Kelly's Leadership Portfolio



Running head: LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 1 Leadership Self-Assessment Kelly Donato University of New EnglandLEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 2 Leadership Self-Assessment Mission Statement The leader of a school should be first and foremost student-centered; one who works to craft a shared vision that focuses on student achievement. Effective school leadership begins with listening to the ideas of staff and community members who have an interest in the success of the school and the advancement of students. Offering genuine empowerment to the professional staff leads to the implementation of differentiated instructional strategies that will provide rigorous and engaging learning experiences. It is the responsibility of the school leader to ensure that there exists within the school an atmosphere conducive to learning and that students acquire the skills as well as the knowledge and values that will enable them to become responsible citizens. A successful school leader is actually an overseer who provides guidance, shares responsibility, builds solid relationships, and earns the trust of the school community. In essence, a school leader enjoys the voices of many singers and provides a safe environment for growth. LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 3 According to Glanz (2002) my natural leadership qualities are Dynamic Supportive. A born collaborator, I am comfortable listening to the assessments of others and prefer to use the team approach to problem-solve. Considering Glanz’s primary characteristics of Dynamic Supportives (p.41, Figure 3.1) one might mistake a DS for a St. Bernard. Warm hearted, sincere, reliable, and gentle are attributes of my favorite canine. However, mix with those traits a strong-willed nature, an articulate speaker, a charismatic personality and an intuitive soul, and you have a formidable creature that, despite inclinations toward empathy, is capable of making tough decisions. For example, my first five years of teaching were spent at a K-8 Catholic school. When our principal became ill I was asked to take over as administrator for ten weeks. On my first day as interim-principal the Superintendent of Catholic schools phoned. She wished me luck and advised me of my primary purpose – to ‘run the ship’. In other words, I wasn’t supposed to make significant changes to the status quo. Being reliable, I followed the same procedures as our principal who was among most staff members as popular as a bee sting. My fellow teachers soon began viewing me as a traitor, an individual who no longer understood their positions on the front lines. Never was their opinion of me more apparent than on one Friday afternoon when we were expecting a solar eclipse. Parents had been anxiously calling the school that day to make sure that students would not be outside for this event. We assured them that students would spend recess and the afternoon inside. As it turned out, there was no visible solar eclipse that day as clouds rolled in around noon. Teachers began buzzing the office the moment the first group of clouds appeared. Would students be allowed to go outside? LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 4 I held firm as my ethical inner core demanded. We had to stay indoors. Since I had assured parents that their children would be safe, I felt that it was my responsibility to honor my word. For school leaders, follow-through is essential for building trust and earning respect from members of the school community. Teacher outrage and the cold shoulder treatment followed. I reminded myself that it could be lonely at the ‘top’. Ten weeks was a very long time to be an unpopular interim principal. As the holidays approached I began to feel relief. One day, a group of boys from the eighth grade made a special request. They asked if it would be appropriate for them to wear their school uniforms (shirts with collars, ties, dress pants, shoes) when they went to the Christmas concert at the local Catholic high school. It was an annual tradition to walk to the high school for the concert. Knowing that the high school followed a similar dress code and because it’s natural for me to try to accommodate everyone, I said that it would be fine. I couldn’t really imagine why they were asking. It didn’t take long to find out. An angry eighth grade teacher stormed into the office to inform me that I had single-handedly destroyed the ‘moral fiber’ of the eighth graders. Didn’t I know, he wondered, that each year the boys were required to wear blazers to the concert? Apologizing for not checking with him first, I asked if shirts and ties would suffice. He agreed, but not until he counted the years that blazers had been worn lamenting the fact that an honored tradition had been ignored. LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 5 Glanz (2002, p.39) states that Dynamic Supportives ‘can take charge but they would rather not do so’. I wonder if he was thinking of me at St. John’s Catholic School when he identified that characteristic. I was relieved to return to the classroom. Time actually does heal all wounds. Soon, I was readmitted into the teaching fold. I did learn valuable lessons from that experience which happened more than twenty years ago. First, sticking to the decisions I made proved to be the right course of action as at the heart of those decisions was a sincere caring for students and their well-being. If I had changed my mind (let the students go outside to recess, insist after all that the boys wear blazers) I could have been perceived as unreliable, untrustworthy, and ineffective. Secondly, my tendency to accommodate everybody has the potential to make me appear a push over or an easy mark. The blazer incident taught me to delay before saying ‘yes’ in order to give myself time to speak with all concerned parties to gain information before making a decision. As interim-principal I wasn’t allowed to delegate responsibility, focus on student achievement, or form a professional learning community. My job was to ‘run the ship’. That was unfortunate as I did not have the opportunity to use my ability to reduce conflict. Sensing that there was a need for support in the first grade classroom, I did attempt to provide assistance. There were twenty-seven first graders and one teacher. LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 6 An aide had been hired to assist with the morning reading groups and all first grade specials had been scheduled for the last part of the day. Still, the first grade teacher showed signs of stress. She became irritable and often called for a substitute. By the time I took over as interim she was absent three days a week. My personal belief was that twenty-seven students was too many for grade one and another teacher should be hired. I spoke to the school board about dividing the class for afternoon instruction. I suggested a student teacher who had worked in my classroom the previous year. Aside from being effective with students, she knew the school’s routine and expectations. The school board did not approve the plan and I felt that we had missed a great opportunity for increasing student achievement and easing the tension the teacher was experiencing. Since that time at St. John’s school, I have put my leadership skills to good use in the classroom empowering students to make choices for themselves and building relationships with students, parents, and fellow staff members. Modeling the behavior and enthusiasm which is expected from students has helped to build a culture of respect and trust. Establishing an on-going dialogue with members of the school community has helped to assess needs. I hope to continue to practice and improve these qualities as I continue my career in education and someday move into the official role of school leader. Glanz (2002, p.44) suggests a ‘mid-level supervisory position’ for Dynamic Supportives. I have always imagined myself as a principal at a K-3 school where I would be able to focus on building relationships.LEADERSHIP SELF-ASSESSMENT 7 ReferencesGlanz, J. (2002). Finding your leadership style: a guide for educators. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. ................
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