Why are elements of all leadership styles important to manage change?

            Leaders wear many hats and have to know when to wear what hat, especially when decision need to be made. Decision can be split into two groups where the leader is the only one to decide and sometimes the leaders need to let the people decide. Leaders need to orchestrate the direction to manage change. As we live in our classroom throughout each class we have to adjust to the environment of change.

In the midst of change different issues arise and have to be addressed.   Most of the time a leader should be operating with an “Affiliative” and a “Coaching” style leadership to build a relationship with the workers.   As a teacher must know our students and genuinely care about them. When decisions arise a teacher will need to change hats to “Authoritative” or “Democratic” style leading.   The decision would fall into one of two categories, one being major decision that the Leader has to make or minor decision that the workers can have input on.   As a teacher in my classroom I have to be “Authoritative” in what concepts I am teaching on a daily basis. This isn’t up to the students; I have to make this type of decision in order to follow the state guidelines. When the decision is minor like have the lights on or shades closed, heater on or off, the students have to live with the daily conditions and the majority can make those decisions. If there is a fire alarm teachers are forced into the “Coercive” hat and tell the students how and where to leave the building. The “pacesetter” hat comes into play when we write our rubrics for each concepts or task. We have a standard that they have to live up to or come close to.

As you can see that all the different elements of all leadership styles are important. We have to alter our role as we operate through out the day as it brings different issues. As Michael Fullen put it in his book, “ . . . change cannot be managed. It can be understood and perhaps led, but it cannot be controlled.” Change is out of our control, but we can choose how to react to it by changing our hat to lead better.

John Warner, in Leadership and Management, stated in his summary, in order for leaders “to be successful, especially over the longer term, people need to understand their style of leadership and how this may impact on others. This can help us to minimize our blind spots, which might derail us in a particular situations”.   We have to know what our strengths and weakness are in order to observe ourselves to make changes that are needed so our focus can stay on our task at hand.

This take me to Lou Dubois article, How to change your management style, where he talks about changing your style of leading. He advise on how to go about changing, “Think about each individual thing you say and do, and before reacting with your initial thought, catch yourself and do something differently before you fall into your comfort zone. Great leaders are good at adapting to the environment around them, and are good at making changes when they’re needed.” We have to slow down and think before we speak. It is okay to take a moment and re-evaluate our response and choose a different approach with our reaction. He also mentioned earlier to ask yourself if you are willing to hear feedback. When we have outside feedback we can make better changes that are real. Our emotions play a role in our leadership, the emotions are contagious, and our attitude and energy infects our classrooms either for better or for worse.

As teachers we need to know our style of leadership so we can know our strengths and weakness. We have to think things through before we re-act throughout the day and make choices that will bring directions toward our goals that won’t hinder our relationship with our students. Teachers need to be swift at changing their hats.

References:

Dubois, Lou. Inc.edu. How to change your management style. (2011) Retrieved on October 27, 2015 from http://www.inc.com/guides/201105/how-to-change-your-management-style.html

Fullan, Michael. (2014). Leading in a Culture of Change. Somerset, NJ, USA: John Wiley Sons, Incorporated. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Warner, John. Ready to Manage. Why Leadership Style is Important. (2012) Retrieved on October 27, 2015 from http://blog.readytomanage.com/why-leadership-style-is-important

What is the most effective in leading change. Strategies for managing change. Retrieved on October 27, 2015 from http://www.strategies-for-managing-change.com/leadership-styles.html

Week 8 Reflection EDET 668

It was quite exhilarating to facilitate the class on Twitter. I liked guiding the class through questions. Hearing everyone’s responses help me to really bring sense of what my moral purpose is. This week I had learned to sort out what I actually believed my moral purpose was; I had a pretty good sense of what drove me but this week helped identify it. As I had read through the different papers from my peers, I could see that we all generally are helping students walk through life’s journey with the hopes that we can inspire them to take on a challenge of life with skills and knowledge of surviving the changes that they will encounter.

