In respect to DuFour’s (2010) position on the “bottom-up reform,” I respect the beliefs and I understand his perspective, but I have a little different perception. I do understand his point of view in the statement, “The idea of bottom-up reform is great, but it is unrealistic to assume that one day a group of educators gathered together in the faculty lounge will suddenly being to re-examined their basic assumptions, beliefs, and practices that constitute the culture of the school.” As teacher leaders, we have a lot of responsibilities that need to be accomplished, but we need to find and provide the proper resources to all teachers to establish a professional learning community as well as productive communications with parents that will …show more content…
Moreover, provide programs and interventions for students that are struggling in their classes so they can raise their self-esteem. In one of the videos assigned, it is emphasized that change can happen if teachers work together, share ideas, share strategies and reflect on practices (Laureate Education, 2008). In order for positive change to occur, schools need to implement collaboration not only within the school, but with other districts as well. For instance, in our school, we have weekly meetings where we get together and share our lesson plans, create assessments, and share our successes. During these weekly meetings, we also discuss concerns that we encounter with students and create interventions to help them succeed in school. We all communicate with each other, provide positive feedback, and offer suggestions on specific issues affecting the learning of the students. At the end of the meeting, we usually have the opportunity to reflect and share what we learned during the meeting as well as what changes we might implement in our future …show more content…
I have some doubts on what DuFour stated because I do believe that effective leadership from a principal is very essential for a school to make a positive change. In our school, the district hires new administrative staff every two years and I have experience principals with strong leadership skills as well as principals with weak leadership skills. For instance, I have experienced success working with great principals and we have improved our scores in state assessments. On the other hand, I have also experience success working with principals that lack leadership skills in the school. For instance, a few years back, we had a principal that lacked communication skills as well as leadership skills and we still managed to improve our scores and succeed. There are a few teachers in my school that have been working collaboratively for fifteen and twenty years and they had established a professional learning community. We improved our scores having a weak principal because we all decided to use our leadership skills in our professional learning community. In fact, we all knew what we had to do and we did it with little or no help from the principal. For this reason, I believe that positive chance can be achieved with and without effective leadership from the principal. Teacher leaders can make a positive in school in a
I had the pleasure of being able to shadow Superintendent Shirley Hall of the Maplewood School District. Ms. Hall took the reins of the district over in 2012 from a very popular superintendent who was credited with making great strides within the district. Although Ms. Hall had very large shoes to fill, she seems to be doing it with grace and enthusiasm. She credits the previous superintendent with making systemic changes and establishing the overall forward momentum of the district, but recognizes that she cannot rest on past success. Her goal is to take the district to the next level of educational excellence by focusing her and her administrative team's efforts on the P.E.L.P. coherence model from Harvard University. This model focuses the leadership's attention on the interdependence of the various aspects of their school district and how they reinforce one another to support the implementation of an improvement strategy. One of Ms. Hall's mantras was change, but not just for change sake, deep change for sustained improvement. Therefore, although Ms. Hall's predecessor was able to put the district on the right path, Ms. Hall has taken the baton and run with it; establishing her own style and path to excellence.
The First Crusade was called in 1096 by Pope Urban II. The reasons for the First Crusade was to help obtain Jerusalem known as the holy land. During this time period the Muslims were occupying Jerusalem. First Crusade contained peasants and knights’ whose ethnicities consist of Franks, Latin’s, and Celts which were all from the western part of Europe. To get peasants and knights to join Pope Urban II objectives in return of a spiritual reward called “remission of all their sins” which was to be redeemed of any sins the individual has committed. When sins are redeemed Crusaders believed that they will escape the torment of hell. When lords and knights joined the crusade they were known as military elites. Crusaders were known as soldiers of Christ.
Frank, V. V. (2009, September). Framework for Improvement: Effective School Leadership Translates into Increased Student Learning. The Learning Principal: National Staff Development Council , pp. 2, 6-7.
By writing personal accounts of their lives, many women of the nineteenth century used the emotion of sympathy to share their feelings. According to Rosemarie Garland Thompson, "Sympathy is an effective rhetorical strategy in women's writing because it combines and embodies the fundamental elements of the feminine script." (Thompson 131) By using sympathy in their writing, Harriet Jacobs and Elizabeth Barret Browning, both nineteenth century women writers, made their readers want to help reform the South.
Standard 1 of the Florida Principal Leadership Standards (2011) describe the priority of the school leader as, “effective school leaders demonstrate that the student learning is their top priority through leadership actions that build and support a learning organization focus on student success”. Our number one priority and focus is and always should be our students. They are the reason behind our professions. It is the faculty the ones who should be supported by the administrators. The leaders should celebrate their success, encourage them, support their assertive instructional decisions, and motivate them each day to create the right conditions for learning. The principals must plan to project growth the most accurate possible, employing all the help that they could get for this challenging task. Students should not be affected because qualified teachers are not available. Strategic schools use the resources at had to relocate, and alleviate the human resources problems.
