After the post observation, I had the opportunity to review, analyze and reflect on the video conference that was held. It was clear that at the start of the post-conference video we both seemed a little antsy. I think it was difficult for Mr. Novice to see me in the role of a supervisor than his “everyday” colleague. But I think my nervousness was stemming from the anxiety of fulfilling the conference video presentation requirement.
We meet in my classroom at a round table that is normally used for parent-teacher conference or grade-level meeting. I felt this was a non-threatening place to meet because we have had several meetings together here before. I chose to sit adjacent to Mr. Novice as oppose to, across the table from him. I chose this seating arrangement because I wanted it to be a comfortable meeting so that the dialogue would be free, friendly and flowing. As an aspiring school leader, I want to be able to be a “democratic” supervisor that creates a reflective atmosphere for the staff that I work with. Hence, I did not want to seem as if I was “playing principal” but in fact, the information that I was to provide from the observation was information that could be utilized to enhance his performance as a classroom teacher.
One thing that I learned in “communication 101” years ago is that making eye-contact helps to create an effective environment for communication. The person you are communicating with will observe you as someone who is attentive and listening to what they are conveying. So this is what I strive to do from the onset.
Interestingly enough, we had to stop and rewind the recording three times because it was almost impossible for Mr. Novice to keep a straight face whenever I gave the introduction to the post-conference. I was taken aback because I realized that his thinking was as if I was “playing principal” and that I was going to have to switch my position if I was going to appear as a supervisor during this post-conference.
After the third time of rewind, I told the volunteer that was recording to keep rolling the tape and do not stop and start over even if Mr. Novice continued to “act out”. At that moment in my mind, I think that I was thinking that as an administrator there may be some instances where some of my staff may not take me serious or would challenge my authority during times of conferences or disciplinary action meetings. And I would need to be able to successfully conduct a conference without letting those types of antics become interferences.
When the recording started again, I watched my disposition and body language on the video. I observed my body language as if I was trying to exert power from the onset. Initially, I was speaking very fast and my eyebrows were lifted. I was also using finger gestures that appeared as if I was demanding attention. To confirm my observation, I rewind the recording and muted the sound to watch my actions. I seemed very frustrated and in a haste pace to finish the conference.
Contrary to my actions, Mr. Novice changed his course of disposition as well. He suddenly demonstrated a rather closed body language with his arms and legs crossed. At that moment I think that I was backing him in a “defensive” position, which is what I was striving so hard not to portray.
My tone was soft and firm and as I commended Mr. Novice on the areas that I revealed to be his strengths. His arms almost instantly unfolded. He then began a steady nod of agreeance as I praised him for relating the context of vocabulary to real life situations so that the students in his classroom could understand. He then responded with “ it is important to me that students understand the context of words and not just memorize the definitions so I believe providing them with examples can help apply an association with the word.” That statement open positive doors for me and at that moment I knew that we were very close to to the reflectivity that I was aiming for with this conference.
When I pulled out the classroom observation form, I asked him had he had the opportunity to look at the observation form that I previously sent him via e-mail. He interjected and stated that he wanted me to know that I did a very thorough job at capturing the events of the lesson. He continued by stating he was impressed to see that I had forwarded it to him for review before the post-conference and that I should mentioned the process to our current principal. I then asked him how did receiving a copy of the observation before this post-conference make him feel? He answered that it helped him to recall the events of the observation which creates dialogue in the meeting. He continued by saying that he has had two informal observation and both times they were rushed or he didn’t recall the lesson because he wasn’t given the opportunity to reflect on the lesson. At this point, I felt that the post conference had taking a turn for the best.
In retrospect, it was a complex meeting. I am not one for center-stage but what consistently raced through my mind was that my professor was going to view this video and I could not look as if I could not handle a post-conference. It started out rocky but as it continued I think that my novice teacher took a different perspective of my role and advice. All and all, I think that the post-conference was collaborative and it offered an enormous amount of reflection.
At the end of the video, Mr. Novice thanked me for the recommendations and said that even though this was a video for my class he wanted to try some of the suggestions and provide me with feedback on the outcome. (I smiled.)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
I had the opportunity to observe the set up of classrooms on the 3rd grade level. It was very interesting to see how all of the room arrangements were very different among the four classes. One room was arranged in a traditional room set-up (Room A), two of them had the students seats arranged collaboratively (Room B and C) and the last room didn’t seem to have any order to the arrangement of the classroom (Room D). My initial reaction was that the classroom setups were probably geared to the teaching style of the teacher.
