Sunday
May022010

Week 8 - Final Reflection - Organization and Administration

  • This course has given you an opportunity to practice a range of leadership strategies when making decisions that require you to think politically, orchestrate collaboration among all stakeholders, and remain steadfast in your original vision. What do you envision to be the pitfalls that you might face as a first year principal, and how will you implement the strategies learned to overcome the pitfalls?

    The first year of being a principal should be dedicated to building relationships, keeping the status quo, evaluating the current situation, and developing a plan moving forward.  Too often, I have witnessed administrators who come in trying to change too much too fast.  Change needs to be rooted within careful consideration of the current situation.  The best part of this classwork has been to focus on a framework for developing a plan to produce change or reform. The only reason this would be different is if someone is hired for a specific reason or task. 

  • How has this course prepared you to use twenty-first century leadership skills as you model a new culture for collaborating, analyzing student performance, and continually reflect on instructional practices, school climate, and quality decision making?

    The team situation worked nicely but the artificial nature of switching roles every week makes things difficult.  While I understand why this takes place, it clearly hinders the chance to develop leadership skills.  However, these classes tend to be set up to artificially reflect a nurturing leadership style.  I would say that our team did have one leader that stood out more than others but her leadership style was focused on tasks and not necessarily dominance over discussion and ideology.  As Fullan notes, "

    The likelihood of effectiveness is increased when a team:

    • Is a real teamrather than a team in name only

    • Has a compelling directionfor its work

    • Has an enabling structurethat facilitates rather than impedes teamwork

    • Operates within a supportive organizational context

    • Has available ample expert coachingin teamwork. (Hackman, 2002, p. 31,emphasis in original)"

  • Educational leadership and coordination, are not the sole responsibility of school principals:  They can and should be exercised at all levels of the school organization.  What opportunities for collective leadership have you provided in your plan?

    The development of a sub-committee with explicit equal roles was essential for our plan.  The team recommended the development of a data analysis team that consists of administrators, teachers and even parents.  Education consists of a highly educated workforce and this knowledge based needs to be tapped into regardless of their level within a pyramid of power structure. 

Monday
Apr122010

Week 5 - Reflection - Organization and Administration

 

  • How has the structure of this course (team discussion, individual assignment) helped you to better understand the concepts presented?

The best part of this class has been the build up of a final product which basically means less "busy" work than other classes.  I like the overlap of volunteer participation and specific tasks that are mandatory as well.

  • How will the structure of this course better prepare you for your administrative roles?

The difficulty that I have with many classes is the uncomparable aspects of doing real work in an artificial sistuation. This particular course has worked a little more closely or tighter with the real process.  We have worked as a committee would work.  The process was extended over time as we would in school districts today.  The timeline was a little artificial as this would probably have occurred over an entire school year, but this is a nice attempt to replicate that situation. 

  • In what areas would you like additional content or support?

Budget, budget and more budget information ... I am really worried about this portion looking at the future prospects of working in Illinois and for the certification test in Illinois.

  • What questions or comments do you have about either the content or the structure of this course?

Is it really necessary to combine every aspect of the action plan into one plan? Why not keep them as separate entities completely?  Additionally, action plans in the real work place will not be laden with so many bibliographic pieces.  Will they?



Monday
Feb222010

Week 7 Reflection

Monday
Feb082010

Week 5 Reflection - Curriculum and Theory

  1. As a school administrator and instructional leader, what instructional technology would you expect to see in the written, taught, and tested curriculum of a school or school district striving to meet the needs of 21st century learners?

     
  2. What instructional technology would you promote to differentiate instruction for all learners?  Consider some of the Web 2.0 tools discussed in Week 3 and some of the tools/ applications suggested in the UDL discussion.


 

Monday
Jan182010

Week 2 Reflection: Curriculum Theory, Development, and Implementation (ISTE) 2009-10 

What are your philosophical beliefs about the purpose of school, about what subjects should be taught, and about how students learn?  How does your work demonstrate your belief?

I am a firm believer in focusing on learning how to learn with technology and constructivist student centered learning. I agree with Postman by saying that we need to get rid of textbooks!  We need to focus on learning skills and not content!

Educational reform should begin with rethinking technology integration.  Traditionally, professional development with technology is focused on "how to" and "project-oriented" technology integration.  Teachers attend workshops and conferences that do not transform their teaching over the long run.  While teachers are generally excited by these activities and often include something new in their classroom as a result, we are not seeing any real educational reform.  Paul George included a link in our team discussion that I think identifies what I am talking about.  The author of the article talks about how literacy is transforming which I agree with to a certain extent, but then chooses to identify projects that are not transformative as examples.  We have to get away from the project-oriented model of integrating technology.  Here is a link to a weeklong professional development experience for teachers that I will be facilitating this summer. Systemic reform will only occur when teachers learn how to learn with technology themselves. 

Once teachers have a foundation in how to learn with technology, then we can focus on student-centered constructivist learning.  Teachers who are well grounded in technology have a stronger understanding of how to work with their students in an individual fashion.  Differentiation is hot buzzword and really is at the heart of constructivist teaching.  In my experience, teachers who utilize technology well in their classroom and personal productivity are those that can differentiate the best.  Technology is finally in a place to really transform teaching because of its ability to support differentiation.  Example technologies that are transforming through differentiation include; blogs, rss readers, wikis, tagging, and multi-dimensional learning spaces. 

I can't imagine a better job in the world at this time.  I work as a technology facilitator in a small district that let's me push and pull as I see a need.  We are beginning to transform a lot of our classrooms as a result.  My central belief in transforming education lies with teacher professional development that focuses on learning to learn with technology.  Here is a link with the set of professional development experiences that I am and have been facilitating. When I look at all of our team's new axioms, I see my work as a reflection of what they have identified.  Team B wrote, "Curriculum is a personalized learning plan that advances the skills of the 21st century learner based upon content standards, student interests, needs and experiences.  Technology has made it possible to personalize learning."  I completely agree and this is where I have focused most of my experiences.