Education reform could be considered as one of the most highly debated issues of today. People of many different backgrounds from many different locations have many different opinions on how children in this country should be taught. In this incredibly broad debate, one of the most highly discussed issues is that of a multicultural education. The problem with this topic is that the many different people who have an opinion on the issue have many different definitions of what a multicultural education should be. Perhaps if the ideas behind a multicultural education were defined more clearly, the issue would be easier to talk about and the seemingly circular argument that is education reform could move towards a definite goal. Some of the ideas that have been discussed within the parameters of a multicultural education include afrocentrism, tolerance, and morality, among many others. While these and other issues do have certain merit, they alone can not serve as the basis for a strong education. The aim of a multicultural education should be to integrate a child's acquisition of basic skills with a general knowledge of the people he or she lives with in the United States. One of, if not the main factor in education reform is the teachers. They are the foundation for a child's development, and the are the filter through which the child must learn. A single teacher should not be allowed the right to single handedly hinder a young person's education, as the material taught and the lessons learned should transcend the people teaching these lessons. The seemingly obvious way to eliminate differences between teachers would be homogenous teacher training. However, the fact must be understood that while most teachers wil...
Success in the educational environment hinges on the relationships built between all individuals involved. John C. Maxwell writes Winning With People, to elaborate on techniques that will allow for successful relationships in a person’s life. The “Hammer Principle” refers to someone who tries to get the upper hand in the disagreement by using an aggressive stance. Throughout the article, Maxwell describes four vital components to promote in a relationship: the total picture, timing, tone, and temperature. These four techniques help to strengthen and ensure positive relationships along with effective discussion.
The role of teacher leader has been defined as “teachers who aspire to stretch beyond their classrooms to engage in leadership roles that take many shapes and forms, both “informal and formal”. (ECS, 2010). Teacher leadership has also been described as “the process by which teachers, individually and collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.” (ECS, 2010). In years past, a majority of teacher leadership roles took the form of department chair, committee chair, grade level chair, etc. It was more of a representative role versus a leadership role. Their responsibility primarily involved dispersing information from administration to their counterparts and taking information back to administration from the group. Their position lacked decision-making power and true leadership that brings about “real” change. These tasks are still viewed as opportunities for teacher leadership; however, recently, the
The rest of the Monday time is dedicated to teams of teachers, principal, counselor, and Title I instructional coach who work together in their respective grade levels to look over data and discuss ways they could intervene or enrich for students based on real data from standardized tests, universal screeners, or common formative assessments.
Together with the teacher and classmates, students are given the opportunity to speculate and question the world around them and the world awaiting them. Within small peer groups, for instance, students are encouraged to discuss, share, and compromise. The teacher is there to encourage this process, rather than to provide prescribed solutions. Similarly, the learning environment is collaborative and democratic, giving opportunities for all to speak their minds and receive feedback from peers as well as the teacher. This continuous loop of feedback, potentially positive or negative, serves as the means of assessment for problem-solving based instruction.
Building Leadership Capacity in Schools by Linda Lambert touched on a number of key ideas. Lambert provided examples from different schools, principals, and her experiences on obtaining and sustaining leadership capacity while developing her character. Lambert points out that to build leadership capacity in schools there should be participation by parents, students, and staff. Also these are the same characteristic as to becoming a great character in society. In this paper I will talk about the staff and there level of participation. Lambert points out that conversation with individuals about their roles as a leader should take place as individuals take on the task of leadership and character development. One key element in the text was the level of participation and degree of skillfulness for leadership capacity while trying to discover your character. Another element in the text that I found key was to break the dependency relationships on staff and the principal. As we work toward building leadership capacity and charcter, it will take time and time is a big factor on building leadership capacity because there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that we would like to do without strategically planning leadership meetings.
...I believe through the use of critical thinking, communication with students and parents and showing the creative side of learning the collaboration within colleague would be enhanced. I know from my prior experience within the classroom as a substitute that without some collaboration the students are at a disadvantage. One memory stands out the most when collaboration is mention is when I was subbing for a ECE Teacher in a regular learning classroom, while the teacher was giving the rest of the students their assignments I was working one on one with a ECE student that needed the extra help in order to fulfill their task. The teacher and I collaborated on the questions that the student had left to complete before moving on to their homework. Through the use of collaboration the student was able to complete their task and be on the same task as the rest of the class.
She believes some of the challenges contemporary families are facing are the economy, healthcare, loss of employment, lack of basic necessities, and broken homes. Despite these challenges, schools and families can work together to make schools stronger by creating a positive learning environment and show the student that they are there to help the student in any way possible. She also states that it is important for the teacher and parent(s) to be on the same page and support each other in regards to learning styles and techniques.
Collaborative leaders have a positive impact in schools. Even though principals are responsible in leading the whole school, those that have the ability to inspire their teachers to follow and share his or her vision, will make a positive impact. Interaction between leader and teacher is necessary to make positive changes. Allowing teachers to participate openly and respectfully creates trust and confidence. Teachers that trust their principals and feel are taken into consideration will work harder to meet and exceed expectations. Honesty, communication, confidence and respect between leader and teacher will lead to great team work.
...inction between the roles and actions of leaders and managers. Principals are capable of adopting each approach and proper implementation would benefit staff and ultimately, student performance. As found in the case study and literature, currently most principals undertake a managerial role, but neglect to be leaders. Therefore, most principals should emphasize leadership behaviour to bring balance to the position.