Comments on: Professional development for the leaders

By: Carolyn Foote

Carolyn Foote — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I took the challenge and posted!

But more importantly, I want to thank you for the excellent analysis and leadership.

I’m planning to use this list as part of future workshops. I agree that the conversation with administrators is an extremely important one for advancing any kind of school reform, and also in terms of allowing access to web 2.0 possibilities.

Thanks as always for the excellent resources.

By: Kyle Brumbaugh

Kyle Brumbaugh — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Scott:

I posted on this topic… Thank you for bringing the issue forward… I hope more people do the same!

By: sylvia martinez

sylvia martinez — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Hi Scott, Great idea. I posted about inclusive leadership and leaders of the future. Guess the trackback didn’t work!
http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/07/04/leadership-day-leaders-of-the-future/

By: Linda Orozco

Linda Orozco — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Concise and clear. Thanks for this information in such a usable format!

By: Diane Quirk

Diane Quirk — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

As I read through this I found myself thinking about how much the items on your list should parallel the way we treat support for classroom teachers. I’ve been out of the classroom for 8 years now doing work as an instructional technology specialist. Too often the only opportunities I have to address future needs with teachers ends up being the kinds of “drive by training” that I really hate – we drop the information on them, talk a little bit about the work of the classroom then move on to the next thing. Our school leaders professional development needs are rarely addressed – I guess we expect that they’ll just “get it” by seeing what teachers are doing in their classrooms but if they’re see the wrong sort of models that doesn’t help either. Thanks for a great article.

By: Jason Bednar

Jason Bednar — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Scott, I too posted something on my blog in response to your call. I see the need for fully engaged staff development in this area as my district has often had the drive-by approach to technology-related staff development forced on us by our relative size and perceptions of time. I hope to be part of the force leading this change for my students and hopefully the entire district.
http://principalblogs.typepad.com/jasonbednar/2007/07/wiki-opportunit.html

By: Page Lennig

Page Lennig — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Scott – Thanks for bringing this issue to the forefront. It’s important and often overlooked. In my experience, I am fully supported by the administration but they don’t really understand what I am doing or talking about. My presentations to the admin team have to be short and to the point because they have a lot of other topics to cover. There never seems to be enough time. However, I am beginning to “break-through” one administrator at a time. These points you mention about will help me in working with them in the future. thanks again.

By: Gerald Ardito

Gerald Ardito — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I really appreciate your posting about this. As with any meaningful set of changes in education (or anything else probably) buy in from key stakeholders is necessary and here essential.

I especially appreciate the part of making the administrators job easier by setting up spreadsheets with formulae, etc.

I have been very fortunate to have very supportive administrators, thus far, although there are others I need to reach.

By: David Jakes

David Jakes — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Scott: this is in response to your comment to my comment on the TL blog-it currently won’t accept comments…

What really struck in your comment back to me was this:

“We need to help them learn how to be tech leaders without a concurrent requirement of being tech-savvy.”

I agree that to see the full potential of tools takes a great deal of time (welcome to Twitter BTW), and time that they typically don’t have to invest. We need an administrative primer on these emerging technologies….

Could an administrator be a leader in assessment if they didn’t understand assessment cold? Do you have standing to be a leader if you are not a master of the particular discipline you claim to be a leader in?

I think the answer to that is yes, you can lead by getting out of the way, and letting talented people do their job. But is that enough?

By: Scott McLeod

Scott McLeod — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Hi David, sorry the TechLearning blog isn’t taking comments. Ugh.

It’s a challenge, I’ll grant you, and I wish it were otherwise, but there’s simply no way that principals, for example, can master everything for which they’re responsible: curriculum, instruction, data-driven accountability, student discipline, budgeting, strategic planning, collective bargaining, legal issues, special education, policy, community relations, and, yes, technology (and more!). But yet they have to try and lead in all of these areas because that’s their responsibility. From which of these are we going to take away to free up time for technology? The bottom line is that if we come in with the perspective that mastery/fluency is a prerequisite to effective leadership, most administrators are going to opt out before they even start because they know that we don’t have a strong understanding of their jobs.

Maybe we need to approach it like we do teacher supervision / evaluation and curricular leadership. You may have been a math teacher before you became a principal. Now you have to evaluate the teaching efficacy of teachers of English, Social Studies, band, art, industrial arts, etc. So we train principals to be generalists, not fluent masters, and we allow them to focus on a few areas of desired expertise. One principal may be an expert in legal issues, another in budgeting / finance, another is gifted in community relations, and yet another is skilled in technology. We want all of them to be able to do all of these to a certain level, but expecting mastery / fluency in every single one is unrealistic.

Hope this makes sense. I appreciate your willingness to continue to challenge my thinking.