Failure Is Not An Option

So You Want To Be A Teacher Why did I become a teacher? What do I stand for as an educator? What are the gifts that I bring to my work? What do I want my legacy as a teacher to be? What can I do to keep track of myself – to remember my own heart?

Courageous Leadership From your own experience, what are some reasons why leading change requires courage? What if your own child’s education was at stake? Urgency and Commitment

Strategies For Dealing With Resistance When faced with resistance, most people feel challenged. How do you “overcome” the resistance in order to move ahead? Each small group come up with one strategy that has worked for you when encouraging change.

Relational Trust The relationship among the adults in the schoolhouse has more impact on the quality and the character of the schoolhouse – and on the accomplishments of youngsters than any other factor. Roland Barth

What is our role to the campuses? Four Components of Trust Respect for the person’s role and viewpoint. Competence to administer your role. The ability to act on what was heard. Personal regard for others – extend yourself beyond your role and normal duties. Integrity – Is there an alignment of words, actions and ethics?

Mission, Values, and Goals What kinds of events and achievements are typically celebrated in our schools? Elementary Secondary

The problem in America is that poor children are not brought along and the very bright are allowed to coast. Fareed Zakaria Minister of Education Singapore

If we expect all students to learn, what is it we expect them to learn? How will we know if they are learning it? What will we do when they don’t? What are we going to do for those who already know it?

Ensuring Achievement for All Students What are the three common reasons that school communities fail to take responsibility for ensuring that all children learn? What can we do about it? Has staff behavior affected student achievement for better or for worse?

Sidiki’s Story Do teachers really believe that all students can learn? Do the teachers feel competent to succeed with all students? Is the effort worth it? The administration is going to change in a couple of years anyway.

Collaborative Teaming Focused on Teaching and Learning List some characteristics of a culture of collaboration and list areas in which such teaming may occur. What are some protocols for teamwork that need to be decided for effective collaboration? Name the challenges to creating a collaborative culture.

What data would you need to collect in order to determine the causes of poor reading scores among third graders? In your opinion, how well do results of state tests reflect the quality of student learning? How do you respond to the notion that high average test scores may mask the fact that a significant percentage of students are not sharing in the high achievement?

Without data, you are just one person with an opinion

In God we trust …. Everyone else bring data!!! Sylvia Garza

Engagement with the Family and Community What have you done to reach out to the community or families of your students? Greater Ideal’s reach out program

Building Sustainable Leadership Capacity Six Leadership Styles Visionary Coaching Affiliative Democratic Pacesetting Commanding

The future of leadership must be embedded in the hearts and minds of many and not rest on the shoulders of a heroic few. Educational systems should see leadership as a vertical system over time.

The promise of sustainable success in education lies in creating cultures of distributed leadership throughout the school community, not in training and developing a tiny leadership elite.

Recruiting and developing future educational leaders will require focusing on their potential rather than recycling their existing proficiencies.