Teacher Leadership Pt.1: M1_FA 6B)

As per Post, 

"Focus Area 6B: Challenges with Leadership

 

Read:

 

School Level Leadership

http://www.edugains.ca/Frameworks/SchoolLevel_Leadership.pdf

 

The Many Faces of Leadership

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept07/vol65/num01/The-Many-Faces-of-Leadership.aspx

Three Challenges for Education Leaders - ASCD Express 5.07

http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol5/507-reeves.aspx

 

A leader is someone who helps educate others in whatever realm/topic, it is someone who cares about others' success, it is someone who is a team player and someone who truly understands that even if they are seen as a leader, there is always room for more growth, understanding and learning.

 

A common challenge to leadership in education is the resistance to change. We often teach based on our own experiences and what we think works. In order to challenge this resistance to change, leaders need to work with their colleagues to reflect upon the challenges they have faced as students and educators and think of what our current students need to transition as lifelong learners and active members of our society. Leaders may also use literature to enhance the Professional Knowledge with others but be very clear with making meaningful connections and applications to Professional Practice. Leaders need to be aware that every educator wants to support their students, but it can be difficult to see how theory and ideas connects to practice. As a result, leaders need to take the initiative to scaffold and model connections to the classroom."

As per post, 

 "A department head or in a position of leadership, ALWAYS (in my honest opinion), in regard to challenge-morale. Staff morale changes like the wind. Yes, GENERALLY there is a happy staff or "good" work environment. People are humans, cats are cats, and dogs, well are dogs, the point is, people get hungry, people get thirsty and are allowed to feel "burnt out", "tired", "restless" or like they are having "a bad day". That's normal and that is the hardest part about being a leader. 
Leaders are people who are often solving/preventing a lot of issues with the help of others (heaven forbid, by themselves), but still need to find time to be human. I'm not trying to say being human is hard, but it is similar to the idea of how a lot of us need to sometimes bring work home (or work from home) with us when our kid(s) are at home and want to "play" or "make popcorn" and you are saying, "one moment, yes I'll get to you in a moment-almost done". I'm not proud to say that I have been in that position before but that's a fairly accurate analogy in which we overlook the "human" aspect of our job (especially as a leader). How many times has a leader ever said to you, "let me get back to you on that," and (spoiler alert), they don't. In some business offices, ya sure, I can see this is a way of getting people who have silly "issues" to learn to deal with it themselves (I can say I wholeheartedly agree, but I get the perspective a busy manager may have when say 10 let alone 100 people email your IT department for a tech error). However in the education field (let alone as a government employee-however many times removed), that is just unacceptable-pretty sure that is a grievance :/ sorry-I digress, but the fact in the matter is, leaders are humans, but we sometimes need to remind ourselves of that. 
At least, that's my challenge. Stopping-like now, see ya later. "