I like the point that was brought up about favoritism. I have to work hard at chasing down the few students that I don’t know much about. The students are very good about opening up and sharing what is going on in their lives. I do respect their privacy and yet I will talk to them about the tough choices that they just made. I think all students should feel safe and all students should be recognized.

It is interesting to hear about the different ways we are mentoring. I am very curious about Kahoot and Dojo. I want to see what it is about and if I can use it or refer it to someone in our district.

What strategies do you use that are related to your “moral purpose”? How do these contribute to your overall leadership?

“Student moral development is both implicit and inevitable in standard educational practice”, this statement came from the conclusion of Narvaez and Lapsley article Teaching for Moral Character. I believe it is an important development that students encounter. People are always impacting other peoples’ lives and beliefs through their actions.

“Teachers should understand their roles as facilitators of student self-development. Good learners have good self-regulatory skills for learning. Teachers have a chance to help students develop the attitudes and skills necessary for the journey towards expertise. This is true for moral character as well”, this is also from Narvaez and Lapsley. As teachers we facilitate our classrooms every day. We are continuously exhibiting our character, which enforces our beliefs on our students. This forces us to reflect on what we need to teach our students. It becomes our driving force and we have to continually develop our moral purpose.

My moral purpose is to persuade the students to continually give their best because they will never know where it will take them. Unless they walk the path with a great work ethic they will never really know how much farther or how much easier the path becomes. I tell them to shoot for an “A” so if they fall short they would have a “B”.

One of the strategies I use in teaching is to take small-steps through the concepts in mathematics; this is something students can feel like they made an accomplishment. With my pre-algebra class I have cover two-to-three concepts where one is challenging and the other two are practicing previous concepts. This method allows students to grow each day through practice and be stronger in previous concepts that they might have struggled with. As we work on these concepts I monitor their behavior and coax them into taking the challenge put before them.

I work on my “moral purpose” with daily studying. I listen to speakers, like Joyce Meyer, that have impacted my life and given me ideas to reflect that require change in my life. I take these insights and pass them on to my students. For instance, the latest impact I shared with my students was a question that provoked self-reflection. As a class we listed the negatives and positive responses that their peers give to each other and then we focused on this question; “Would you be friends with you?” This has help curb the behavior of many students and the environment in the class is becoming a safer place. Another topic from Proverbs that recently made an impact on my students is “For as he thinks in his heart so is he.” I address the negative self-talk and explain to them that it is “stinking thinking”. I explain to them that they are being mean to themselves with their “stinking thinking.” I then give them something positive to think about to replace the negative thought.

As students become more successful in mathematics they trust me as their leader.   They learn that their efforts are connected to their success and learn to rely in their intrinsic motivation to continue on.

My hope is that students will learn to appreciate the abundance of information they have access to with their computers. This would be ideal that these students would learn to pass this baton to the next generation and teach them to become great leaders through striving to better their lives. Michael Fullen, put it nicely in his book, Leading in a culture of Change, when he said,” an important end is to make a difference in the lives of students” (13). My end would have students step-up into leadership positions and bring the next generation with them.

Mentoring:

Our practicing of using Google Classroom for dialogue is progressing. Alex has required full sentences when they respond to a prompt and the students are reminding each other about making sure they are writing in complete sentences. Students are going back to edit their writing to match the expectation. Next quarter it will be mandatory.

My mentee and myself have both been absent for funerals and are walking into a MAP testing week. So, the students’ schedules have been changed a little. The start of the second quarter should put us back on schedule.

