Tag: May

ETL504- Assessment 2, Part B

I have developed my understanding of different leadership styles, even into the final assessment, throughout this course. The easiest styles for me to understand were distributed leadership (Biviano, 2020, March 16) and transformational leadership (Bales, 2020, March 16) as I have experienced leaders who favoured these styles and some of the benefits of each. I have learned, however, that a school is run on varying styles and cannot be run effectively utilising just one leadership style.

TLs are in the perfect position to lead from the middle (Digital Promise, 2016) as distributive leaders in a transformational environment and it is vital that they lead to maintain relevance in future-facing schools (Biviano, 2020, March 16). Adapting a collaborative approach to teaching and learning as a result of ELT504 (Bales, 2020, April 17), I have begun to develop my distributed leadership skills through offering to help collaborate on ongoing and new programs. In the future, I will begin to carefully implement a servant leadership style to support teachers, without allowing my role or intentions to be taken advantage of (Biviano, 2020, May 23).

Throughout this course, I have been introduced to the SWOT and GAP analysis (Mindtools, 1996-2007), which was recommended for use in the group response to Case Study 4 (Group 8, 2020, May 8). As a result, I have already distributed SWOT analysis’ to staff members at my school to determine their understanding of the library’s role and gather suggestions for improvement and opportunities. This has been invaluable in developing a strategic plan, alongside my principal for the library.

Throughout the case studies, teamwork evolved organically to problem solve and submit work on time. Group 8 was made up of positive, collaborative workers who fell into an easy rhythm after the first group study (Biviano, 2020, May 23). Initial challenges included a hesitance to take over, which delayed a start on Case Study 3, and uncertainty on how to begin. I suggested splitting into pairs and addressing one main topic per pair and other group members took on distributive roles in determining the pairs (Harris, 2010), while an instructional role was utilised in assigning topics (University of Washington, 2015) with the understanding that in the following case study topics would be allocated through expertise (Biviano, 2020, April 17). Assigning topics for this study was necessary to get work started. I would utilise this style of leadership, initially, to support staff in engaging with new information and transition into distributed leadership when looking to develop programs once the core information has been understood.

As part of a collaborative reflection in the discussion boards, it was determined that we need to establish a timetable for future case studies to support timely learning. I found this very useful in Case Study 4 but, it was not utilised in Case Study 5 due to time constraints. This was difficult for me to adapt to and, as such, I missed conversations and feedback and the final product lacked the collaborative construction of previous case studies (Biviano, 2020, May 23).

 

References

Bales, J. (2020, March 14-25). Module 2: Week 2: Primary [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2 ETL504. https://interact2.csu.edu.au

Bales, J. (April 15-May 23). Module 4: Week 6: Primary [Online discussion comment]. Interact 2 ETL504. https://interact2.csu.edu.au

Digital Promise (2016). The new librarian: Leaders in the digital age. SCIS Connections. https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-96/the-new-librarian-leaders-in-the-digital-age/

Group 8. (May 15, 2020). COVID Case Study 5- Group 8. [Online discussion thread]. Interact 2 ETL504. https://interact2.csu.edu.au

Harris, A. (2014, September 29). Distributed leadership. Teacher Magazine, ACER. https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/articles/distributed-leadership

University of Washington. (2015). 4 dimensions of instructional leadership. Center for Educational Leadership. http://info.k-12leadership.org/4-dimensions-of-instructional-leadership

ETL504- Case Study 5: Reflection

Written: May 16, 2020

Published: Mary 23, 2020

Due to an increased work commitment, I was unable to commit as much time as I previously had to this case study. With that said, I focussed on reading each post in the discussion thread and responding in my own post (Group 8, 2020, May 15). Unfortunately, as I was last to post, there was no feedback given on my response, as in previous conversations and I found it made me nervous.

