"Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow." Chinese Proverb
ECI 508 - Teacher as Leader
In the Teacher as Leader course, we were exposed to numerous ways as to how we as teachers can lead by example, and consequently, motivate our students to become leaders as well. One of our class activities had us looking at a movie or television show to find examples of either positive or negative teacher leadership. My partner and I selected the show “The Wonder Years” where one of the main characters, Kevin, was inspired by his student council advisor to take a stand and fight for what he believes in. (Attached is our summary of the movie citing several examples during the episode where Kevin finds inspiration in his teacher’s words and actions.) In completing this activity, we remembered those teachers who have inspired us and steered us towards this profession through their dedication to turning us into leaders. In my classroom, I strive to push my students every day to show them that they have the same ability as any great leader does, to take hold of a situation and make the most of it. Whether it be in the completion of an assignment, test, quiz or project, helping another student out in need, rousing teammates to do their best, or just participating in class, our students need to realize that leadership wears many different hats, and can be achieved by anyone at any time. For our students to be successful, they need to be strong leaders in any number of ways as situations arise throughout their life. Throughout the completion of this assignment, we were able to recognize and analyze how our actions, small or large, will have an impact on how our students view us as leaders.
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Another assignment that proved helpful to me in illustrating the importance and significance of leadership was the “interview a stranger” assignment. Here, we had to randomly walk up to a person whom we had never met, introduce ourselves, and get to know the person a little. (Below you can see the details of this conversation as it took place the day of the assignment.) This task is difficult for a lot of people because it requires them to step out of their comfort zone and put themselves out there in what is sometimes an awkward position. This made me think of the new students who come into our classrooms throughout the year and how they must feel as the “new kid”. After completing this assignment in class, I took what I had learned and applied it to my classroom. I began requiring students to work with someone with whom they barely knew or associated with. I began recruiting students to serve on a pseudo “welcoming committee” to help ease our new students into my classroom and make their transition a smoother one. Finally, I encouraged students to talk to at least one person, another student or adult, a day, that they did not know and at worst, at least introduce themselves. In doing this, I tried to expose my students to the idea that you never know where you will find a new best friend. They never know whose day they are going to make by simply talking to them and how much people appreciate them just knowing they are interested in them. This sign of leadership is often overlooked and ignored in the hustle and bustle of a normal school day, but is a great practice to slow things down and realize that relationships are at the core of education. For our students to be good leaders today and in the future, they need to be able to display empathy and be willing to put themselves out there every now and then to show how much they care.
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The last assignment that helped demonstrate leadership was our final project. This assignment had us take on, describe and connect how we showed our leadership ability. I chose the staff development I helped to create and implement at my current school. (See attached paper for extensive details.) Our school is very big on the use of technology and preparing our students to be 21st century learners. However, I, and several other teachers realized that our students were only going to be as successful as the teachers at our school allowed them be. What I mean by that is, we needed to lead by example and show our students how effective and helpful the use of technology is not only to them now, but how beneficial and essential it will be for them in the future. We organized a committee and recruited teachers who had expertise in using certain Web 2.0 tools for class assignments and assessments. We then trained our staff during a development day in how to use these different tools and more importantly, how they could use these tools in their classrooms. From there, I and the other teachers on the committee, used our enrichment/remediation schedule to teach all of our students how to use each tool that the staff had learned about in our training. Now, with all members of our staff and student body well versed in the use of numerous different technologies, we opened the door for students to expand their learning and to showcase their creativity. In doing this, we showed students where education is headed and exposed them to the tools that they will need to succeed later in life. At the same time, we also showed some of our teachers the value of technology and the impact it can make on their teaching, and especially, their students learning.
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