Saturday, May 5, 2012
Week #6 of CeDO 565 - Leadership and Planning
I really can't believe that I am on the verge of my final class in this masters program! This past class, Leadership and Planning, has showed me that leadership is much more than just the higher ups in a business and school. Leadership can take place in many different levels of an organization. Before taking this class, I always felt that leadership was not for me. When someone asked me if I am a person who would want to be a leader, I would tell them I have no interest in being a principal or associate principal of my school. However, this classed showed me that I do not have to have a higher up position to still be considered a leader. In many aspects, this class has showed me that I am currently a leader amongst my colleagues. I am a go to guy for technology and special education. Many people know that I am taking this masters program, and they ask me for ideas that I have found throughout my time taking these courses. Overall, I still feel that I would not want to be a principal, however, I do feel that my leadership qualities can still be utilized even as a teacher. I get a long with people very well, and it is easy for me to spread my ideas with others. As for the textbook's assertion about "improving education from within," I think this is very true. I think the more people can convince others in their school to change or try different things, the better it is for the school and the more able the school will be able to keep up with the challenging times we face today.
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"Improving education from within" is the whole reason I am a teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools. All I need to be able to do is to connect with others who are as passionate for improving the education of Milwaukee kids, and then getting the formal leadership to go along with changes that have been proven to work. The main problem with a huge educational system such as MPS is that some of those who are the most resistant to change are among the myriad of administrators (or non-classroom teachers) at the Central Office. One change that has been floated for as long as my mother was a teacher in MPS (since the 1960's) was to shrink the staff of the central office building (currently at over 4000 total) and put more people in classrooms. This is a change that the "old boys network" at central office won't allow since that means people would have to work with the people the district was created to serve, kids. Many in the central office did not go into teaching to work with kids, they went into it for the relatively good benefits (generous vacation and great health insurance and retirement pension). I see this as more the problem with the Milwaukee Public Schools than anything else, if there is a 40:1 student to teacher ratio and a 2.0:1 non teaching staff to classroom teachers, that might more be the reason of the situation that MPS finds itself in.
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteas usual I enjoyed reading your post. We truly are pioneers in the middle of a new era in our field. We need to step up and lead our colleagues through this time of change by being great listeners and leaders.
Best wishes to you Bill.
Yvette