CEDO 565 Week 6

My definition of leadership wasn't really changed as a result of this class.  We talk a lot about leadership at our school as our school mission statement is to "prepare Christian LEADERS--one student at a time."

I'd never really thought about "teacher leadership" as a separate category before.  As I understand it, we are all called to be leaders in different areas of our life whether that's in our job, family, friendships, etc.  So my view of teacher leadership is similar to my leadership in my family, etc.  It's just with a different group of people.

My opinion of my leadership potential hasn't changed either.  But I will say that in the past 5 years or so I have matured quite a bit in my view of leadership and the responsibility that I have to be a leader in different situations.

I definitely agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within."  The teachers have to be the ones to make change.  They have to see the value of the students entrusted to them, the effects that our current educational scheme has had on students, and how positive change can be made in that area.

CEDO 565 Week 5

This week we talked more about the Plan Do Check Act model.  While this model isn't exactly what we follow at my school, I still think there are some beneficial things to be learned from it.  Our school is so small that we probably spend the same amount of time and money to make a school wide change as other schools/districts spend just on the Plan and Do phases.  The model makes a lot of sense but it's just hard to scale down far enough to be useful for a school my size in every situation, especially for technology changes.

CEDO 565 Week 4

This week we finished up our change simulation.  It was an interesting experience.  I have a really hard time wrapping my head around how much red tape and "back and forth" is needed to make change in a public school district.  My school is pretty small so if we want to implement something the process is pretty simple.  If I want to try something in the area of technology, as long as I have money in my budget I can pretty much do it.  My administrators trust our teachers and we are in contact with our administrators and each other constantly.  So seeing all of the hoops that the simulation presents as necessary would just frustrate me.

Our homework this week asked us to look at important topics such as morale and climate in our schools.  I'm very blessed in both of these areas.  My school isn't perfect but we work together well and we support each other.

CEDO 565 Week 3

This week we looked at the Millenial generation, which I am a part of, how schools can help and mentor teachers in that generation and the possible issues that are prevalent among members of that generation.  This discussion has helped me understand some of the things that I went through my first few years of teaching.  I came in all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to take on the world and I met with some resistance from some teachers.  The article we read helped to clarify some of the background behind those interactions.

Another thing I appreciated was the idea of thinking about a system instead of just its individual parts.  This makes a lot of sense and often times you can't really understand what's going on with a person, or department, or school, until you understand the systems that those things are a part of and how those systems as a whole are affecting each of the parts.  This will help me have a wider perspective in the future when I'm looking to implement a change at school or analyze a situation.

CEDO 565 Week 2

This week we've been mostly looking at data and how it can be helpful in educational situations.  My school doesn't collect much data.  We get ACT scores but I believer that's about it.  My school's senior class has earned over $1 million in scholarships for the past several years, so we must be doing something right.  Not bad for 45-55 students, eh?

I really feel like a lot of this week's work doesn't really apply to me.  It's hard to find a similar school to compare ourselves to.  The public schools in the area are larger plus we have to charge tuition so we can't even factor in enrollment as an indicator of classroom effectiveness.

Our students also come from a variety of public and private elementary and middle schools so we can't really use the data those schools collect to help us very much.

CEDO 565 Week 1

Blog about how you currently lead in your school or job.

Currently most of the leading I do at school is in the area of technology.  As the school's technology coordinator I am responsible for the administration of the website, PowerSchool, the network, student and teacher data, printers, photocopiers, A/V setup, projectors, smart boards, computer labs, teacher laptops, email, etc.  I make decisions about when to upgrade hardware, software, network infrastructure, etc.  I present staff in-services to introduce new things and answer questions about all things technology for staff and students.  That's in addition to teaching 5 out of 8 periods.

In my teaching I try to be a leader by including technology in my lessons and challenging long held practices or rules that may not be wrong but need to be reexamined to make sure we really do have a valid reason for continuing them.

CEDO 555 Entry 3

"In light of what you've experienced in creating your portfolio, how might you use portfolios professionally or personally in the future?"

I'm beginning to like ePortfolios because they are easy to setup (at least in Google Docs), extremely customizable, and they are a great way to show growth and work samples over time.  I'm definitely going to use them in my classes in the future.

My Creative Technology class does a lot of work with digital media, audio, video, etc.  I've had them produce a website and post their past projects before, but I always did it with the mindset that the website was another assignment and they were learning how to post material to a website.  I never really considered the website itself to be an ePortfolio but it was.  With this new perspective I can approach the assignment with different goals and give the students a better understanding of how this can be valuable to them in the future.