Showing posts with label mentors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mentors. Show all posts

Friday, March 17, 2023

Why It's Important To Walk Alongside Other Women In Leadership

Last week, I had the chance to spend a day with 535 creative, inspiring, and engaging women in education leadership roles across the state of Ohio.  What a better way to celebrate Women’s History Month, and to acknowledge that there is still work that needs to be done. Dr. Stephanie Siddens is the Interim Superintendent for the State of Ohio. Her message, “Ohio’s students are counting on us”.  The data she shared emphasized the urgent need to continue to invest our time and resources into the science of reading, career readiness, and physical and mental wellness.  The keynote speaker, Coach Sue Ramsey, introduced the idea of a transformational purpose statement.  This statement frames your “why” and helps you use your strengths and your core values to make decisions about what to say yes to and when it’s ok to back away.  I know that many leaders often feel like they have over committed, or are being pulled in many directions.  Having a transformative purpose statement can help you reflect on the role you want to play in the various work you are doing. Sometimes it is ok to not be the leader! Her second point was the idea that effective leaders make others around them better. It is hard to do this if you have lost sight of why you are doing the work to begin with, or are so exhausted that you can’t put your best self in the game.   Dr. Cynthia Moss emphasized the value of networking. Her activity, networking bingo, would be a great way to introduce students or staff to networking by providing an opportunity to meet a variety of peers with the knowledge or skills you may need to tap into now or in the future.  This year’s conference theme was Reflect, Reset, and Renew.  Dr. Rhonda Talford-Knight brought the word intentionality into the theme.  I am a sketch-noter, and I drew a stick figure turning down the volume on noise in our relationships. She challenged us to take a hard look at those around us. Who is on the walk behind and beside you? Who is a crutch that is keeping you from hitting your full stride?  Taking the time out of our day to reflect not just on the day, but on the outcomes of our actions. Were they what we expected? What is our desired future state?  This critical reflection can lead to a reset and reimagining of our journey. Who doesn’t want to hit reset or have a chance to reimagine themselves?  One of my passions is growing young women in leadership, so it was very exciting to hear from 10 year old Payton Obert, whose Lemonade Stand philanthropy project has grown in 4 years to 65+ stands across Ohio and 5 other states with a goal to raise more than $85000 this year to support children in need.  We have to stop telling our students they are the leaders of the future. They most definitely are the leaders of our present. 


The breakout sessions were an opportunity to learn from each other.  Here are my takeaways from the sessions I attended:

Book Studies - Dr. Laura Hebert, Natasha Adams, Dr. Kim Miller

Key takeaway :Book studies are a method of communication

  • Choose books to match your outcome

  • Books are frameworks for change discussions 

  • Book talks create common language within a team

Courageous Leadership To Extend The Needs of All Students- Dawn Bridges 

Key takeaway: How do we create spaces where students and staff feel seen and can take off their armor? What an impactful image! 

  • How can your passion become your armor - as a strength not a defense?

  • What does leading and teaching with honesty, impact, courage and decisive action actually look like and sound like? 

Innovation Space - Dr. Terri Holden, Dr. Cynthia Hudson

Key Takeaway: Participants had a chance to share out innovative solutions they have implemented in their districts. What would you have shared? 

  • Creation of a Student Advocate position 

  • Creation of a single point of contact Care Coordinator

  • Implementation of a Pre-School Life Skills Curriculum

  • Safety plan audit, with regular safety focus in the staff bulletin

  • Health lab - for teachers and for students

Courageous Conversations - Cari Buehler (Betsy Cowles Award) and Danbury Team

Key Takeaway: What story are you telling yourself? What facts is it actually based on? How is that story shaping how you are going to go into a challenging conversation? 

  • Learn about yourself first. What are the conversational triggers that will prevent you from having a rational response? How do you recognize them and reschedule a conversation?

  • Be curious vs being judgmental. This opens your mind to hearing the other person’s concerns or input. 


 It was uplifting to be among so many women who were so willing to share their own experiences and expertise.   I am encouraged by the number of teacher leaders who participated, and the number of new administrators who were there as well.  As Dr. Talford-Knight shared, we need to continue to reach a hand back to the women leaders who are on the journey behind us, and to walk alongside and in support of the women who are on the journey with us and ahead of us. 


Resources To Spark Your Thinking:

The booklist shared in the Book Study Session:


at
Labels: ,

Friday, November 18, 2022

What Does It Mean To Teach?

What does it mean to teach? This is no longer a pedagogical discussion.  Your answer to this question, and the actions you take based on your answer in your classrooms, your buildings, your districts, your communities matter to the students who need you.  We must take back the narrative and stop letting others answer this question for us. This starts with how we talk about our profession with each other.  Being a teacher or administrator in 2022 absolutely comes with a lot of challenges.  Don’t give in to the Yabuts and the Icanots that may be lurking at the edges of conversations with colleagues. They are so tempting. Everyone needs to vent. Set a time limit for venting,  then work to turn the conversation to a new book you are reading, a podcast you like, something that went well in your lesson, a student that had an “ah hah moment”, or brainstorming on how to support or stretch students.  We are better together than working in isolation.  Lift up colleagues who need your support.  Research shows that teachers are most likely to leave the profession within the first 5 years.  This is happening more and more. Informal mentorship is so important, and is a benefit both for the mentees and the mentors. To teach means that you are more than a content expert. You know how to co-construct knowledge with peers and students.  


Talk positively about teaching in front of your students. We need future teachers. Grow them in your classrooms.  Celebrate their successes with them after they spend time in the “learning pit” wrestling with new learning.  Ask them what strategies worked or didn’t work for them. Listen to their questions and their thinking. You are their advocate. You can give them opportunities to amplify their voice in your room, or opportunities to try out their thinking. They are looking to you to help them see where they are and where they can go next in their learning. To teach means you can meet students where they are and weave connections between prior learning and new learning, and learning and the authentic world, making sure all your students are in that net that you are creating.  


Write an elevator speech. How would you respond when someone makes a statement to you that sounds something like, “well anyone can be a teacher…”.  This is no idle conversation.  There is a very real shortage of teachers and substitute teachers.  Legislators in Ohio and in legislatures across the United States have redefined the criteria to obtain a subsitute license, and a temporary teaching license.  People think they know what it means to teach because they have been students in classrooms or watched classes on Zoom during the pandemic, and have been on the receiving end of teaching.  Being on the receiving end leads to stereotypical descriptions of what teachers do since what is taken into consideration is the output. What is missing is the input, the many threads that are being pulled together leading up to that learning moment to weave the lesson or engage with the students in the first place.  Where we need to focus our advocacy is on framing the decision making not on the output but on the outcome.  To teach is to blend the mindsets of a scientist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, an artist, a coach, a counselor, and an inventor into one person who then chooses to do his/her best each day to make connections with children so that the children feel heard, and safe, and can move their learning forward to accomplish their goals. To teach is to respond in real time to a steady stream of evidence of learning and be a flexible thinker. That is the outcome. Teachers have developed an expertise that empowers them to accomplish this outcome.  Start your elevator speech with a statement about what to teach means to you.  End it with the outcome you hope to see from your work. 

Thank you for choosing to teach.   


Resources To Spark Your Thinking


Upcoming or Asynchronous Opportunities:

 
at
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)