Week 5: Distributive leadership

Question: Identify whether distributive leadership is used for capacity building at your school site. Explain how it is being used. If it is not, describe how it could benefit your school site to apply this concept.

 Distributive leadership is certainly not used efficiently within my building. The administrators prefer to hold tight to leadership responsibilities and run the school as though they are dictators. The administrators fail to realize the dictatorial style of leadership hinders the effectiveness of the staff. Often an efficient administrator will appoint certain teacher leaders to help carry out leadership responsibilities to increase the amount of satisfaction and functionality within the building.

My school site could certainly benefit from this concept because others could place their views and styles into the needs of the school. Also dividing responsibilities among other teacher leaders can provide insight into needs of the teachers. Sometimes when the responsibilities have been divided among several leaders more can be accomplished because there are more people to observe and suggest changes. Some specific changes could certainly be a grade level planning duties, grade level assistance meetings, and peer observations. Most often the observations are completed by the administrators. Although I understand they must perform two observations, it would be a nice change to have someone on the same level as I am to provide me with constructive feedback before I go face to face with my administrators.

Fourth Entry: The leadership Theory that closely matches my Leadership style...

Fourth Entry: The leadership Theory that closely matches my Leadership style...

Identify what leadership theory most closely matches your leadership style. Explain why.

After long thought about this question and reading the different theories, I can certainly say that the Relationship and Participative theories most closely relate to me. Whenever I am performing a task, I always try to lead by example. I would not expect my students or staff to perform negatively if I have a negative attitude.The best leaders do not lead with an iron fist. Actually, in most cases the best leaders lead with distinction and by example.

The second theory that relates to me is the participative theory. I also believe that a successful leader encourages input from staff or followers and weighs his or her options before making decisions. Of course I know that I cannot make every person happy with each decision I make, but allowing my staff voice their opinions will certainly help me to determine which needs should be addressed at the current time. When a leader listens to the voices of their staff demonstrates a level of appreciation and comfort staff need. It also helps make the build staff relations and morale.

Explain how that style could benefit your school

The Relationship style and the participative style could benefit my school by helping improve staff morale. My staff will feel closer to one another and know they are valued within the school. I believe necessary changes could be made when the staff has a voice in my decisions. The school could benefit from improved morale among teachers because they will ultimately pass a higher morale to my students. The students success is our goal and with a higher morale the students will thrive.

Week Three: Power Dynamic

Question: Describe the power dynamic at your school site. Identify how you can use this information to influence change at your school.

The power dynamic at my school is very apparent.  The administrators demonstrate implicit power and make sure that every person in the school is aware of their power. The administrators are quick to reprimand staff when they notice something that does not fit into their mold, but do not like to hear their mistakes. My principal and assistant principal collaborate with the chosen few teachers in the school when changes need to be made. Then the chosen few teachers relay messages to the other teachers within the school. In most schools the staff who help the administrators make changes are part of the SIT team or the School Improvement team, but in our case they are the teachers who the principals are the most fond of.

In regards to using this information to influence change in my school would be to bring up my ideas or concerns to the few teachers I have built rapport with. I know the teachers who the principal and assistant principal are close with, and I know that if I can present the idea in a way the other teachers would like then they can present the idea as if it was their own. I know if I presented the idea to the administrators on my own my concerns or ideas would be turned down. It's actually rather sad how some teachers opinions are not worthy to the administrators, and I can only hope this is not the case at every other school.

Week Two: Strength-Based Leadership

Strength-based leadership is an umbrella term for a group of people demonstrating different leadership qualities and strengths necessary to meet one common goal. In this situation the strengths are applied to achieve the goal of meeting the needs of the school and community. The goal of a strength-based teacher leadership group would be to accommodate the needs of a community through providing a well-rounded education for each child while providing support for families and other within the community. As I have always heard, “There is NO I in Team” and if a school wants to promote student learning and achievement then each person within the school plays an important role.

            Most schools contain a SIT committee, or a School Improvement Team. This team is a strength-based leadership group of diversified roles within the school. During the team meetings, this group of leaders create strategies to help improve the appearance, mission, student needs, and other areas that will help the students perform at their best. As always, new and seasoned teachers should strive to be a strength-based leader so he or she can improve the quality of education and environment for his or her students.

Week One Beginning Entry

"What do you hope to learn from this course and how will that help you grow in your leadership skills?"

Becoming a leader in the teaching profession has always been a dream of mine. I have seen the ups and downs that occur within education, and I know that I can bring ideas to my local school system to help student thrive. With this course I hope to gain new ideas and strategies that I can use to sharpen my skills as a teacher leader. I also hope that I can develop my own philosophy for a teacher leader. I know that leaders are key to success in every career, but without prior training a person cannot demonstrate the skills properly. I also hope this course will provide me with theories that I can implement within  my own classroom.

The skills that I gain from this course will help build a strong foundation for success within the classroom and my journey of becoming a principal one day. I know that teacher leadership courses are very different from the information and training we receive during our teacher education program. However, I believe that teachers who want their student to succeed should go beyond the basic teacher preparation program. We should want to be leaders and know best practices for becoming successful leaders. I know that I will not gain all of the knowledge I need for this during this class, but if I build my first stepping stone worth of knowledge then I have achieved my goal.