In the spring of 2016, I took interest in student government and ran for a position called Student School Board Trustee in the Thames Valley District School Board. The position of Student Trustee is a position mandated by the Government of Ontario that exists to give a voice to the thousands of students within the school board. I was successfully won my election after campaigning to win the support of student representatives from schools across the Thames Valley and a strong debate performance.
During my time as the School Trustee – Elect, I wasted no time preparing for my role and participating in the governance process. Throughout the transition period I realized that the role like nothing I have ever experienced before; the commitment and workload were staggering. Budget discussions were taking place when I was elected, and these meetings were held once or twice a week lasting for approximately five hours a night. I quickly learned all I could about the budget process and understood the near billion-dollar budget
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The main issue that impeded the effectiveness of SAC was its outdated communication methods which prevented students from getting involved. Since messaging passed through principals, students did not always receive communications in a timely or efficient manner. To innovate, I decided to embrace modern communication methods used by students such as Facebook, Adobe Connect, and Remind. The effective use of social media and other technology related tools resolved the serious communication problem faced by the student leadership community. Better communication resulted in more grassroots leadership opportunities as issues deemed important by the student community made it onto agendas. Expanding leadership opportunities beyond Student Trustees to the broader community has opened the doors for others to voice their opinions and concerns and ultimately have a say in what decisions are
The first four weeks of CR510 have prompted this student to reflect on her years of teaching in the public school setting. Having experienced many similar complexities to the ones in the text, this student is sympathetic to the challenges facing those in the education system and is eager to find opportunities to offer a better solution for all involved. CR510 has strengthened this student's belief that a third party neutral can provide valuable benefits to educational systems at all levels. Gorton and Alston (2012) pointed out in Chapter One that effective leaders “provide direction and meaning, generate and sustain trust, display an eagerness to take action, and spread hope”, through motivating and empowering others to reach the desired goals (pp. 1). 7-9).
Bill 160 was written to allow the Ministry and Cabinet to intervene and control every aspect of the school boards. It also enables the suspension of trustees who do not support their commands. This bill creates centralized power and decentralized blame. Some people see it as an unprecedented power grab. The school boards and trustees are still accountable, but their ability to take action on issues has been completely taken away. Whenever changes are needed, the Ministry can make them through regulation. No legislations will be needed; therefore no consultations of any kind are required. Neither the public nor the members of Provincial Parliament have any say in what goes on. Bill 160 makes school councils mandatory, but provides them with no effective role or support. As a former student representative in the Roman Catholic school board, I felt our influence on our own education would be diminished. If there were any issues that arose with the curriculum, students would have to go to Toronto to complain. We would no longer be able to go to the local school board, which was amalgamated because of Bill 160. With the passing of the bill, seventy new school boards to be created, including one massive school board covering all of Metropolitan Toronto.
Throughout the years of being a student at Council Rock, I have come to the realization of what a true leader is. A leader is not someone that just plans events, collects money, or shows up to meetings. Rather, this is someone that has a true connection with their peers, and has unmatched passion for what they do. With this, I can confidently say that since seventh grade, as a young adult, I have been shaped into an individual that fits these traits. Since that time, I have been involved in student government,
The role of school boards “is to establish a vision for the community's schools that reflects a consensus of the board, community and district staff.” Although this is their main purpose, they also have to balance a district budget, create a district-yearly calendar, negotiate contract, construction, and approve district curriculum. (Stover 1) Although it might seem harsh to argue with school boards even though they do a lot, it is their job. They were appointed to lead and better the community, guide our children. If they are not mentally ready to be a leader, then why run for a school board member, the focus should be on the children, how to better education for them, and how to make sure they get the most out of every day coming to school.