References:

Fullan, M. (2014). Leading in a Culture of Change. Somerset, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Meyer, Joyce. Snippet Stinking Thinking will affect your Life. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=joyce+meyer%2c+stinking+thinking&FORM=VIRE2#view=detail&mid=3D14C8880525F678E20E3D14C8880525F678E20E

Narvaez, Darcia and Lapsley, Daniel K. Teaching for Moral Character. In press. Teacher Educator. Retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www3.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/documents/NarvaezLapsleyTeacher.pdf

Proverbs 23:7 Amplified Bible. (2015) The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Ca 90631

668 Reflection

This week was a great topic. I enjoyed dissecting Leadership and Management. I needed to see the breakdown between the two so I can see the difference. In the process I read great articles on the differences and how relationships really makes a difference and intertwines with the other four components. A point that I made an impact is “your relationships with the students determine whether you move forward or backwards.” Another point I shared is that as a great leader you need to read one hour a day to stay abreast of what is out there. As Leaders we need to stay knowledgeable.

Why are all five components of leadership necessary for success in leading through change?

The five component of leadership are very dependent on each other in order to reach your goal of leading a group to a destination.   In the book, Leading a Culture of change, Michael Fullen listed five components and defined them as follows:

• Moral Purpose – “means acting with the intention of making a positive difference in the lives of employees, customers, and society as a whole.” We need to support and value people.
• Understanding change-“is tied to moral purpose.” Part of getting through change is to help people understand and grow with the change. In order to do this you have to take care of the people when the emotion fly-high. An effect leader can calm the emotions and assure the people that the changes will not engulf them by educating them about change and that it isn’t anything to fear.
• Relationship building – “Effective leaders constantly foster purposeful interaction and problem solving and are wary of easy consensus.” This is where you can make or lose progress. You have to develop a deeper relationship with people in order to take them further. Leaders have to come to a deeper relationship level.
• Knowledge Creation and Sharing– “leaders commit themselves to constantly generating and increasing knowledge inside and outside the organization.” “people will not voluntarily share knowledge unless they feel some moral commitment to do so; people will not share unless the dynamics of change favor exchange; and, third, that data without relationships merely cause more information glut.” Good relationships need to happen for people to share. They won’t share if they don’t feel safe, have a reason to share or the question isn’t asked.
• Coherence Making – “patterns of coherence can be fostered.” While on the edge of change things can get crazy and the leader must allow just enough to encourage creativity and yet not allow it to get lost in the shuffle.

As a teacher it is extremely critical to treat students with respect and with genuine positive support. Students need to know they are worthy and cared for. This comfort will bring ownership where students will act to the best of their ability to achieve the goal their class is working towards. As a leader you have to understand change in order to help students adjust to the daily change that is happening in their lives provided by your class and other classes that they attend. As you work with students you need to get to know them and they need to get to know you at a deeper level in order to continue to travel a journey of learning with them. Students are changed by the impact of their learning, whether in your class, other classes or at home. Their lives are changing every day and we need to guide them through it. As a leader, we need to stay abreast of the information that keeps changing every day. Leaders need to be learning daily to keep knowledge building through reading, studying and experiencing life. By living on the edge of change leaders need to bring out valuable information worth retaining. As teachers, we need to allow the students to be excited, frustrated and grapple with the change to trigger discoveries along their journey without losing site of the goal. As Fullen put it, “. . . effective leaders make people feel that even the most difficult problems can be tackled productively.” I have to teach this in my pre-algebra class. These students are use to bailing when the road is unfamiliar, I have to continually motivate them to try and crack the code. It is amazing how much change happens in them when they learn to tackle the unknown.

I can see how teaching is changing quickly. I also see how the students embrace the technological way of learning. They are at home with the technology and education needs to embrace the changes. As teachers we need to take a risk, risk falling down and learn from it. We need to give the changes a chance and not bail. Our students will learn with us in the change; as leaders we have to be ready to help the students through the change as we adapt ourselves to the change. One step at a time.

Unlike Fullen who “never been fond of distinguishing between leadership and management” (2), I want to see the difference between Managements and Leadership. I prefer to focus on the difference so I can make a change from managing and start leading my students to the future. So, I wanted to share what I found in the following articles. The Wall Street Journal’s article, What is the difference between Management and Leadership? states that the two go hand in hand, yet gave a list of differences.

