Effective Leadership
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week_1_instructor_guidance.docxWeek 1 Instructor Guidance
A warm welcome to EDU684. This is an exciting class where we will review and create a school vision. Looking forward to our six weeks together as a class! WEEKLY LEARNING OUTCOMES Before moving any further, please take a moment to review and reflect on our learning expectations for the week; these are also listed with their alignment to each assessment for the week on the Week 1 Unit page:
· Analyze the impact school leadership has on creating a school vision.
· Recognize the variety of leadership styles and their potential influence on the vision making process.
WEEK 1 – OVERVIEW In Week One, we will investigate leadership styles, discuss barriers that can exist in education, and how leadership styles reflect on our ability to unify a school towards a common goal. The following section is an overview of our assessments for the week. Specific instructions for each are listed on the Week 1 Unit page. Remember to refer to rubrics associated with each assessment type (discussion or assignment) to understand how the instructor will evaluate your work and determine your grade for performance on each assessment. In the Post Your Introduction discussion we will begin to build our initial classroom community together. Although many of you may be acquainted from prior courses, this course is our unique opportunity to learn together around the topics of this course! Discussion 1: In the What’s Your Leadership Style? discussion you will identify and discuss different leadership styles. During participation in this discussion, ask yourself … what kind of leader am I? What type of leader do I want to be? These are good guiding questions to consider as you share about your leadership style and reflect on the styles of peers in the discussion. Discussion 2: The Overcoming Challenges discussion has you thinking about the myriad of challenges we may face as teachers and leaders. This discussion is focused on having you thinking about barriers and how to overcome them as they are presented to you. Assignment: This assignment Effective Leadership has you reflecting on your week’s discussions on leadership and intertwining your thoughts of shared leadership. As leaders we are never a one man boat, it takes many to row the boat to the finish line. INTELLECTUAL ELABORATION What Exactly is Leadership? Have you ever heard the quote “One is not born a leader, one is made a leader”? Do you think this is true? Think about the following before you answer; as educators we sometimes encounter students who are “natural” leaders in the classroom. We recognize these students as those who gravitate towards leadership positions in groups and throughout the various clubs and activities in school. We can see these “natural leaders” in the earliest stages of formal education; in preschool classes. These are the students who take command of play time, dictate what others will or won’t do with the blocks, and so forth. Do we call them born leaders? Or are leadership skills fostered and cultivated over even these earliest years? As you research this topic you will find many discussing it online, such as Karen Hurt, blogger and executive leader in a Fortune 15 company who talks about the role of leadership in children. Hurt’s blog is titled “Let's Grow Leaders.” In the blog, Hurt discusses why we need to focus in on teaching children leadership skills. Hurt provides a simple list of the eight ways to nurture leadership in children.
· Teach them to give
· Talk to them like grown-ups
· Give them a say in some family decisions
· Nurture a love of reading
· Bring them along and give them a role
· Admit when you mess up
· Socialize with other leaders
· Teach them to craft and deliver a toast at a family gathering.
Realizing this class does not focus on teaching children leadership skills, it is important however, to understand how children achieve leadership skills as those skills make us who we are as adult teacher leaders. The early years are our foundation for the formulation of our leadership style and ability. Leadership Styles and Effective Leadership Alvy and Robbins (2010) wrote a book called Learning from Lincoln: Leadership Practices for School Success. In this book they discuss how successful leaders have a purpose to carry out a shared mission and value to promote equality. These authors noted that if you take an in-depth look at Lincoln’s presidency and leadership style you can reflect in the process of formulating your own leadership style and what it means to you in your lifetime to be a leader. The book also discussed how effective leaders benefit from knowing the direction in which to take the school and how to measure achievement of visions and goals during leadership and to inform it as well. You can watch Alvy and Robbins’ webinar where they discuss the book as it relates to school leadership. Barriers in Leadership We have all faced barriers in our lives, be it professional or academic. When we become leaders we will face a myriad of barriers from the district office, fellow faculty or the community. How we tackle these barriers is key. In an article written by Hess (2013, April) he discussed the need to be a Cage-Buster, and how as leaders we need to think about things with “fresh eyes” and avoid the leadership traps. He describes the leadership traps as Platitudes, Sucks Less, and More, Better. In the Platitude trap leaders tend to look past the bad and only view the positive results of the school. However as leaders, we do benefit from looking past the positive and focusing on the challenges that exist for the school. In the Sucks Less trap we view achievement in