Room A was a huge open space that had desks arranged in rows. It was set in an array of 6 rows of 5 desks. The teacher’s desk is located at the front center of the room. On the walls there are maps and posters that clearly identify this is a science and social studies classroom. The teacher seemed to position herself at the front of the classroom during instruction time. It was more of a directed instruction. The students did not get out of their seats but the way the desks are arranged it seemed to be a tight squeeze to move around between the desks.
Room B and Room C were set up similarly. The two classroom teachers team teach so therefore I noticed that the two rooms mirrored one another. My assumption is that though the students switch classes the teachers wanted to have continuity between the two classrooms for the students. The desks were arranged in 7 quads of 4 desks. I gathered this was done this way so that the students could engage in collaborative work more freely. In Room B the teacher’s desk is off to the side near the closet area. In Room C the teacher’s desk is located behind the visualizer. Both classroom teachers appeared to walk the floors of the classroom as they gave instruction to the students. Room B had students working in groups at all measures of the classroom. Some students were even stretched out relaxed on the floor as they collaboratively worked in groups.
Room D seating arrangements did not seem to have any order. Some groups had 4 desks some had 5 one group had 6 and there were a row of desks toward the back. There was not a teacher desk visible. As I walked around the room I found the teacher’s desk in the back of the room hidden behind a divider. Ironically, this is where I found the teacher J as the students were working independently.
All of the rooms had at least five computers. However, none of the classes had students utilizing them while I was scanning the room.
As I reflect on my analysis of the room arrangements of the classrooms I think that how your room is set up can clearly help supervising staff know what method of instructional teaching you use in your classrooms. I think that as teachers we all have different teaching styles and in lieu of that students’ have a variety of learning styles. In my opinion, it is important to add that same diversity to the classroom so that you do not force your teaching style on students that may learn differently.
I learned that as a future principal it will be vital to inform my staffs of the importance of arranging their room so that it meets the needs of all students because how a room is arranged could impact a student learning.
Room A was a huge open space that had desks arranged in rows. It was set in an array of 6 rows of 5 desks. The teacher’s desk is located at the front center of the room. On the walls there are maps and posters that clearly identify this is a science and social studies classroom. The teacher seemed to position herself at the front of the classroom during instruction time. It was more of a directed instruction. The students did not get out of their seats but the way the desks are arranged it seemed to be a tight squeeze to move around between the desks.
Room B and Room C were set up similarly. The two classroom teachers team teach so therefore I noticed that the two rooms mirrored one another. My assumption is that though the students switch classes the teachers wanted to have continuity between the two classrooms for the students. The desks were arranged in 7 quads of 4 desks. I gathered this was done this way so that the students could engage in collaborative work more freely. In Room B the teacher’s desk is off to the side near the closet area. In Room C the teacher’s desk is located behind the visualizer. Both classroom teachers appeared to walk the floors of the classroom as they gave instruction to the students. Room B had students working in groups at all measures of the classroom. Some students were even stretched out relaxed on the floor as they collaboratively worked in groups.
Room D seating arrangements did not seem to have any order. Some groups had 4 desks some had 5 one group had 6 and there were a row of desks toward the back. There was not a teacher desk visible. As I walked around the room I found the teacher’s desk in the back of the room hidden behind a divider. Ironically, this is where I found the teacher J as the students were working independently.
All of the rooms had at least five computers. However, none of the classes had students utilizing them while I was scanning the room.
As I reflect on my analysis of the room arrangements of the classrooms I think that how your room is set up can clearly help supervising staff know what method of instructional teaching you use in your classrooms. I think that as teachers we all have different teaching styles and in lieu of that students’ have a variety of learning styles. In my opinion, it is important to add that same diversity to the classroom so that you do not force your teaching style on students that may learn differently.
I learned that as a future principal it will be vital to inform my staffs of the importance of arranging their room so that it meets the needs of all students because how a room is arranged could impact a student learning.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Week 6:Reflection
Creating a positive school culture could assist leadership with growth while performing school reform.. The climate of the school impacts the way students learn, teachers teach and administrators lead. With a positive school culture we are able to fulfill our mission and educate our youth. School culture makes up the cultures, differences or values that allow the environment of the school to function. The culture itself is not limited to nationalities but also differences in learning. In entails how people treat each other, what their values are, and traditions/ rituals they might have in the school. The culture of the school depends on the students, staff and the parents. Peterson supported this definition in his article Positive or Negative by saying that "School culture is the set of norms, values and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, symbols and stories that make up the 'persona' of the school.”
