My Leadership Style

There are two styles that fit me really well. I am a traformational and a transactional leader. As a transformational leader, I care how my students develop through life. I want to see the development from being a self-centered child to a outward thinking young adult. We do "mommy moments" once a week to discuss life lessons. I connect these to a saying or phrase that we are focusing on for the week. For instance "don't cut off your nose to spite your face." We also do character nominations. We have a theme each month given to us by administration. We are to find positive character traits in others. I have the students write a 50 word paragraph telling me why one of their peers deserve to get that month's award. In this I am teaching them to always look for the good in a person and how to identify specific character traits.

At my school we do what we call PowWow meetings. All of the 4th through 6th grade teachers get together once a week and we discuss specific students and curriculum questions and concerns. We have a upper elementary director that presides over the meetings as well. This is using the transactional leadership approach and it works really well. The lower elementary do the same thing. After these meetings we break into grade specific meetings where that team lead follows up any issues that were specific to the grade in the group meeting and then we move on to specific areas in our grade. I love this approach to PLCs. As the team lead for the 6th grade, I look for input from the other teachers and aides, but I also put in my own input. This is transactional leadership. I am not the all knowing teacher. I need to learn from my peers. I know I have a lot to offer my peers as well. This is why this give and take process works so well. 

Distributive Leadership

What is Distributive Leadership?

Distributive leadership is when a leadership role is defined in detail as many responsibilities and then those responsibilities are given to several individuals. Each individual is held accountable for his or her assigned share. Some experts believe this is the leadership process of the future, some believe that this is the leadership process that creates too many queen bees and not enough worker bees. 

Why does Distributive Leadership work?

This process of leadership is successful in the school environment for many reasons. The first and most important is that those with the responsibility roles can focus in on his or her area and become the "expert." Subordinates know who to go to and know that the person they are going to is well-educated in that area of inquiry. For instance, in most schools, the disciplinarian is the Vice Principal. This person is educated in different techniques and process to deal with many situations. Teachers can rely on this person to help them with their classroom behavior issues that are outside the normal scope of classroom management. Another example would be the Academic Coach. This person is responsible for knowing all of the standardized curriculum and know how to mentor teachers on how to present the curriculum to their students. 

Another reason that this process works is the burn out factor. Leaders do not become overwhelmed or "burn out" to soon or easily. Many elementary school principals get burned out very easily because elementary schools do not have the staff or resources that a middle school, junior high school, or high school have. To be able to delegate some of the responsibility to support staff and teacher leaders, the principal can focus in our areas that need more attention or need to be fixed. The delegated staff then can have more responsibility and can grow in their own professional advancement.

Why does Distributive Leadership not work?

This process of leadership does not always work when an organization does not have the right people in the right seats on the school bus as the saying goes. Some individuals are not fitted for some responsibilities. If a person has many projects in the works and starts to panic, they may not be best suited for a multi-task responsibility. 

Another way this does not work is that an organization becomes reliable on one person for an area of expertise. If something were to happen to that person or if that person suddenly quit his or her employment, the company would not have a back-up person. I have personally experienced this at a previous employment and it took the staff about six months to pick up the pieces when the accounting manager suddenly died from complications of colon cancer surgery. Not only was the company dealing with the grief of loosing one of its employees that had been there the longest, but it was also dealing with not knowing how he did his job. After that every employee had to have a back-up person that was knowledgeable in his or her job duties.

Does my school use this process of leadership?

When I first started teaching, it was in a mainstream elementary school. This school did not use distributive leadership. This school had a principal that was at school every morning by 6 a.m. and did not leave until after 7 p.m. every day. She was a newer principal and was trying to do it all herself. I saw her bite the heads off of students and staff regularly. I account this to being overwhelmed and stressed out. 

The schools I have taught at since this were charter schools. At both charter schools I have been at distributive leadership is used very well. There is not just a principal in the school. There is a school director, an academic director, a discipline director, an enrollment director, an upper elementary director, a lower elementary director, a testing director, and a human resource director just to name the directors. It is amazing at how well all of these individuals work together to bring a cohesiveness to our school. Each person has his or her own area of expertise and every parent and employee is given a matrix of who to go to for what. It would be very confusing if we did not have the matrix. 

Power Dynamics in a School

In my charter school, the power dynamic is very clear. Data is the power. If a teacher can take any kind of data that proves that a program works, the administration will consider it and usually will approve using in future years. Teachers have a lot of freedom to find programs that fit with the model and method base of the school. I have changed how our vocabulary, grammar, and core math programs are done and now have the core math program throughout the whole upper elementary. We were able to show how through data students were able to get out of corrective math faster and be at grade level by the end of the year. Our junior high director also jumped on board with this program. We have started looking down two grades and up two grades to make sure the students have good foundations to move forward in their education.

Strength Based Leadership

As a community is developing, whether it is an individual classroom or an entire school, having leaders in specific positions based on their strengths is best. If a leader is in a position that they are not a good event organizer, you would not want them organizing a very visual assembly or event. Someone who is strong in technology should take the lead in any technology requirements. In my classroom, I need to know what my students are strongest in and show them how to use those strengths to make a better classroom community. I want to model for them that we do not tear others down because of his or her weaknesses, but lift them up based on his or her strengths.

What do I want to gain from Personal Leadership?

In the personal leadership class I hope to gain more knowledge about how to use the qualities that I possess and help others. I want to learn how to effectively communicate with my peers and administration to make positive changes in my school, grade, and class.

Being a Teacher Leader...What does it mean to me?

Disclaimer: This is only my opinion. This is not the opinions of others.

1. To be a teacher leader, you have to be organized.
2. To be a teacher leader, you have to be confident.
3. To be a teacher leader, you have to pay attention to detail.
4. To be a teacher leader, you have to be HUMBLE!

To make a change, you have to lead by example. Be organized and your followers will have an example to follow. Be disorganized and they have no reason to change or improve or even respect you. You can only expect someone to take you seriously if you are take yourself seriously.