Leadership
Effective leaders delegate, solve problems, create a positive climate, and get things done (Whitaker, 2003). The leaders at my school were great mentors. I learned an immense amount from them particularly regarding building positive relationships with my students. They gave me the chance to develop a creative teaching and leadership style. The head principal wore a “yes” button for the first week he was here. Everyone loved it. We automatically felt empowered to come up with ideas to which we hoped he would say “yes.”
I hope to be the type of leader who listens. I hope to say “yes” to teachers when they have a creative idea even if it makes more work for me.
Effective leaders empower rather than dictate and delegate tasks of great responsibility and I hope to do the same. I want to make visiting classrooms and interacting with students and teachers a priority.
Research suggests that more parent involvement makes for a better school environment. I hope to make the school I work for an open door for the community as well as parents. I feel parents need to be on board with decisions regarding not only discipline, but the learning atmosphere.
Communication
Effective, concise communication with staff, parents, students and the community is very important. Not everything can effectively be communicated via email. It is my experience that talking in person lowers the chance of miscommunication and, therefore, usually takes less time in the long run. If I can talk to someone in person, I will.
As a leader, it is important to develop a shared vision, as well as what we, as a group, consider our purpose to be. It is not enough just to develop a vision; it also needs to be communicated to students. Every student should know the few things our staff and leadership deem as important. Then, every parent and community member should be informed of what that vision and purpose is.
Climate
Effective principals improve school climate through praise and positive interactions (Whitaker, 2003). I hope to build a positive climate that includes love and law. In order for students to continue to feel safe at school the law needs to be upheld. I know that lack of discipline can become a slippery slope. But, kids do need to know you are not only interested in how fast they run to the buses. They need to know that principals and teachers care about them as people.
Effective leaders delegate, solve problems, create a positive climate, and get things done. I like to have fun. To me, learning new things is fun and I like to convey that to my students. When my “students” include my staff, I hope to share a positive energy with them, too. Part of having fun is being free to be creative. I hope to encourage my staff to find creative ways to teach and to not discourage them from doing something different just because it’s not the way it has been done in the past.
Problem Solving
As a principal, I hope to listen to problems and get the help of students and staff to help solve them. I will try to listen to all sides of issues and keep an environment of calm when venting problems. Part of problem solving, again, is creating a climate of candor where problems can be aired immediately without giving time for them to “boil up”. I will try to find out what the problems are by asking students and staff individually and then ask for their advice on how to develop a solution.
Decision Making
When making decisions, it is best to get input from not only teachers and staff, but also from parents, the community and students. Decision-making is, in my opinion, the best time to incorporate systems thinking.
I feel that decision making should be done, in part, in a leadership team setting. I would like to promote a culture of candor. I feel it is important for people to share what might be wrong. Unknown problems are impossible to solve.
Conflict Management
When a leader is willing to admit honestly something he or she did is wrong, it encourages staff to do the same thing. Part of conflict management, is that teachers need to know they can go to administration with problems and be taken seriously.
According to Waters (2003), successful principals promote cooperation among staff. I am a very optimistic person. I feel that it is important to recognize the good in everyone. Not everyone will get along, but if the primary focus is student learning, we share at least that goal.
Pedagogy
If one truly believes that raising expectations will raise results then hard work will pay off for students whether they get 4.0 or not.
Clark (2011) very eloquently says, “Define your expectations and then raise the bar; the more you expect, the better the results will be” (p. 11). I could not agree more. Students are often able to perform to a higher rigor and so are teachers. My goal is to create a fun, creative climate where it is OK to have high expectations. I do not think fun and rigor have to be mutually exclusive.
Staff Development
Whitaker (2003) states that just as effective teachers motivate students to do their best, so too should effective principals.
The primary role of outstanding principals is to teach the teachers (Whitaker, 2003). I like the idea of teaching teachers the way they teach students. One great way to do this is by getting teachers into each other’s classrooms. After all, who better to teach the teachers than those with the best skills? Many of our staff members are doing awesome things and it would be nice to see it in the classroom as well as on professional development days.
Conclusion
Leaders are not leaders without followers and a lot of help. They must effectively communicate, control the school climate, make decisions, and resolve conflict all while increasing learning in students and staff. Leaders are responsible for the good and often take responsibility for the bad (whether they deserve it or not). They define expectations then raise the bar. They praise and repair hurt feelings. They solve problems and include others using systems theory. In conclusion, a leader is no less than the reason things do or do not happen.
References
Clark, R. (2011). The end of molasses classes: Getting our kids unstuck. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Daggett, W., & McNulty, R. (2010). Living in quadrant D. International Center for Leadership in Education.
LeDeaux, S. (2013, December 11). Are you a leader or a manager? [Web blog]. Retrieved from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/9839
Senge, P., Cabron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., Kleiner, A. (2012). Schools that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education. New York: Crown Business.
Waters, T., Marzano, R., & McNulty, B. (2003). Balanced leadership: What 30 years of research tells us about the effect of leadership on student achievement [PDF file]. Mid- continent Research for Education and Learning. Retrieved from http://mcrel.org