With this in mind, the positivity of the school culture could drive the steps of school reform. The type of reform a school chooses to use will warrant all of the stake holders to participate in order for the reform to be successful. With the reform, and looking at differences in cultures it is vital that equity is fostered to for all individuals.
One thing that I learned that will shadow me as a school leader is that you must engage in equity among your staff. I say this because in my school there is a lot of inequitable actions that are directed to some of our teachers. Some are giving more resources, some are given newer technology and in many cases some have known. From the readings I learned that in order for a school to grow, equity is important not only to change the mindset of the staff but to promote motivation to buy in to the reform.
Another thing that I ponder greatly with this segment of the course is the understanding of our idea of special education students. I am going to ensure, when I become a school leader, that all students are given the opportunity to learn regardless of their disabilities or inabilities. Since I am the inclusion teacher, I normally have a mass of students that are different from special education to emotional disturbed. The way I handled them in my class is to treat them as each one should be treated individually. Fair is considered by what your needs are. This concept is very difficult for my general education students but they have to learn to have empathy for others and that they are different and should not be compared to someone that may be physically or academically challenged. In my opinion it is important to recognize and acknowledge the differences in others in a positive manner so that they will know their differences are accepted. At my current school our handicapped students is addressed in a way that satisfies the school mission with the differences in the school culture. For example, when a student is unable to participate in Physical Education alternative activities are created for them. Some examples are viewing videos pertaining to the course, participate in the lessons by observation of the classes and then they write about what they observed. In many cases, they find ways to incorporate the student so that they can be involved with the class. Another example that I recall is when a class was reading The Charlie Bone books(similar to Harry Porter) and a parent did not want her child participating for religious beliefs. The teacher and administration addressed in a positive manner by giving the student an alternative reading book to complete the assignment on. This made the parent happy that the school respected her beliefs and took her culture and values for consideration. This differentiation of instruction ensures the equity of all students.
With this in mind, the positivity of the school culture could drive the steps of school reform. The type of reform a school chooses to use will warrant all of the stake holders to participate in order for the reform to be successful. With the reform, and looking at differences in cultures it is vital that equity is fostered to for all individuals.
One thing that I learned that will shadow me as a school leader is that you must engage in equity among your staff. I say this because in my school there is a lot of inequitable actions that are directed to some of our teachers. Some are giving more resources, some are given newer technology and in many cases some have known. From the readings I learned that in order for a school to grow, equity is important not only to change the mindset of the staff but to promote motivation to buy in to the reform.
Another thing that I ponder greatly with this segment of the course is the understanding of our idea of special education students. I am going to ensure, when I become a school leader, that all students are given the opportunity to learn regardless of their disabilities or inabilities. Since I am the inclusion teacher, I normally have a mass of students that are different from special education to emotional disturbed. The way I handled them in my class is to treat them as each one should be treated individually. Fair is considered by what your needs are. This concept is very difficult for my general education students but they have to learn to have empathy for others and that they are different and should not be compared to someone that may be physically or academically challenged. In my opinion it is important to recognize and acknowledge the differences in others in a positive manner so that they will know their differences are accepted. At my current school our handicapped students is addressed in a way that satisfies the school mission with the differences in the school culture. For example, when a student is unable to participate in Physical Education alternative activities are created for them. Some examples are viewing videos pertaining to the course, participate in the lessons by observation of the classes and then they write about what they observed. In many cases, they find ways to incorporate the student so that they can be involved with the class. Another example that I recall is when a class was reading The Charlie Bone books(similar to Harry Porter) and a parent did not want her child participating for religious beliefs. The teacher and administration addressed in a positive manner by giving the student an alternative reading book to complete the assignment on. This made the parent happy that the school respected her beliefs and took her culture and values for consideration. This differentiation of instruction ensures the equity of all students.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Week Three: Effective Leaders
This week we have learned a vast amount of information in regards to how I now view an effective leader. I was given a portrait of how an authentic leader is one who is genuine and sincerely has the vision of the school among their forefront. In my opinion, they will do what is necessary to reach the goal because it is a part of their belief system. They are able to strategic plan for success and when problems arise they can solve them in a constructive, concise manner. These leaders, to me are very confident in what they do and it would be presumed that they were born to lead.
