Intentional Leader: Coming Together

Monthly Theme: Relationships

Week 4

It is the end of October and throughout Canada, schools will be starting their Remembrance Day and/or Veteran’s Week preparations. This time of year, teachers and students are remembering the courage, sacrifice, leadership and relationships that have been affected by war and peace in the World. I am reminded that our military ‘demonstrates a certain reality of interdependence of leadership and relationships’ (p.31, Intentional Leader).  Each leader within the military has a specific duty and the more influential that leader is, the more he/she relies on the relationships within their team to maximize their work. The best leaders are the ones work side by side with their colleagues and success is gained through the support and skill of all of the team members. For this week, I was to review individual ambitions versus team agenda, valuing of ideas, and relationship investment.

I am fortunate that I have a team of people within my department to rely on, yet I also have other colleagues in other departments and school sites that I am also able to connect/share/query ideas. As I think about my main Learning Services Team, we all have our individual ambitions and personal growth plans yet we are focused on supporting our district vision and its initiatives. This allows our team to move our projects forward in an effective manner. In the past, when I think about someone who failed to sacrifice a personal agenda for the good of a team that I was part of, it was:

-          Frustrating

-          The project took longer

-          Communication between members broke down

-          Outside sources were unable to trust the group

-          Main goal(s) were not reviewed on a regular basis (more transparency).

It wasn’t until a new leader came aboard and a review of work in progress was articulated that the group members were able to re-adjust for the good of the team.

Valuing others ideas comes with strongly built relationships.

-          I can remember that my first mentor-Principal sat me down and said that I would make a good Masters of Education candidate. The way he pulled out my interests, my present work, etc. made me really think about a professional direction that I had not thought of beforehand. (I did pursue my M.Ed. in Educational Leadership – I have fond memories of our cohort and the extreme learning that took place!)

-          During a SLItech (Supporting Leaders in Integrating Technology) PD session, team members indicated that they were wanting a change in the way the PD was being laid out for them. As leader of this project, I asked for feedback and then adjusted the work accordingly. This resulted in a more effective learning opportunity for the team.

-          At present, my current team members have specific duties and responsibilities in supporting the work in PSD. Although each member has a specific focus, they definitely overlap and result in many internal collaborative opportunities.

-          Our Learning Services Team develops through offering PD, sharing PD opportunities, engaging in PD, sitting on various committees and working /learning collaboratively.

Investing time in others doesn’t take much effort. Performing a small act of kindness for a colleague, family member or friend is as easy as:

-          Buying a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate

-          Baking a loaf

-          Making muffins (I know, my first three examples involve food….for the majority this is a good thing!)

-          Brushing off snow on a car parked all day

-          Writing a thank you note or email

-          Sharing your small heater for a cold office

-          Saying that you appreciate them

Investing in people and contributing with small acts of service strengthens the team and allows you to get to know individuals in a more personal manner. A more synergistic team will result of these actions.

After viewing the video above, can you think of how you can perform a small act of kindness?

 

Intentional Leader: Seeing Potential in Others

Monthly Theme: RELATIONSHIPS

Week 2

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe may have been a learned German writer, artist and politician in the late 1700’s, but his quote to the left brings to mind the importance of relationships and guiding the potential of people that you come into contact with. This week’s Intentional Leader work is Seeing Potential in Others had me reflect on who and how people believe in me, my own beliefs regarding solid relationships, the cultivation of potential in someone I know and finally what qualities I admire in the people that I work with.

What do people see in me?

Personally I see that my parents have always believed in my abilities, nurtured my talents and challenged my thoughts. Although they have had more of a direct influence during my formative schooling years, they continue to have a positive influence on my roles as a wife, mother, teacher and community member. They are my life coaches, active listeners, advice givers, direct communicators, etc. If they had not believed in my potential I certainly would not have had the many enriching opportunities and rich experiences. While growing up I was involved in sports and educational pursuits (to keep it simple). I had the opportunity to travel to various parts of the world. I also pursued my first two university degrees (B.A. in France and B.Ed. in Canada) and then my third university degree (M.Ed.) with full support of my parents. I appreciate their unconditional love, their candor and commitment to engaging my passions into real world experiences.

Important Key Actions

Solid relationships take work. You cannot put them on ‘cruise control’. When I think of a person that I have a solid relationship with I see three key actions that they have taken to invest in others:

1)      TRUST – not only building trust in the relationship between each other, but to learn how to trust in one’s own intuition and feelings. Sometimes we forget to take a moment to reflect and listen to the ‘tiny voice’.

2)      TALK respectfully – by taking into consideration the person’s thoughts, feelings and situation that they find themselves in. No harsh judgments ever change a person’s outlook or journey.

3)      TAKE TIME to listen – actively by paraphrasing what the other person is saying so that the conversation is clear and understood.

