Reflective Essay

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Recommended: Importance of school community relations

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. 7-9). Thus administrators must be skilled communicators, attentive and responsive listeners. Meanwhile they must also be able to build relationships with others, multitask, prioritize, delegate wisely, relate to, and motivate others. Reading that both the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the American Association of School Administrators have noted the importance of communication to the school system's success (p. 101), has affirmed for this student that the need for outside assistance with communication is indeed a serious concern for administrators. Meanwhile the text, online discussion, and classroom discussion helped to distinguish the differences between authority, power, and influence. In the educational venue, authority and power both involve having the authorization to compel others to comply with decisions (Gorton & Alston, 2012, p. 74, 88); whereas influence primarily involves being able to persuade or shape decisions and behavior through “informal ... ... middle of paper ... ... to their problems. Just as restorative justice requires a paradigm shift for those in the legal field and the concept of paradox management requires a paradigm shift for businesses, using third party neutrals will require school administrators to think about conflict management differently. While the text emphasized the complex nature of school administrators' responsibilities (Gorton & Alston, 2012, pp. 3-4) and the surety of change in education (p. 188), it also discussed the factors which inhibit change (pp. 196-197, pp. 200-201). Thus this student feels better equipped to address those concerns proactively when offering services to local school districts. Works Cited Gorton, R. A., & Alston, J. A. (2012). School leadership & administration: Important concepts, case studies, & simulations. (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. [Kindle Version] (pp. 1-323).

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