“The manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate.” (In his 1989 book “On Becoming a Leader,” Warren Bennis composed a list of the differences)

– The manager administers; the leader innovates.

– The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.

– The manager maintains; the leader develops.

– The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.

– The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.

– The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

– The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.

– The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader’s eye is on the horizon.

– The manager imitates; the leader originates.

– The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

– The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.

• The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.”

I thought Bennis’ list gave a great distinction between a manager and a leader. I can see the manager isn’t a leader but a maintainer and a leader has a path leading to a future not a behavior answering to a director.

In the article Leadership vs. Management is another distinct break down of a leader and a manger. I used both to reflect my own tactics in my classroom and sadly I have more management skills than leadership.

“This table summarizes the above (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader and being a manager.”

Subject	Leader	Manager
Essence	Change	Stability
Focus	Leading people	Managing work
Have	Followers	Subordinates
Horizon	Long-term	Short-term
Seeks	Vision	Objectives
Approach	Sets direction	Plans detail
Decision	Facilitates	Makes
Power	Personal charisma	Formal authority
Appeal to	Heart	Head
Energy	Passion	Control
Culture	Shapes	Enacts
Dynamic	Proactive	Reactive
Persuasion	Sell	Tell
Style	Transformational	Transactional
Exchange	Excitement for work	Money for work
Likes	Striving	Action
Wants	Achievement	Results
Risk	Takes	Minimizes
Rules	Breaks	Makes
Conflict	Uses	Avoids
Direction	New roads	Existing roads
Truth	Seeks	Establishes
Concern	What is right	Being right
Credit	Gives	Takes
Blame	Takes	Blames

In Anne Marie Baugh’s article, The Successful Leader, I found encouraging when she states, “Strive to incorporate one leadership principle a week and within a few months, you will be demonstrating the true qualities that define and set apart a true leader.” So, with this list from Changing Minds and the book, Leading of a Culture of change, I have directions for change in my teaching strategies.

References:

Baugh, Anne Marie. The Successful Leader. Lifescript.   Retrieved October 16, 2015 from http://www.lifescript.com/well-being/articles/t/the_successful_leader.aspx

Changing Minds.   Leadership vs. Management.   Retrieved October 16, 2015 from http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader.htm

Fullen, Michael. (20140) Leading in a Culture of Change. Somerset, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Retrieved October 13, 2015 from http://www.ebrary.com

Murray, Alan.   What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership? THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Retrieved on October 16, 2015 from http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/what-is-the-difference-between-management-and-leadership/

Week 6 Reflection

This week was a stretch for me.  I have trouble with prompting the students with direction of researching with their math concepts.  I feel like one of the teachers that refuse to venture out.  I have a few ideas of how to do this and I need to take the risk and try it.  I have several research topics and great examples for the students to follow.  I learned from other blogs that I need to teach and monitor students’ websites that they are using and question the purpose of it so we can decide if this is a site we want to use our research from.  This was a point that I hadn’t thought of .  Another blog suggested to offer websites to the students to help eliminate the issue of what website is okay to use.

I shared with others how puzzles and enrichment has been drawing in my reluctant students.  I have one student that comes in some days and refuses to work and problem solving always draws him in.  He can’t help it, he loves figuring them out.  I have shared Dan Meyer’s video and that was his suggestion to use puzzles to awaken what is already inside the students.  I have seen it work in my classroom and suggested it to others.

