EdpuzzleLIVE: Developing a Professional Learning Network with Tech

 

Mid-Year Review from Faculty

I feel as an educational leader it is important to seek feedback from your faculty. It is important to demonstrate that you are willing to go through a continual process of reflection and growth in order to model that behavior for faculty. This anonymous survey went out to my faculty two weeks ago. The results in general were quite positive, but there are areas for improvement. I felt that part of the process should also be displaying results publicly for comment. I appreciate and respect the time and energy the faculty put into providing me feedback. There was also a comment section and the most common statement was that our ESL program still needs more work before it will serve our needs as a community of educators. The second most common topic was about our Chinese language program; faculty felt that students needed a target or goal at the end of the program, like taking the SAT Chinese subject test or an AP Chinese exam. I look forward to working with the faculty on these two issues in the next semester and coming school year.

92% positive

69% more positive

61% more positive

84% positive

69% more positive

92% positive

77% positive

92% positive

61% positive

92% positive

Responsibilities of Leadership

One of the most important aspects of leadership is responsibility. When something goes wrong, a true leader is responsible even if the problem/mistake was someone else's fault. The leader steps up, takes responsibility and makes the necessary apologies and/or changes. This doesn't sit well with some people, but if you really want to be a leader -- you better own this idea. I'm not saying that the leader is the fall person for all mistakes, but the leader needs to be the one who leads. The captain of a ship doesn't ask for a storm, but dealing with storms is part of the job. Does a captain turn to the deckhand and say, "Darn you! You made another storm"? No, the captain accepts the fact of the storm and takes the necessary actions to ride it out. After the storm, the captain may know that a crew member needs to be punished, but that comes after taking responsibility. Pointing fingers is not the path of the leader; responsibility is. In addition to taking responsibility when something goes wrong, the leader should always give credit to others when things go right. Very rarely is the leader the only responsible party for great success; most endeavors are team efforts and the entire team should receive credit when success occurs. Acknowledging the efforts of others is the path of the leader. Taking at least a share of the blame and giving credit to others are not easy tasks, but they are important. If you aren't ready to do these two actions, you aren't ready to be a leader. This is something I have learned growing up thanks to the efforts of my parents, friends, teachers, and mentors. The last six months has only reaffirmed this knowledge.