“A visionary leader
is someone who can look at the big picture. A visionary leader would inspire
and lead the development and implementation of a plan to promote a generation
of critical source evaluators” (Crompton, 2014). A visionary leader who stands
out to me is my principal. My principal always focuses on the bigger picture of
how our school can improve. My principal strongly encourages the use of
technology in our classrooms. Next year, our school is distributing a
Chromebook to every student in our middle school because of his push to get us
the technology we need in our classrooms. In addition, our district is implementing
Schoology- a learning management system which will streamline our gradebook and
homework webpages. My principal reads up on the latest trends in technology and
education and keeps his staff informed.
My principal has also encouraged most of the teachers in my
school to create a Twitter handle for school and to tweet important
information. He also encourages us to follow educational leaders and to post inspirational
ideas. My principal also loves to see our teachers utilizing technology during
his informal walkthroughs. He will usually tweet about a new technology or
activity if he observes something interesting in a teacher’s classroom.
My leadership style is similar to my principal’s style in
that we both welcome new technology ideas from others. I love seeing what my colleagues
are utilizing in their classrooms and adapting them into my classroom. I also
love giving credit to others when they have impressed me or risen above
expectations (similar to my principal). I admire the way my principal always
puts the students’ needs first- I am similar in that way. One way my principal and
I differ is that my principal just assumes the teachers will be ready to teach
students with Chromebooks this fall. If I were principal, I would prefer to
meet with teams and/or departments to ensure my staff understands and is ready
for the changes they will need to make.
Another way that I differ from my principal is that he has a
lot more resources for professional development. He usually prints an article
or forwards an article at least once a month with a new idea whereas I tend to
rely on colleagues or my own ideas without utilizing other resources. I am
hoping to expand my professional development horizons and subscribe or sign up
for more resources in order to continue to learn and grow as an administrator.
References
Crompton,
H. October, 2014. Know the ISTE Standards
for Administrators: Lead with vision.
Retrieved
from https://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=204
It's really cool your administrator is so comfortable with technology. In the past, my administrators were supportive of technology but not comfortable of using it themselves. I mentioned before we are also getting Chromebooks in the fall and starting tomorrow we are all diving head first into the district provided PD on using the Chromebooks. We have two full days of training, so I agree with you, a lot of your teachers will not be ready to go at in on their own.
ReplyDeleteI find it also impressive that your principal has a strong take on technology. My seems to be on the same page, but we still have manner teachers that struggle with using technology. One of my goals is the address this disparity in teacher education.
ReplyDelete