Week 2 of 565

This week in class, and our homework, we covered several pertinent and interesting topics.  In this week, we continued our readings of "How To Thrive as a Teacher Leader," along with studying data related to our respective school districts.  I was able to apply knowledge that I learned from both of these topics to my personal life.  As chapter three of our reading discussed how to use a passive voice in order to resolve conflict, I was reminded that removing emotion allows logic to prevail.  Whereas I may not be a department head, I used techniques in this book with my students and my players.  In regards to the WINSS data, it was pretty eye opening to be able to see all of the test results that factor into a school's strengths and deficiencies.  I found it particularly interesting to be able to compare data with other conference schools.

Week 1 of 565

As our graduate level coursework nears its end, it is very beneficial that we have a class that covers leadership qualities, allowing us to best utilize the information we have learned, sharing it with others.  At the present, I have experienced leadership in a limited role, in a couple of different capacities.  I currently lead my students every day, coach varsity baseball, and sit on a committee that works on improving the instruction/climate at our school (RTI).

The work that we did for this week was succinct, but taught me a great deal about leadership, along with what type of leader I am.  First, the TED talk from Patrick Awuah was quite intriguing; as this man discussed the type of leadership that could ultimately turn around the fate of Africa.  My biggest take away from this presentation is that a successful leader needs to be ethical, open-minded, and responsible.  The next task we encountered this week was that of filling out a leadership profile.  By filling out the profile, I found that I have a good content knowledge base, communicate well with my peers, but need to tend more attention curriculum development.  We also took several surveys that helped me realize that I am an adaptive assertive leader, who lacks imagination.  Finally, we were to read the first chapter of "How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader."  I found this book to be very direct, explaining how leaders should be professional, anticipatory, and empathetic.

From a personal/professional standpoint, the work from this week has helped me realize that I have certain characteristics that are very beneficial for being a leader (knowledge, logical reasoning skills, and compassion, for example).  However I do need to work on being more imaginative, along with devoting a little bit more time to curriculum development and monitoring.  This was an exciting first week of class, and I'm looking forward to our future thought-provoking lessons/tasks.