. . . the challenges you face in your context as you shift content from teaching “what” to teaching “where” and “how” – moving to higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy

“I sell a product to a market that does want it, but is forced by law to buy it.” –Dan Meyer

I teach math to high school pre-algebra, algebra and business math. Many students tell me how much they don’t like math, hence, I have self-educated myself in motivating them to give the math “language” a chance.   Today, I was asked, with a sly smile, “when will we ever use this anyway?” John Bennett, in a TED Talk video, Why math instruction is unnecessary, has opened my answer to this question with a shift in my teaching. He said we should teach inductive reasoning to connect the math and make it relevant to the students. Solving problem like 5x – 3 = 27, 5x = 30, x = 6, using inductive reasoning, by learning this problem students will know how to solve problems like this in their lifetime. Bennett also suggested more logic puzzles and games to develop the analytical skills in students. I have been toying with this in my class and the students enjoy the challenge as they work in groups to figure out the puzzle. They tell me they hate math and yet the puzzle pull them right into focus. Even my toughest students  are drawn like a magnet to the problem solving puzzles/enrichments.

My pre-algebra class is growing confident in math. As sixth graders they were terrified and now they laugh at the “strain your brain” days (new concepts taught). The students embrace the puzzles and enrichments; as groups they attack the puzzles and are proud of their accomplishments. I quickly do the assignments in class; I don’t copy the answer key, I create it in class. When the students finish their short assignment they grade it and turn it in.   They know the key isn’t perfect and question my work. They come to me with math facts to prove they are right. I check over my work carefully and listen to their arguments and give them the privilege of correcting my work. I then announce to the class that one of the problems were wrong so those who marked it wrong would know that the key had an error. If I am right I give them the math fact to prove it. This procedure of grading their paper causes them to critique my work and think at the highest level with each assignment.

Dan Meyer gives a list of five symptoms of why traditional math is taught wrong 1) Lack of initiative, students don’t self-start, when you are done teaching hands go up for a reteach at the desk. 2) Lack of perseverance, 3) Lack retention 4) Aversion to word problems 5) Eagerness for a formula.   This is the life I live with most of my students. I have made changes in my classroom that is awaking the students. By moving them into groups so they can collaborate and offering a puzzle/enrichment towards the end of each day as part of their assignment.

Meyer brings out a great point that “Math serves the conversation, the conversation does not serve the math”. Our math books guide our students straight through a problem and that takes the discovery out of learning. Meyer suggest teachers 1) Use multimedia 2) Encourage students intuition 3) Ask the shortest questions you can 4) Let students build the problem 5) Be less helpful. As teachers we need to awaken our students by first awakening ourselves and make the math serve the conversations. Through discovery/research our students will learn and retain more by discussing, building, investigating, designing and critiquing their/others work.

My teaching weakness is shifting to “where” and “how”. I haven’t quite figured this out. I have to learn how to teach the students how to continue making bricks without giving them the material to make it.   I need to shift to asking the right questions to direct their learning by pulling this way of thinking out of the textbook to guide the research that will bring them to discovery of the concept.

With technology being what it is in our every day lives we have unlimited information at the tip of our fingers. Thomas and Brown state, “The where has always been present. In fact, it guides almost all our daily practices.” Our students are extremely tech savvy and we need to incorporate it into their learning.

My teaching needs a shift and with research I believe I can do the change. As Jonathan Matte said in his Ted talk, we just need to be exposed to a lot of ideas to harness what is already inside of us and we have to get it out of us. Matte suggests that we have to dig deep inside us because we won’t always be prompted with the right questions. We need to search for it ourselves.

References:

Bennett, John. Why math instruction is unnecessary. TED Talks Retrieved October 9, 2015 from http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ted+talks+math+teacher&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=39D03040A4F508DEB4E639D03040A4F508DEB4E6

Matte, Jonathan. The surprising beauty of mathematics. TED Talks. Retrieved on October 9, 2015 from http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ted+talks+math+teacher&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=A6CE0570DA7538D6EE7EA6CE0570DA7538D6EE7E

Meyer, Dan. Math Class Needs a Makeover TED Talk. Retrieved on October 9, 2015 from http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Math+Class+Needs+a+Makeover+TED+Talk&Form=VQFRVP#view=detail&mid=E1BF47403F102E7CE388E1BF47403F102E7CE388