At Community Boards, the skills and disciplines that I learned was that I was able to handle clients through phone calls more effectively and in a manner in which I can be neutral. I also learned to be very patient with some clients over the phone, where some phone calls had spent over an hour of the client’s time talking to me about their issues at their residence. I was able to cultivate the skill of being able to use different communication styles in order to deal with certain people and their styles, for often I would have to deal with people that very emotional, because of their situation, whether they be angry, sad, or hopeless, I had to alter my style of communication to accommodate their needs and try to calm them down. Although I
I went to the school board meeting on March 21, 2016 in Kanawha. The following people were at the council: Wayne Kronneman, Leah Deutsch, Ryan Hiscocks, Ryan Johnson, Jay Burgardt, Mona Buns, Gary Chizek, Todd Hammer, and Jon Harle. The others were mainly community member which included teachers, principals, parents and supporters. Some of the West Hancock staff included Mr. Peterson, Mrs. DeHart, Mrs. Bruns, Mr. Francis, Mrs. Gast and others. The other people who were there were parents and other community members. The first part of the meeting was the revision of the budget and presentation of the budget. This was given by Wayne Kronneman. He explained the budget of this year and how it compared to last years. Also he also talked about the budget for next year. After that they had a discussion with the
The AA meeting I attended took place at a church. The church that holds the meeting has a beginner AA meeting that meets Monday nights at 7 pm. However, I decided to go to the regularly meeting which takes place an hour later at 8 pm. I felt as though I would get more out of the regular meetings and get a sense of what regular AA members talk about. Before arriving at the meeting, I was a little anxious because I felt like as though I would be out of place, and I would be intruding on the members who come to the meetings for support. Also before attending, for some unknown reason, I imagined the meeting would to be similar to AA meeting featured in movies. Contrary to what I thought, the meeting was completely different. When I arrived at
Attending an NA meeting during finals was one of my smarter decisions, as I procrastinate my work until the very last minute this week. However, in my opinion, going to a meeting was a good type of procrastination compared to other things I could be doing. Instead of going with the same friend this time, I asked a friend who was struggling with a ________ addiction. Not knowing that I was aware of his addiction, I asked him to join so I didn’t have to go alone; and he was more than happy to join me. I was very happy he agreed to join, because hopefully it helps him with his personal addiction, and he continues to return to the meetings.
Bridges, W. (2009). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press.
As a leader candidate, I can understand the challenges and multiplicity of complications that administrators must face each day. However, I will not accept any remote possibility that the students must be affected by some flaws of the school organization. We all as leaders, must be strategic with people, time, and money to guide our students towards an academic success.
This is a reflective essay based on my attendance at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting whilst on my two-week placement at a local mental health day hospital. The aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of the multidisciplinary team within the mental health environment and discuss factors that can influence the success or failure of multidisciplinary teams.
On January 27th 2017, I attended a community wellness meeting, where several speakers discussed the new development of affordable housing, an alternative to traditional in-office therapy, and the proposal of a new proposition for at risk of incarceration 18 to 25 year olds. The meeting was open to the public, but mostly county workers and social service members were in attendance; those who had direct involvement with the topics being reviewed. The purpose of the meeting was to view the building plan and layout for the new affordable housing development. One of the key speakers was from Gateway Mountain Center; the speaker and his co-workers work with children up to age 18 and use nature as therapy. The mission of their agency is to focus
From the beginning, where we were unfamiliar with each other and became a team, my team and I had started to learn each other name and getting to know each other. Throughout each meeting, we slowly start to feel more comfortable and open minded with each other. Not only are we getting familiar with each other, each meeting that was held we progress of becoming an effective team member, we learn our strengths and weaknesses of everyone. During the meetings, we learn many concepts from the textbook, “Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices” by Steven A. Beebe and John T. Masterson. We were able to learn different types of concept in the textbook and utilized it as a team to complete certain tasks. The three concepts that impacted my team and I are human
It is not everyday when you can say the majority of your college class is you talking and the teacher listening, this is seminar. Coming from a family where heated debates were present almost daily, I already know if I were passionate about a topic I would never pass up an opportunity to express my opinions. For me, seminar has allowed me to grow in this confidence of expressing my thoughts as well as learning from others opinions. Having come from a high school that stressed the importance of student participation, I was not surprised by the amount I would actually have to speak in this class, however I was surprised by the importance of disagreements and the proper way to analyze text through underlining, highlighting and questioning and how it could aid my overall understanding of a text. Being a psychology major and extremely interested in social justice issues, seminar also opened my eyes up to the interesting perspectives of the strength of human nature.
Overall my experience of being in Lingleville ISD was a great experience that allowed me to learn a lot not only about the students in the classroom, but also helped me learn a lot about myself. Going in to this classroom I expected to only learn things about classroom management and maybe a few strategies. After spending a few days in this room I learned many other things. I did learn about classroom management but I also learned about content, strategies, organization, lesson planning, and inclusion adaptations. I learned that an inclusion special education student can really thrive being in a mainstream classroom, not only academically but also socially. It was a wonderful learning opportunity to get to be a part of that. My mentor teacher