Educational Discourse

As today was a holiday here (Family Day) I’ve spent time hanging out with my family and just doing neat stuff – like reading and listening to kids play piano, play with games, play hockey and, when this all happens at approximately the same time, fight. Being an administrator, I’m very adept at intervening when this happens, sending the parties to various places to cool down, talking with them about their actions and, when all else fails, sending them to see their mother! Now, it’s just before supper and I’ve had some time to cruise my google reader list and pop into some blogs. On Teachers at Risk, I ran across the following entry which is another take on the leadership meme. Elona has “tagged” me to offer some insights – for what they’re worth.

I’d like to invite people to consider the questions Doug asks us to reflect upon

Relative to your leadership role…

- What’s working well?

- What brings you great pride and joy?

- How have you made a difference for good in the lives of those you serve?

- What brings you quiet satisfaction?

- What have you learned over the last few months?

- How can you use this information (above) to move your organization forward

Now, this is different as it has specific questions. So, here I go.

1. What is working well for me is the way we are working together as a staff. We continue to work at developing a collaborative environment but we are definitely getting better at asking more of the stakeholders, parents, students and community, to join our conversations.

2. The one thing that brings me great pride and joy is that we are working with students to develop a student-created survey about what areas need attention within our school. The survey will be created by students, online, and will result in programming for the next two years in our school.

3. Well, I think I have made a difference because students know that I care about them. I care enough that I ask them for their input. I care enough to listen to what they tell me. I care enough to discuss various options with them when we run into a wall. I care enough to outline expectations with consequences and then follow through.

4. The fact that our school spirit is improving and teachers and students are slowly becoming more and more involved in what is happening, taking pride in their school.

5. That listening is the most important thing you can do, even when someone doesn’t want to talk to you. Silence can be very informative!

6. Listening is vital to leading, especially listening to people who don’t speak during staff meetings or during input sessions. One must sometimes seek out people to engage them in dialogue. When you do this, it is vital you listen and acknowledge what they say. It is also important to ask all parties, not just students and parents but other people in your community need be allowed to offer input.

I’ve been asked to tag seven other people whom I think can offer some good insights on these questions. Thus Dean Shareksi, J Boulton, Scott McLeod,  Brian Saxton , Scott Elias, Kimberly Moritz and Sunny Williams  . This should provide some great food for thought.