Thomas, D. & Brown, J.S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

#EDET 668 Week 5 Reflection

This has been an interesting week. I love learning about the Collective Learning. I am developing “Google-classroom question” in my classroom. I would like to learn how to prompt my students into a direction and see how great they become at researching.   I really wanted to use WordPress like #EDET 668 does, but I don’t think my students are quite ready for that. I do like the privacy of Google-classroom; it gives the students and I time to grow and learn more about this group learning. Fortunately, my Mentee had also wanted to develop this in her classroom and we watched it evolve quickly into research like we wanted it to.

This class #EDET 668 has been a perfect example of student sharing that helps each other grow. I have seen many videos that have inspired me and changed my teaching philosophy. The enlightenment that I see in my students is priceless. They have come alive and are embracing the skills they need to learn.

Learning in the Collective or in Communities

In the “Collective” the students are a part of a group of people with the same interest in order to learn. In Communities people become a part in order to belong. In the Collective the students participate in order to get the most out of learning. In the Communities people don’t have to participate in order to be a part of and can quit at any time. I believe the difference is, between the Communities and Collectives, a student will ask themselves how they have contributed to a group? The question would call the individual from an observer to a contributor. This question would take a Community player to a Learner of a Collective. As a Collective learner the people come together with their knowledge and skill to produce a greater result.

In the book, A new culture of Learning (51), Thomas and Brown make a great point with the Internet brings us an unlimited amount of information that we can enlarge our knowledge and produce more insight. As a teacher we need to stay abreast of the new opportunities to learn and teach our students how to use this information. Our students need to practice talking in groups with their peers. Through conversation they can learn from each other and ultimately teach each other information or how to resource information from the Internet. This can grow into Learning in the Collective. Students will learn to share what they know and through online classes, where they can expand their learning from home with peers on the Internet. Students will learn to add “one’s own knowledge” to the conversation and interact with others on the same topic that they are interested in. By adding to the mix the students will become a part of a powerful movement of knowledge and they themselves are growing in knowledge. By having the students researching and learning from the latest findings on a topic the students are relieving the teacher from doing the work of staying on top of up to date information. My hope for my students is for them to learn from research-online in ways that learning together with their groups and adding their thoughts to enable them to grow in the topic of interest. This process of learning would help prepare them for the new way of learning online.

When students fall behind in High School credits or if their schedule isn’t allowing them to attend High School they can take online classes. We have students in our high school that fall into similar situations and still graduate on time due to online classes.. We also have students that take college classes for credit and this saves them time and money when pursuing their further education. This emphasizes the importance of teaching students to learn through Collective Learning.

Students are moving to more online classes due to costs according to Aspillera, World Wide Learning. In 2011, 6.7 million post-secondary students were enrolled in at least one online class. The reasoning behind the change to online classes can vary between, flexibility, accessibility, range of options and control of study time. As a teacher we need to prepare our students to learn in this fashion. This opportunity to learn from home can save and prepare our students for success in college.

In conclusion, I understand the purpose and operation of this class. We read and study on a topic presented by the teacher at the beginning of the week so by Twitter Thursday we can share our findings with each other. So, with the promptings on Twitter we come together to help each other stretch further than we would have on our own. This has greatly impacted my teaching philosophy in the classroom. My students need to research a concept/topic and share their finding with each other in order to come to greater growth. Needless to say, what the students put into the class is what they will get out of the class.

References:

Aspillera, M, (2010). What Are the Potential Benefirs of Online Learning?. WorldWideLearn. Retreived October 3, 2015 from worldwidelearn.com

Brown, J. & Thomas, D.(2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, Ky.:

VLACS. Top 7 Benefits of Choosing an Online Virtual High School. Virtual Learning Academy. Retrieved October 3, 2015 from blacs.org