Cultivate Potential

Arctic explorer Ben Saunders became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole in 2004. His TED talk about tapping into his potential for this amazing feat. Had he not have solid relationships with his family and friends (and passion and perseverance on his end), he would have not accomplished the extreme goals that he had set out for himself. I think that when I look at someone in my life that I believe has a lot of potential that they may not yet see it in themselves, it’s important for me to continue to build those three key actions above. It’s also important to nurture their attitudes and feelings as they may not be yet mature enough or have enough life experiences at the moment to truly see that they can attain the potential you see in them. It’s  like being a coach on the side, just adjusting and tweaking your advice to them until the finally realize their true potential. After all, it is a journey and not a race!

As for my Ben Saunders example, you can catch up on his expeditions and current work on his website. He is now working on leading a three-man team to the South Pole.

Professional Relationships

There are three people that I work with closely in my professional life. They have many qualities that I admire and I enjoy working with them daily on various projects. See my wordfoto for the results:

I believe the reason why we accomplish a lot while working together is that we know each other’s strengths, we capitalize on our connections/outside networks, we are comfortable questioning each other (for reflection and for clarity) and we share our own professional learning which enhances the team and collaborative efforts.

Overall, I am confident in understanding what I bring to any personal or professional relationship. I also know that my life and professional experiences shape and change my knowledge, skills and attitudes. This is a continual journey of relationship building and personal reflection. Sometimes I get it right the first time and sometimes I don’t….but what’s most important is that I have a network of people that I can count on!

Flickr cc image

 

Spread JOY thru Conversation

This is my week one of the Fierce Inc  six-week challenge that I registered for just before Christmas. This past June I had the opportunity to take the Fierce Conversations sessions hosted in our school division. As a Curriculum Educational Technology Facilitator, mother and wife I found these sessions to give me further clarity in how I can be leading my personal and professional life…..right now! These Fierce Conversation sessions allowed me to align, collaborate and partner more effectively. I continue to learn and find ways to have more thorough and authentic conversations with my colleagues, family, friends and even myself. As I continue on this “fierce” journey, I was delighted to see that Fierce Inc had set out a six-week challenge for the new year. Of course, I hopped on board immediately. Nothing for me to loose and so much to gain! And……since the rest of my Central Office colleagues will soon be taking the Fierce Conversations sessions, I invited them to join in the six-week challenge too! (A number of them did take me up on the offer!)

Week 1 – When you feel gratitude and appreciation for others, let them know.

I am still on Christmas break, so this challenge was played out on my family. I have two great kids who enjoy school, learning and are well-involved in sports. My son, a 10 year old goalkeeper for his Atom hockey team, always wants to do well…..the first time. He really gets down on himself if he

doesn’t stop a shot, especially during game situations. Recently his team was in a four day concurrent tournament over the Christmas break. Each game he went out and stayed focused, made great saves and let a few in. I used my positive mindset to comment on his best efforts. He also received two ‘Player of the Game’ recognition hats and much praise from his coaches and teammates. I could see that he was starting to “self-talk” and calm himself down during later
games due to this gratitude and appreciation being shown to him. It just reminded me that showing or saying you appreciate someone’s efforts right in a particular moment can be such a boost to someone’s motivation, thoughts and/or reflections on themselves. It is a powerful and essential force that we can easily and cognitively choose to do on a daily basis.

I wonder what reactions you have gotten when you have let someone know of their efforts. Or, how have you felt when someone has appreciated you!

 

 

So u Wanna Coach Teachers?

photo © 2008 jill, jellidonut… whatever | more info (via: Wylio)
For the past many months I have been devouring various articles, blogs, books, speaking with learning coaches and attending a number of workshops dealing with instructional coaching. Alberta Education in its Exploring school-based learning coaches document (2010, November), illustrates the roles, responsibilities of both coaches and administrators as well as an implementation guide and a sample ‘day in the life’ of an instructional coach. Another pertinent document is the Alberta learning coach role description (2010, December). The ATA also released a Discussion paper on learning coaches (2011, March). So, it’s definitely on the minds of Alberta educational institutions. But, let’s break it down for a moment. What are some things we should think about before entering into an instructional coaching career?

Here are some basic tips from my experiences so far:

• Understand how adults learn – Adults learn best when they understand why something is important to learn, do and/or understand. They also like a variety of learning opportunities that are positive and encouraging.
• Be organized – Use low to high tech tools to keep your information, research, notes and ideas all organized and readily available.
• Ask questions – Asking effective and great questions are important when speaking with colleagues. There are several resources listed below that assist coaches in asking the ‘right’ questions.
• Attend PD – You need to continue your professional development so that you can pass on the ‘gems’ too!
• Build in reflection time – Time for your own reflection as well as collegial reflection is important. Some coaches use a journal, others blog, whatever works for you to be able to see the growth in this process.
• Administrator support is key – Being enthusiastic and motivated is great, but having the complete support of the administrative team at the school is key to having the rest of the teachers also buy into this way of working and learning.
• Identify clear roles and responsibilities – What is it really that you do? Try to set up a one-page summary outlining your roles and responsibilities. It’s a good way to promote what you are doing to administrators and teachers and it’s also a good way to target your own P.D. experiences.
• Build relationships – This is number one in my thoughts. Building trust and understanding in this collegial learning relationship is pertinent to furthering the impact on students in that particular class.