Next we compared and contrasted servant and steward leadership. As stated in the Jossey-Bass Reader on page 80, "Servant leadership is to give a sense of direction, to establish an overarching purpose." I agree and add to that by saying a servant leader is one who leads by serving others. The best cliché that we often hear that comes to mind, when thinking of servant leadership is,” when you find a great leader your have found a great follower.” Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs states in order for someone to obtain personal growth they must go through the different tiers of needs. With that mentioned, an administrator would need to care and serve their staff in order to help them to reach their full potential in life. Stewardship on the other hand, would be define as the administrator who is responsible for taking care to make sure all parties that are related to the school are taking care of. The school is not theirs; however, they have responsibility to make sure the school climate is a positive working and learning environment. The main difference I comprehended between servant and steward leadership is that the servant assist and helps and stewards manage, administer and delegates task that should be done.
With all of that learned I think Leadership has to implement and encourage vision in a school. I believe characteristics of successful leaders should promote teacher leadership and student learning, they should be great listeners and have strong communication skills, they should be willing to lead by example, and possess the traits to have a genuine concern to assist their staff with personal growth.
Next we compared and contrasted servant and steward leadership. As stated in the Jossey-Bass Reader on page 80, "Servant leadership is to give a sense of direction, to establish an overarching purpose." I agree and add to that by saying a servant leader is one who leads by serving others. The best cliché that we often hear that comes to mind, when thinking of servant leadership is,” when you find a great leader your have found a great follower.” Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs states in order for someone to obtain personal growth they must go through the different tiers of needs. With that mentioned, an administrator would need to care and serve their staff in order to help them to reach their full potential in life. Stewardship on the other hand, would be define as the administrator who is responsible for taking care to make sure all parties that are related to the school are taking care of. The school is not theirs; however, they have responsibility to make sure the school climate is a positive working and learning environment. The main difference I comprehended between servant and steward leadership is that the servant assist and helps and stewards manage, administer and delegates task that should be done.
With all of that learned I think Leadership has to implement and encourage vision in a school. I believe characteristics of successful leaders should promote teacher leadership and student learning, they should be great listeners and have strong communication skills, they should be willing to lead by example, and possess the traits to have a genuine concern to assist their staff with personal growth.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Individual Reflections Log - Transformational Leadership
In reflection of transformational leadership, there are many different components to this type of leadership. However, particularly, I would define it as a “change” leadership. Change in the sense of today’s society, organizations and schools need change to obtain progression and growth. These changes within schools are categorized as complex adaptive systems. This system is comprised of the diversity and changes in educational organizations. The complexity of these systems in America, in my opinion, will constantly evolve as long as we continue to grow with different nationalities and cultures in our country. So therefore with that in mind, a school leadership would be faced with the complexity of changing its vision to meet the needs of all stakeholders. This is transformational leadership.
Complex Adaptive Systems are non-linear. Non-linear in the sense that change is abrupt and immediate. Dialogue is challenged and innovative thinking is fostered to develop ideas of improvement. Non-linear thinking provides the scope for flexibility and creativity to form. I think that it is important to encourage non-linear thinking among teachers and staff because it promotes the diversity of learning styles that teachers are exercising in our classrooms today.
Within transformational leadership it is effective for a school leadership to encourage organizational learning. Organizational Learning requires the building of a network for obligation of consistent strides to re-organize and implement school improvement. With organizational learning your will need a) build a network within the school, b) formulate teacher work teams with each team member developing instructional tasks for the standards they were assigned, c)build redundancy of the system but allow ideas to bloom, d) using time; allow time for teachers to work together to develop ideas and e) requisite variety~ Simply put, (pg. 53) This means reaching out to all staff to bring their considerable talents to the team table and creatthe learning opportunites students need to reach the mutual goal we have negotiated with them.
In conclusion, transformational leadership requires change. Changes that will have educational organizations and school leadership stategically analyze profound ways to support students to gain academic achievement.
Complex Adaptive Systems are non-linear. Non-linear in the sense that change is abrupt and immediate. Dialogue is challenged and innovative thinking is fostered to develop ideas of improvement. Non-linear thinking provides the scope for flexibility and creativity to form. I think that it is important to encourage non-linear thinking among teachers and staff because it promotes the diversity of learning styles that teachers are exercising in our classrooms today.
