Wrapping Up 565

This class resulted in some pretty big changes into the way I view leadership. In the past, I always thought that you should just push ahead with what you know to be a good idea, and people will jump on board once they see your success. After going through the simulation, I can really see how people want to have input on major change, since everyone has different points of view and different needs. What may work great for me might be missing that essential piece for a parent to be on board, and something completely different missing to get my administrator on board. Effective communication is absolutely necessary to effect major change.

Being a teacher leader can be kind of a sticky wicket. Since your not in a defined "leader" role, you have to accept the fact that you'll be making suggestions to the decision-makers. But with a clearly communicated shared vision, those suggestions become easier to make. School leaders will be much more responsive if you can clearly define how a change improves the school or district. And, ultimately, positive change does have to come from within a school. We have to accept that we are the experts that need to make the necessary changes for the coming generations. For all the griping about how politicians don't know how to make sound decisions on education policy, we'd be much better off if we offered alternatives instead. It's much more difficult, but I hope that I can take some of the strategies from the class and generate teams within my building that can step up to the challenge.

565 Week 5- Simulation Years 2 and 3

After finishing the simulation, I can say that it was as fun as it was difficult. While we struggled to get going in the first year, there was a sense of "Well we have no clue what we're doing, so let's just try something and hope for the best." In the second and third year, we had a definite plan. And it still didn't work like we wanted to. This was much more frustrating. In the end, it turns out we didn't heed the advice of other groups- talk, talk, talk, talk- as much as we should have. It seemed the most important part in creating change in the game was to make sure that everyone was involved.

I feel this is very much true in real life, as people would much rather be part of a change than be told that they have to change. Especially these days, when teachers aren't feeling the respect they had in the past, being asked for their input at work can be an important morale boost.

In the long term, I feel the game changed the way I would look at major change. In the past, I would have chosen what I felt to be the best "fill in the blank", and would trust that everyone would eventually get on board once they see how great it is. Now I see that you really need to work with people as you create the change. People are unlikely to look over one day and be so amazed that they immediately pass over all decision-making powers to you and your awesome "whatever plan it is".

565 Week 4- First Year of Simulation

This week's simulation had to be one of the most fun classes in this entire program. It was really unique to get a different perspective on planning district-wide changes. My district has undergone a lot over the past few years- our philosophy is that we'd rather get out ahead of changes so we can have some voice in exactly how it looks once it becomes requirement. This means a lot of work without anyone really able to tell you exactly what to do. The result on our staff has been mixed- some excited, some upset, all stressed out. But going through the simulation really helped me to understand why we were doing certain things that I found pointless at the time, and why some changes have to move so slowly.

I'm really looking forward to the next "year" of this game. I think it would be a great tool to use to help staff understand how a district goes about addressing a new initiative. Maybe something to play at a staff inservice. 

Leadership Week 3- Cheese and Spark Plugs

I'm going to mix analogies a bit here, starting with your "Who Moved My Cheese?" story. The message of that story is that when a method no longer produces the results you want, you need to move on to a new method instead of blaming other people or lamenting that the world is so unfair. And old methods will always stop producing results. It's an important message, but one that I hesitate to apply 100% to schools.

In the discussion forum, I alluded to schools chasing every new reform, as described by Diana Senechal, despite a questionable need to do so. This would be like the mice running to a new location when there is still plenty of cheese left, just because they heard there is also cheese somewhere else. It may be more, it may be less, and that is something that should be considered before making the move.

And that is where the cheese begins to be the spark plug described in the Systems Thinking video. Schools will quickly add a new reading program, or embrace a new method for encouraging positive behavior without considering the role the old system took. Perhaps the old system had played an important role in another area- the old reading system was used in Science and Social Studies, or the old behavior model played a role in many teachers' classroom rules. But when the new program or model is put in place, nobody accounts for the sudden loss of the old supports.

This is a problem that results from authoritarian, top-down leadership. Too often, an administrator makes a decision to incorporate a new program or idea without consulting staff to see if it would actually be the best decision. Or, a committee is formed, but it later becomes obvious that it was a committee on how to incorporate the new model, not if we should incorporate it. A leader who empowers the staff and uses input from everyone in decision making would not constantly chase the new trend.