Leadership and Planning (565) - Week 3

This week I really enjoyed the simulation. Our team worked well together to discuss the best strategies to move the district employees forward. We weren’t very successful at the beginning because we needed to make sure more people were aware of issues and topics in the district but we finally discovered that giving everyone a survey helped accomplish this task. After I thought about it I would have to agree that when people take surveys, regardless of the feedback that they give, they learn by simply reading the questions and options. I saw this happen when I gave teachers an assessment on online safety for students. Many teachers said that by taking the survey they were made more aware of the issues that needed to be addressed.

All of my team members were also frustrated with the three employees who would not be persuaded to complete the survey. We have all worked with people like this and the resistance to change or even receive new information is frustrating to those who truly believe that it would be in the best interest of everyone to have an open mind. It sounds like persistence will pay off and I’m anxious to see which strategy will work to help move these people forward.

The review of “Who Moved My Cheese” was a very timely and appropriate activity for me this week. As I said in my forum post I was planning to reread this book before the beginning of school because our district is undergoing some major changes. Although most changes are positive changes and are best for the district I anticipate a lot of negativity as the year begins. Our own district changes along with the changes at the state level will really require people to move out of their comfort zone and look ahead. We will need to remind people that “The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese!”

I also felt that the speaker in the Changes in Thinking – Systems Thinking video had some great points on system change. Our system is definitely changing and I hope that all of the parts of the system; administration, teachers, communities, state leaders, etc. can interact so that they are not working in isolation. We need to respect everyone’s role and purpose in education and keep in mind that everyone should have the same goal in mind to educate and prepare our students to be successful in this ever-changing world.

Leadership and Planning (565) - Week 2

Evaluating data has been a small part of my job and each year I collect training data, survey staff and evaluate subscription data to make decisions about professional development and instructional resources.  This week has reminded me of how important collecting and evaluating data can be for setting goals and making changes in a district.  In the past I have found that staff can get very frustrated when we ask them to fill out surveys or ask students to take another assessment, so I think I need to share more results with them and involve them in more of the planning that takes place after.   This may help them understand and be more tolerant of the requests that we make each year.

I didn’t find chapter two, “Strategic Leadership: Assembling Your Team” as valuable at chapter one or three.  Although I agree that having teachers involved in the interview process is a great way to engage teacher leaders I don’t see teachers having as much involvement as the author described in chapter two.  I liked Gabriel’s suggestions and I may be able to use some of the tips for conducting the interview as we continue to interview new staff but I don’t see our teachers taking the role of placing or scheduling of new teachers. 

I did enjoy reading Chapter Three,” Interpersonal Leadership: Communicating Your Leadership”.  I feel that communication is one of the most important skills that a leader should have and I’ve seen many leaders fail because of poor communication skills.  In a world where email is a major communication tool we have to be very careful how we word things.  People can’t see facial expressions and body language when reading emails and many times people interpret the words much differently than the author intended.  Another danger is reacting too quickly to a confrontational email.  I have learned to read an email several times and then wait before I respond to an email that requires some thought.

I also liked Gabriel’s oral communication suggestions.  Answering a question with a question can sometimes be frustrating but I understand his point that it can help a person discover the answer on their own.  I also like the reminder to “put it in the positive”.   His example of asking, “How did it go when you turned in that form?”  instead of “Did you take care of that form that I asked you to?” is a great way to put the responsibility on  them.  I am definitely going to try that approach in the future.