To begin, this module required participating teachers to not only reflect on healthy relationships, but the functionality of themselves as leaders in the community with respect to the initiator of positive communications. Those who are reflecting on the idea of initiating communication between the community members needs to keep in mind that we all have different beginnings. I have developed a personal teacher challenge (https://teacherstatus14.blogspot.com/2022/02/teacher-challenge-1-sel-social.html) in which the teacher is trying to complete 1 of the 4 strategies/activities 1 or more times each week.
The relationships that are created and fostered within our work experiences directly impact those events that take place outside of work hours. In this module the focus is "Healthy Relationships", now this module and its topics have the whole idea of teamwork and community building but as a leader, there is a bigger emphasis I think that needs to be viewed which is why team and community is important. the understanding of how a team's function is not just for the sake of having a team that takes on tasks. It is ponderous when thinking about the ideas of leadership and the onus of leadership within a team rather than of a team.
In Don't Take Work Stress Home with You Coleman and Coleman discuss the ways that employees can avoid taking home work from stress (2016). This article really took what has been discussed in this module and applied a direction-to having direction. As a leader it is clear that a team needs to have direction and in a school that direction needs to have the stakeholders involved. It does so happen that sometimes though, a team and its members are sometimes taking it on themselves to put in the extra efforts to get the job which is commendable, however it should be noted that there needs to be checks in place. A team is a good way to manage large projects and solve big problems within communities as well as a reasonable way to build a community, however it does sometimes becomes difficult for a team or its members to know pacing. In some cases a team may not know it overworked until its too late which is usually how burnt out teachers realize they are burnt-out. It is not usual for a dedicated individual to stop and say, "I think I need to stop-I'm making too much positive progress". A lot of the time people become hungry for the continual progress forward or possibly even the recognition.
When discussing collaboration, yes, it is a good thing. Having a vision is important and indeed as a colleague it is important for one to reach out and touch on those human interactions in the office/around the school to keep work environments functional as well as humane. It should be said though that as leaders it is important to literally set aside time to build that collaboration time in a productive/meaningful way rather than over-collaborating. It sounds like something a leader wouldn't parade, but what is being stated is that there doesn't need to be a meeting for say a student union and teacher or yearbook meet-up literally every week (a couple examples). Teams should try to have a decent foreseeable meet-up schedule with tasks to do in between or to ensure that a meet is not to know what is happening the week after only.
As the digital age develops collaboration also changes. Instead of holding meetings to discuss every development in a particular area now, schools can actually utilize on-staff staff expertise by developing clouds/video hosting records for the members in its community as well to save after school and lunch time for teachers to do what they need to-which may very well be time to complete tasks that would normally need to go home with them or stress relieving activities.
Sources:
JColeman, J. Coleman. Don't Take Work Stress Home With You. July 28, 2016. Harvard Business Review. Feb 27, 2022. from https://hbr.org/2016/07/dont-take-work-stress-home-with-you
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