Today, we finished the two days with the administrators and invited teachers focusing on our Classroom 10 initiative for the next two years. I’m leaving with mixed feelings about success and influence on my learning organization; the administrative team. I can talk with the best about the attributes of a learning organization, but as a practitioner I am not doing as well. An objective reviewer of the interactions over the last two days would leave with questions and concerns about my leadership and the way that we process issues and reach decisions.
Though I have much to reflect upon, I know that we left this learning opportunity with documents that will support learning around key content, active learning strategies, and checks for understanding. Questions were also raised that revised the way we will measure success on the district’s two-year SMART goal and the process of identifying support for individual teachers and teams of teachers was initiated. Building representatives were also given the opportunity to begin the process of balancing the demand of the goal with support at the building level. We are better positioned today because of this work to support teachers as we implement this goal.
The goal has many layers leading to complexity and dissonance for those that need to have all of the answers at the front end of an initiative. This doesn’t always align with my belief in ready, fire, aim, where we commit to a target that we believe has the potential to influence learning, move toward it, and refine practice as we learn from our journey. The dissonance emerged today in multiple contexts. I responded well to some, but not as well to other questions or concerns and chose to go to flight as I struggled with the assumptions influencing my mental model. To maintain commitment on this goal, I will need to either modify my behavior or demonstrate that the strategy is successful for those experiencing dissonance. It will be a difficult, but necessary issue for me and for our learning organization to process. It will also be difficult for me to suspend my assumptions and be open to influence.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I think we all leave with some dissonance. I personally would like to thank you for the opportunity to be part of this process. Although you mentioned feelings of inadequacy in some areas regarding your leadership, I however, was thinking how happy I was that you haven chosen not to take the easy way out and "sit back" until retirement. I have been reading about the brain and I convinced you will never have alzheimers because of your ability to constantly learn and place yourself in challenging situations that requires thoughtful processes and cognitive thinking. How wonderful it was that you invited teachers so our voices are heard and allow us to affect change in a great capacity. I know I left with greater understanding and a desire to my principle and teachers in my building. Plus I have a renewed admiration for district office personel and administrators. Thanks for an enjoyable experience.
OK, don't read the post I just posted, I really want it on Tuesday's blog.
Thank you Mike for your leadership. I think one of the big things that comes from creating tough goals is cognitive dissonance which is good for a system. In addition to that though, you have also left with cognitive dissonance that will allow you to reflect and think about things as well. The ability for someone in your position to sit back, reflect, and then share that with those that you lead, gives light to the fact that you are a quality leader.
Classroom 10 will continue to be tough for some to embrace, which is not necessarily a bad thing since it will force our system to place in support mechanisms to get them to the place where they need to be. We want our teachers to reach every child with differentiated learning and I believe that is exactly what we will need to do for our teachers.
Jan in her comments also talks about your on-going learning and I would expand on that by saying we all need to embrace life long learning. A quote by Luci Swindoll says "You see, real ongoing, lifelong education does not answer questions; it provokes them."
Thank you again for making teachers a part of this learning and having a voice in these decisions.
I'm a little sensitive about my above post, I corrected all my spelling errors and then posted the same info on Tuesday. It's been bugging me all day.
I'm so glad you shared your thinking, too, Scott. I have enjoyed working with you and gaining your "worldly" perspective.
Post a Comment