Sunday, April 18, 2010

Leaders know what questions to ask ... they share with others

An example of this comes from a blogger I follow, teacher Bill Ferriter ... Click Here you can read a recent post from Bill about questions to ask before buying an Interactive White Board (IWB). The "take-away" from his post (and from mine) is that leaders should be aware that there are many great ideas and all ideas have many implications ... one way to maximize the effectiveness of decisions to know what to ask before engaging in actions. No matter what action is considered it is essential to consider the implications for the people involved and impacted about the action(s) prior to implementing. Intentional decision making, in my opinion, involves seeking input from those who will most be affected by the implementation. It also involves intentionally sharing thoughts, desires, wishes, hypotheses from the leader/leadership team about why they consider the change, implementation, etc.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Quick Urtak Poll

Urtak 2114

Technology Integration in Education "Ning"

http://tech-in-ed.ning.com/ The link above will take you to the Ning for Technology Integration in Education. This social network site is designed to help facilitate the use of technology in the classroom. As a leader my mission of service to others includes discovering and sharing resources of interest so that learning and continuous improvement may take place at all levels. Leadership involves finding out what others need, want, and are skillful with; meeting those needs when possible, fulfilling those wants when possible and enhancing and improving those skills when applicable. I hope that this "ning" provides useful materials, guidance, and support in the area of instructional technology use.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Relationships

Research on leadership essentially indicates that the most important attributes of a leader involves relationships. Listening to others, involving others, building capacity in others based upon their interests and skills, all of this is essential for a leader to be successful. Building professional relationships is foundational for all leaders who hope to find success in education, management, organizations, any industry where people are involved. The best advice I could give to an aspiring leader is to LISTEN to people involved; build RELATIONSHIPS with those around you; show RESPECT to all, and value the honor, dignity, and worth of all individuals!!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

More on Leadership and Impact

It's very rewarding when you can participate in the selection of excellent teachers with peers who are trained in the research based methods. It is very rewarding to recommend for hire 200 teachers with whom you have worked for four years. It is very rewarding to participate in what works in education - to join with those who "do" in education. As a public educator I am biased ... yet it is still rewarding and affirming to be part of systems that truly do work, are measurable, and make lasting impacts on student learning. This is an example of leadership that is meaningful.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Twitter

I am rediscovering Twitter ... still I'm not 100% certain how to maximize its impact in/on my professional leadership journey - but I am following more "tweets" and taking suggestions from friends and colleagues about how this web 2.0 experience can increase my (and anyone's) connectivity with our newly flattened world.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Very helpful website

The Illinois Association of School Administrator Web site is very helpful for school leaders, administrators and new superintendents. http://www.iasaedu.org