Within transformational leadership it is effective for a school leadership to encourage organizational learning. Organizational Learning requires the building of a network for obligation of consistent strides to re-organize and implement school improvement. With organizational learning your will need a) build a network within the school, b) formulate teacher work teams with each team member developing instructional tasks for the standards they were assigned, c)build redundancy of the system but allow ideas to bloom, d) using time; allow time for teachers to work together to develop ideas and e) requisite variety~ Simply put, (pg. 53) This means reaching out to all staff to bring their considerable talents to the team table and creatthe learning opportunites students need to reach the mutual goal we have negotiated with them.
In conclusion, transformational leadership requires change. Changes that will have educational organizations and school leadership stategically analyze profound ways to support students to gain academic achievement.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Reflection Two
Week Two has ended and so has the last day of school! It was a very hectic week. In fact, I am typing this blog for a second input because I realized that the previous reflection I drafted did not post to my blog :)
Moving forward, I realized that I am going to have to really organize my personal calendar so that I can effective use time management to complete deadlines. Typically, I do well with planning and managing my time, but I think that since I had learned about the cohort at the end of April, applied and then was accepted, I did not make time to close-out other commitments I was involved in (like the Doctoral program I am presently in).
Nevertheless, wthe cohort is an intriguing challenge and I am looking forward to more fun-filled activities. If I had these type of activities in undergraduate or graduate school I am sure I would have contribute my full attention to completing my studies. This cohort has me excited about learning new things.
Setting a personal time management calendar will help me to interact with my team and be an effective team member. It is difficult when everyone on a team has family and other obligations that must be completed. One strategy that I learned from our learning chat is to use a baseball hat as an indicator to my family that I am studying and unavailable. I have implemented the strategy. (LOL) I must say at first my family thought it was funny and they ignored the "cap" but when I stayed steadfast and refuse to respond they fell into the play of the game. It is amazing how Jean Piaget's experiment with the mouse really works to change someone's behavior. :)
My communication inventory, placed me as a "thinker" as a communicator. I have to be very watchful of that because sometimes I am told in general I think ttttoooooo much. So I am going to try to focus on the strengths of my communication style so that it will outweigh the weaknesses.
Moving forward, I realized that I am going to have to really organize my personal calendar so that I can effective use time management to complete deadlines. Typically, I do well with planning and managing my time, but I think that since I had learned about the cohort at the end of April, applied and then was accepted, I did not make time to close-out other commitments I was involved in (like the Doctoral program I am presently in).
Nevertheless, wthe cohort is an intriguing challenge and I am looking forward to more fun-filled activities. If I had these type of activities in undergraduate or graduate school I am sure I would have contribute my full attention to completing my studies. This cohort has me excited about learning new things.
Setting a personal time management calendar will help me to interact with my team and be an effective team member. It is difficult when everyone on a team has family and other obligations that must be completed. One strategy that I learned from our learning chat is to use a baseball hat as an indicator to my family that I am studying and unavailable. I have implemented the strategy. (LOL) I must say at first my family thought it was funny and they ignored the "cap" but when I stayed steadfast and refuse to respond they fell into the play of the game. It is amazing how Jean Piaget's experiment with the mouse really works to change someone's behavior. :)
My communication inventory, placed me as a "thinker" as a communicator. I have to be very watchful of that because sometimes I am told in general I think ttttoooooo much. So I am going to try to focus on the strengths of my communication style so that it will outweigh the weaknesses.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Reflection One
Whew-Well week one of my online orientation class has ended! It included a plethora of activities that really redirected me to the emphasis of technology. I was faberglassed to encounter an aspect of the web that I was not familiar with. I really enjoyed the layout of activities and oftentimes felt challenged. The ELC interface was brand new to me. In the past I have taken online classes that used BlackBoard and other familiar interfaces for classes. The ELC was very simple to adapt to, this is why the scavenger hunt was so useful. I developed many ideas of activities I can incoporate into my fifth-grade classroom. Especially when they are learning the basic skills of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint etc.
One concern that I had was organizing my time management. Next week is the last week of school. the previous and upcoming weeks have and will be extremely rough for me. I will need to follow a schedule precisely to meet deadlines. I think the biggest challenge I faced during this time period was last night when we had an electrical power outage which prevented me from logging on and completing this assignment of constructing a blog page. I know I can only complete the things that I am in control of.
Other than that I am very excited about the integration of technology in this class!!!
Well I am signing off until next time...Adrienne
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