Distributive Leadership and Capacity Building

At the last school I worked for, distributive leadership was used to help alleviate some of the dependence of newer teachers on the administration for any help or questions.  It also helped with capacity building because more experienced teachers were able to mentor the newer teachers.  Besides having mentors assigned to new teachers, they also had access to all of the other experienced teachers in the building.  With all of the teachers encouraged to work with each other, they are able to improve each other by learning new methods, lesson plans, and management strategies.  It is beneficial to the school because it helps to develop professional relationships with colleagues, encourages everyone to work together, and improves the overall school setting. 

Forces of Leadership

I think that the technical force is closest to how I've been a leader in the classroom.  As a Physical Education teacher, I have to do a lot of organizing and situation manipulation to ensure that each class operates efficiently.  The organization and coordination usually changes for each class, so planning ahead is very important for me.
      I feel that as a technical leader, I can help a school by being flexible for all different types of situations.  I don't have a problem changing how I do things or how I lead to fit the issue at hand.  I can also come up with different strategies and ideas to approach situations as they arise.  With the multitude of different issues that schools face each day, I feel that I would be a valuable asset.

Power Dynamics

At one of the last schools that I worked for, principals were very largely in charge of their own buildings.  Any requests or complaints from teachers or parents went directly to the responsible principal.  The superintendant wasn't involved unless the principal couldn't deal with the situation.  Although the superintendant wasn't involved with every decision, he always made sure he knew what was going on at all of the schools in the district by visiting and talking with staff and students.
      I appreciated this approach and feel that it worked efficiently.  Most of the staff enjoyed knowing who they were suppossed to talk to.  The chain of command was known to all of the staff, and because the district had very skilled principals to be leaders of their schools, the system worked.  I like this power dynamics approach, but it seems to depend on having excellent leaders as principals, which should be the case anyway.

Strength-Based Leadership

     I feel that strength-based leadership can be a very effective way of supporting a community of practice, such as a school.  School settings have more than one leader.  When there are more people that are working toward a common interest, that goal can be reached more effectively.  The more leadership there is, the better the chance that different strengths are being utilized to make the school successful.  I think that when there is a variety of strengths in leadership, other people are more comfortable following direction because there is a better chance of being able to relate to one of the leaders.
     Personally, if I am being encouraged to work with my strengths from my leaders, I feel more excited about going to work.  That would mean that I am allowed to be an individual and that I can express myself as I see fit.
     I appreciate strength-based leadership because it encourages individuality.  When your leaders let you know that it is ok to be different and that your feedback and input is important because you're different, you feel like you're a part of the community instead of just going through the motions.

Bill

Learning Personal Leadership

While I am a student in the Personal Leadership class at the University of Phoenix, I hope to learn about more skills that I need to be a better teacher leader.  I especially want to learn how to be better at delegating jobs and responsibilities to other adults.  I always feel that I might make someone upset with what I assigned them or make others feel that the workloads aren't equal.  Learning about how to do this guilt free will help make me a better leader.