staff and students. 

On the other hand, if principals are supportive of innovation and include stakeholders in full integration through transparency and collaboration, a positive, learner-centered school climate can emerge that embraces change and uses it to enhance learning, instead of avoiding change. Although there will always be resistant parties due to old ways of thinking and people not wanting to go outside of their comfort zones, technological leaders need to be dynamic, flexible, and empathetic in order to convey the importance of actively placing maximized learning as the top priority. They must be willing to listen, and to share, for the benefit of all. 

My current principal displays these positive attributes, and our school is a Success School. The students realize that we place their learning ahead of all else, and they respond by being more motivated. Teachers are encouraged to take risks and develop new methods and ideas. It is a much  more satisfying and positive environment to work in for all involved. 

Sheninger, Eric C. (2014-01-14). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times (p. 15, 43). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.