5.2 Your Leadership Style

In order to better analyze my organization's ability to foster and facilitate more technology in the classroom, I completed the Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology’s Personalized Professional Learning for Future Ready Leaders assessment. The following are the results of said assessment.

My leadership style would seem to slightly off compared to what my district prioritizes. The only area which the district and myself share are the importance of the collaborative leadership community. There is a massive push for professional learning communities, PLC, within the district. A well functioning group can truly analyze how student learning is developing and create new engaging lessons for students to consume. The main thing limiting the district in collaborative leadership is the lack of time they give to foster PLCs. Since so little time is given for PLC and planning, teachers struggle to complete all that is required by the school and district in order to be compliant with rules and regulations. 

Personalized Student learning is an area which I constantly reflect on. I have learned a lot in my short time in this new district about student choice and learning strengths. It is interesting to see how students develop when given the choice on what to learn. Many students shine significantly, but quite a few end up under developed in other areas. As Couros said that strengths should be highlighted, but weaknesses should never be ignored (2015, Chapter 8). I see this happening in the district. I am very much a proponent of developing all skills for a more well rounded individual, this way students get exposed to many different skills in life, and they just might find something they love which they would never have been exposed to by focusing just on strengths.

Infrastructure is the district's weakest point. Their mission is to develop 21st century learners, but there is no plan in place to integrate technology into the classroom at all. This is where my strength comes in as someone who plans, designs and implements technology into the classroom. I can develop as a leader in this field for the district so students can have better and more reliable access to digital tools in the classroom. This year is all about establishing myself as a technology facilitator who knows what they are doing and have the classroom experience to prove I know how to successfully integrate technology into lessons and students’ lives. I have constantly reserved chrome books to try out new apps, to sad results because of poor internet connections. I have utilized student personal tech to get students to leverage more tech with their learning. I wish to write some grants to bring in my technology into the classroom. Grant writing is an area which needs massive improvement in my books.

Personalized Professional Learning is a double edged sword. Yes it allows educators to play to our strengths, but as human beings we tend to feign away from new and unknown ideas. Choice is important, because it gives us validation that we are in control of our lives. It has taken me years to realize that when given the time, I pick my strengths, but that limited me in many fields. Forcing myself to develop new areas of skills has expanded my horizons significantly. There are many educators who won’t develop a skill unless told to do so. A measure of choice and requirement in my opinion is important to a fantastic professional learning experience.

References

Couros, G. (2015). The Innovator's Mindset: empower learning, unleash talent, and lead a culture of creativity. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

Relationships in all dimensions.

Dancing Guy and Relationships

The first follower is the most important one! I so loved this video and shared it with my team at work. Sometimes I feel like the shirtless guy who is the lone nut, but most days I see myself as the first follower. I go around and find those with new ideas who are looking for others to test them, or have at least posted their ideas online. I am looking for anything which will help my students and make my life as an educator easier. Before I go into building relationships at work I want to point out that in the field of education we push for strong work relationships a lot. Many people spend so much time building strong relationships with co-workers and students they sacrifice their own families relationships in the process. The teaching field has one of the highest level of infidelities out of most professional jobs. If we as educators are to model how to be in the community, we must remember to take care of our families first, others we model to others that cheating on ones spouse and ignoring your own children are normal.

How are you building relationships with individuals in your practicum school, district, and classroom? 

Currently at work I am getting to know my new team and staff. I have become known as the tech guru on my floor and I get a constant stream of teachers asking to get stuff fixed up in their classrooms. I have already started using the technology I can in my classroom and checking out tech whenever I can. I have started building a good rapport with the librarian who is into tech app himself, and I am constantly bouncing ideas off of him. I been having conversations with my mentor constantly figuring out ways to integrate technology into different lessons.

How are you developing your identity as a technology leader/facilitator? 

This has been super difficult. There is so little time to do anything. Almost my entire team is new to the school, so there was no planning done over the summer. This means not a single assessment is planned for the school year, there is no calendar in place. Everything is being done during school hours. Luckily I have a lot of resources I have used in the past at my disposal to fall back on, but no time to tweak them. Almost all changes to lessons come from anything I read or study in my graduate classes. This goes back to my opening statement. When the kids leave, I leave and spend time with my family. I hope to get some time to start pushing my technology facilitator, but first I gotta make sure my students and my family's needs are meet.

Give an example of how you have started to empower others to be risk-takers? 

My observation teacher is a good example of empowering others to take risk. She is open to technology but needs somewhere to step first. I have found people are willing to take that first step if you show them how to make it. Give them a lesson, a planned out one, using technology. This will allow them to see how it work and the results of it. This will lead to them wanting to try more technology and be more of a risk taker. One of the members of my team is new to teaching 8th grade social studies. I share him all of my lessons, and he keeps asking for more and more. Some are technology lessons and others are just student centered. He as already approached me about some ideas using some apps I used for a different lesson in the future.

Risk taking is risky, as the name implies. Another reason many teachers avoid the risk is because of the pay check. In the state of Texas, schools can decide not to rehire you for almost any reason. Texas is not a state which protects teacher jobs. At the end of the day if a teacher decides not to take a risk because of the fear of losing a contract next year, I will not fault them for that. Taking care of your family is the number one priority. 

What does a technology facilitator look like?

Innovation defined by Couros is the thought processes of the improvement of something or the creation of something new that is useful (2015). It is pushing the envelope and trying to make things both easier, more efficient and productive. Innovators are never content with what is, but instead strive to improve on what exists, or create which needs to be created. Innovation is not transformation and not a series of different choices. It is the mindset of asking ourselves, what is best for the learner. We must go back to the roots of American education and constantly reflect on the purpose of it. Horace Mann said it best as “Education…beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of men.. the balance wheel of the social machinery… It does better than to disarm the por of their hostility toward the rich; it prevents being poor.” A technology facilitator innovates and helps fellow teachers use those new innovations in the classroom. The facilitator looks at what is available and creates uses that will help teachers become more productive and help students become true 21^st century learners.

My image more balances the type of roles some Technology Facilitators take in their jobs. Most tend to be more like tech support who rarely move outside their own bubble and wait for others to innovate. A true technology facilitator should push the envelope and seek out the untested and innovative. They can also be the innovator themselves, assuming they have the creative potential to do so.

Reference:
Couros, G. (2015). The Innovator's Mindset. [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com