blocks, for example we may say; ”well this time last year…. remember that mess?” This trap is a condition where we tend to identify situations that were worse instead of looking at the current problems and addressing them with timely and appropriate solutions. In the More, Better trap, Hess discusses how as leaders we have the “what if” scenario play through our heads. For example what if we had more money, we could do x,y and z. If we had more of something than we would be better at something. Such positive thinking may lend itself to productive creative brainstorming for solutions yet ultimately budgets do not often accommodate all the initiatives needed for quickly achieving a vision for a school. In your text this week you will read about different types of barriers. Just keep in mind that no barrier is too big to overcome. You just have to keep a good attitude and think long range. Think about it! “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” Nelson Mandela References Alvy, H., & Robbins, P. (2010) Learning from Lincoln: Leadership practices for school success [Presentation]. ASCD. Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from http://bcove.me/0s2unf1r Hess, F. (2013, April). Be a cage buster. Leveraging teacher leadership, 70(7). 30-33. Hurt, K. (2013, Dec 23). 8 ways to nurture leadership in young children [Web log comment] Retrieved from http://letsgrowleaders.com/category/leadership-in-children/ Additional References Adelman, H.S., & Taylor, L. (2006a). The school leader’s guide to student learning supports: New directions for addressing barriers to learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Adelman, H.S., & Taylor, L. (2006). The implementation guide to student learning supports in the classroom and school wide: New directions for addressing barriers to learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Cody, A. (2013, Oct). Two ways to lead. Leveraging Teacher Leadership, 71(2). 68-71.
Required Resources
1. Marzano, R., Waters, T., & McNulty, B. (2005). School leadership that works: From research to results. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
a. Chapter 2, pp.13-27
Recommended Resources
1. Gabriel, J., & Farmer, P. (2009). How to help your school thrive without breaking the bank. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
2. Hallinger, P., & Murphy, J. F. (2013). Running on Empty? Finding the Time and Capacity to Lead Learning. NASSP Bulletin, 97(1), 5-21. Retrieved from the ProQuest database in the Ashford University Library.
3. Hess, F. M. (2013). Principals: Don't settle for rolling the boulder. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(8), 22. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library.
4. Kelley, R. (2005). Relationships between measures of leadership and school climate. Education, 126(1), 17-25. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database in the Ashford University Library.
5. Savage-Austin, A. R., & Honeycutt, A. (2011). Servant leadership: A phenomenological study of practices, experiences, organizational effectiveness, and barriers. Journal of Business & Economics Research, 9(1), 49-54. Retrieved from the Ashford University Library.
6. Val, C., & Kemp, J. (2012). Leadership styles. Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, 24(3), 28-31. Retrieved from the ERIC database in the Ashford University Library.
7. Williams, R. B., Brien, K., & LeBlanc, J. (2012). Professional learning communities: Developing a school-level readiness instrument. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, (134). Retrieved from the ERIC database in the Ashford University Library.
Post Your Introduction To post your introduction, go to this week's Post Your Introduction link in the left navigation.
This discussion is your opportunity to develop community with your class peers and instructor. The use of technology is an integral part of your learning and teaching. Therefore, in this introduction you have two technology options for presenting your initial post. Initial Post Address the following in your presentation using one of the options:
a. Share who you are, your professional background & experience (especially any dealing with education), and your personal interests
b. Identify one famous person and describe their leadership style. Discuss why you would like to emulate their leadership style.
c. Describe the type of position you hope to have in the future and/or as a result of you earning your advanced degree. What impact do you believe having your Master degree will have on your future endeavors?
d. Share one quote and its author, if known, that symbolizes your belief about leadership.
Option 1: Create a presentation using the software of your choice such as: Present.me. Include slides, video, audio, documents, or photos as part of your introduction. Option 2: Create a short video to introduce yourself using the software of your choice such as: VoiceThread, Present.me or YouTube. Guided Response: Post replies to at least three peers before the close date of this discussion. In your replies, consider asking questions of peers about their responses to encourage further conversation. Though three replies is the basic expectation in this discussion, for deeper engagement and community building with peers, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have posted for you (including the instructor) before the last day of the discussion; this continued interaction will further the conversations while also giving you opportunities to network and get to know your instructor and peers for more optimal engagement in the coming weeks!
Discussions To participate in the following discussions, go to this week's Discussion link in the left navigation.