After discussions with colleagues and continued reading and reflecting…..I think I like the idea of calling an instructional coach a “Lead Learner”. In my many sports-filled years I have had the opportunity to work with and for many coaches. I see coaches in a different light; shining brightly on the area of being ‘the expert’ more so than being a colleague who is at a level learning platform. So, for me, the “Lead Learner” title resonates more for me.

Check out further resources:

CoachGinsburg on twitter

Cognitive Coaching with John Clarke

Evocative Coaching – Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time

Instructional Coaching – A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction

JimKnight on twitter

Joellen Killion with Learning Forward

Power of Teaching – The Science of the Art: Behavioral Pathways to Excellence in Teaching

Radical Learners blog

The Big Four ning

Unmistakable Impact – A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving Instruction

 

An EYE for Design: How Schools Challenge Students

I recently read an article in the Fast Company March 2011 issue. A Teen Eye for Design accounts how teachers, students, post-secondary design schools and design firms can connect together to provide an authentic learning and creative experience for students.

There are a number of similar projects such as:

• Rediscovering Creativity by Building It where Nueva School students collaborate with designers and educators at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
• Project Interaction is a 10 week after school program for high school students that guides students in changing their communities through design. A brief intro video is found on their fundraising site.
• Sweat Equity Enterprises (SEE) takes place in a real professional environment where teenagers participate year-round for all four years of high school in the US. As SEE expands nationwide this year, it plans to reach thousands of youth, teachers, and professionals. Check out the intro video of SEE with founder Marc Ecko.

• Tools for Schools is fully integrated into the School at Columbia’s yearlong curriculum.

So really, what’s so important about having design enter into middle years and high school classrooms?

Whatever way teachers and students have the opportunity to be creative, to engage in authentic learning experiences, collaborate with each other and the community and build relationships in the process is a GREAT thing! In a province that continues to ‘shout out’ that we have an exceptional educational system, we really should look at bolstering up these opportunities as recorded above so that our students can regain their creative nature and our teachers can guide them through critical challenges (not filling in scantron sheets). I wonder how many middle years schools and high schools are able to connect this work and fold it into all aspects of the curriculum? This reminds me of the work that Chris Lehmann’s Science Leadership Academy and San Diego’s High Tech High groups are doing.

Anyone interested in sharing their experiences and/or ideas?

NOTE: The Fast Company magazine is filled with various articles relating to technology, design, ethonomics and leadership. (Ethonomics or ethical economics refers to businesses that are good for the world as well as the bottom line. They are practicing social change through urban revitalization, sustainable agriculture, green IT, alternative energy and online community-powered investing.) It may be one magazine that you’ll want to add to your RSS feed aggregator page!

photo © 2005 Cyprien Lomas | more info (via: Wylio)

 

WCEAC – October 2010

I have been lucky to attend the Western Canadian Educational Administrator’s Conference for a decade now. Each Fall, when the conference is held in Edmonton, hundreds of administrators, teachers, senior executives, politicians and facilitators have a chance to mingle, network, share and have the opportunity to meet together for a few days.

This year, I counted approximately 30 people from Parkland School Division attending! I imagined them all sharing their thoughts and comments on their workshops in a common area so I sent out a GoogleDocs page for people to input information.

What worked: some did view the document and were impressed of the information that was put into the document, and some added to the document.

What didn’t work: not knowing ahead of time who was all coming to conference, I couldn’t send out a welcome to the GDocs page that they could use if they brought their laptops or smartphones.

What I would like to do at future conferences: find out who from PSD is attending and propose a sharing of notes. It’s always great to view and read someone else’s thoughts during/after a session.

Overall, the sessions at WCEAC were varied, the food was good, the vendors were polite, however, I may suggest:

• To  set up a criteria for presenters for the type of presentations we would like. I, myself, understand that when a presenter has authored a book, they want to get the word out, however do not continue to refer to it during the session several times. Maybe ADD this book to the session (I’ll pay for it through the registration process?) and I can take away more information rather than the publicity.

• As well, let’s have the handouts and powerpoints for the sessions already online so I can click on them to either: follow along, refer to, ask questions, write down some reflections, etc.

Overall, I valued the time spent with colleagues, mentors and new friends.