1. What's Your Leadership Style? This Discussion is your opportunity to meet the course objectives Analyze the impact school leadership has on creating a school vision and Recognize the variety of leadership styles and their potential influence on the vision making process. Additionally, this discussion is your opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the Course Learning Outcome 3 and reinforces your competency with the MAED Program Learning Outcomes 2, 5, 6 and 9.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” —John Quincy Adams.
This quote by Adams evokes the true essence of leadership in education; we want to inspire all school stakeholders to reach for higher levels of learning and teaching. Our actions as leaders can promote and sustain this inspiration in the school. However, before we can promote higher levels of learning and teaching we need to identify our own leadership style. In this discussion you will read Chapter 2 of the required text by Marzano, Waters & McNulty (2005). They discuss several different school leadership styles. When we understand these styles and their impact, we can develop our own approaches to leadership and become effective leaders. Initial Post Address the following four points in your initial response in at least one paragraph each.
· Discuss each leadership style referencing Marzano, Waters, and McNulty (2005, p. 13-19).
· Describe the one style you most likely associate with in the list and discuss why you identify yourself as that type of leader.
· Discuss which leadership style you do not identify with in the list and why.
· Share why it’s valuable to know your leadership style and how it can aid or hinder progress when working toward a shared vision and working collaboratively within a group.
2. Overcoming Challenges This discussion is your opportunity to meet the course objectives Analyze the impact school leadership has on creating a school vision and Recognize the variety of leadership styles and their potential influence on the vision making process. Additionally, this discussion is your opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the Course Learning Outcome 3 and reinforces your competency with the MAED Program Learning Outcomes 2, 5, 6 and 9. Fullan (2003) notes two different types of barriers in school leadership, self- imposed and system imposed. Self- imposed barriers is when the “if only” feeling takes control. “If only X, I could do my job better. Where X becomes any number of external factors not under the speaker's control” (p.17). System-imposed barriers include such things as; top-down changes that are unclear or underdeveloped for use at the school level, limited professional development for leadership and absence of a system that promotes change. As you create your initial post and replies for this discussion, keep Fullan’s ideas about barriers in school leadership in mind as you think about the different barriers you may face as a leader. Initial Post In a paragraph each, address the following:
b. Describe two barriers included, but not limited to those noted above that could be potential obstacles for you in your creation of a vision statement.
b. Explain some ways these potential barriers could be overcome.
Guided Response: Post replies to at least two peers before the close date of this discussion. In your replies, consider asking questions of peers about their responses to encourage further conversation. What barriers do you share with your peers? How did your perceived barriers differ from that of your peers? Remember, though two replies is the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you (including the instructor) before the last day of the discussion; this will further the conversation while also giving you opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real world experiences with this topic.
Assignment To complete the following assignment, go to this week's Assignment link in the left navigation.
Effective Leadership This assignment is your opportunity to meet the following course objectives: Analyze the impact school leadership has on creating a school vision and Recognize the variety of leadership styles and their potential influence on the vision making process. Additionally, this assignment is your opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the Course Learning Outcome Three and reinforces your competency with the MAED Program Learning Outcomes Two, Five, Six and Nine. This week in your discussion postings you identified different leadership styles and identified which leadership style you related to the most. You also discussed different barriers that may contribute to and/or affect your ability to lead. In this assignment, we take this learning to the next level with a formal written activity focused on leadership styles and reflection about those in relation to your ability to lead in a school context. Content
· Leadership Style: Describe your leadership style referencing Marzano, Waters, and McNulty (2005, p. 13-19).
· Example: Describe a specific example of how your leadership style enables you to be an effective leader even when dealing with school adversity.
· Concept/Impression: Explain the concept of shared leadership, your impression of shared leadership, and why you like to be in control or if you prefer to delegate.
· Reflection: Describe a time when a person’s leadership style was in direct contrast to your own and explain how you effectively dealt with the person or situation. If you haven’t had a hard time dealing with others in a leadership position, hypothesize how you might resolve an issue.
Written Communication
· Page Requirement: Two to three pages, not including title and reference pages.
· APA Formatting: Use APA formatting consistently throughout the paper. It is recommended you use the content area labels as headings for each section of your content for the paper.
· Syntax and Mechanics: Display meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Your written work should contains no errors and be very easy to understand.
· Source Requirement: Uses no less than three scholarly sources in addition to the course textbook, providing compelling evidence to support ideas. All sources on the reference page need to be used and cited correctly within the body of the assignment.