As a group, we chose to write about the current COVID pandemic and any opportunities we have engaged with or missed. I liked this concept because COVID has been such a rapidly evolving event that it has left little time to stop and reflect. I was able to acknowledge the positive and challenging aspects of the pandemic and its impact on my teaching and learning- one of which was a lack of engagement with my university course, unfortunately.

Upon reflection, I realise that I have let my relationship with a difficult staff member stagnate and, as a result, and many other factors, she has closed herself off to working in a truly collaborative sense. Instead, she requires from me a servant role- note not a servant leadership role, as I am not involved with her programming or planning and cannot support her fully without that knoweldge.Jennie (Bales, 2020) pointed out the difference between Servant Leadership and being a servant to teachers, a different which TLs are at risk of failing to identify. Undertsanding the difference now, I intend to keep this in mind when offering support to teachers.

Holly volunteered to post a summary of the discussion thread for the group. At the time, I assumed it would be a simple copy and paste, however, upon reading it, I realised she had synthesised the ideas from the posts, added references and creative an academic summary. It is well written and seems to cover the main points, both positive and negative, from the discussion posts of all group members. Perhaps, if there had been more time, it would have benefited to share the summarised post between members for editing, however, with such a tight time limit, I understand why it was posted straight to the discussion board.

Unfortunately, due to my tardiness in engaging with this task, I did not get to offer my editing and collaborative abilities and, instead, submitted my own work to the group, while providing feedback on their submissions.

 

References

Bales, J. (2020). Meeting 4: Assessment 2. [PowerPoint slides]. CSU Interact2. https://connect.csu.edu.au/p12mlfzsm5pr/

ETL504- Module 5.1: Strategic planning

Activity

Does your school have a strategic plan? See if you can find it. Does your library have a strategic plan?

I located the school strategic plan on their public website and was able to download and examine as per the DET guidelines.

The library does not currently have a strategic plan, though it would be useful to align such a document with the overall school document and goals. It would provide some scaffolding on what is important to focus on.

Activity

One way of learning to think strategically is to develop a personal strategic plan. A personal strategic plan helps you to think about and articulate career, family and personal goals. Try writing your own using the template below. Most of us just muddle along and don’t plan our careers nor do we set family goals.

I quite enjoyed this activity and was able to fill out the different specific requirements for achieving this goal, however, I doubt I will revisit it often or use the affirmations. Such processes are successful in repitition and I don’t think I would be able to comit to such an idea. I am happy to muddle along for the most part, though I do have goals in mind.

Activity

Examine the following and decide which is the better mission statement.

1. We are creating for the school community, a thriving dynamic library so that it becomes one of the state’s best in collecting, creating, conserving and communicating information.

2. Our mission is to provide and promote access to a range of resources and services that equitably meet the intellectual, curricular, social and recreational information needs of our school community.

A mission statement is simple, direct and operative, where a Vision Statement is about what you want to be or become (Johnson, 2010). With that in mind, I would choose the second statement as it says, exactly, what the library will do- ‘provide and promote access…’ whereas the first focusses on the future ‘one of the state’s best’.

Reflect

Consider the following school library Mission and Vision Statements.

Do they achieve the goals of each type of statement?

Think about the purpose of a mission statement as opposed to the purpose of a vision statement, and why the examples that follow meet these goals, or fail, and in what ways they do so.

Bonnyrigg High School Library

The opening sentence of this mission statement confuses me- ‘Our goal is to confirm that learners graduate as competent, critical, ethical users and creators of ideas and information.’ Is their entire mission to say ‘yes, these kids can…’? I would have thought they would use something like ‘create/support/develop graduates that are proven competent, critical, ethical users…’ I do like that they have clearly addressed 21st century learning in their mission.
Their vision statement kind of goes into school ethos and vision for the future and is written informally. I like that their vision included the creation of a ‘learning commons’ but this paragraph could almost have gone into the mission section as it is very direct and actionable.

Sacred Heart College Yarrawonga

Short and sweet. Their mission statement is simple and clear- to create a certain larning environment, support the curriculum and promoting a love of learning. It doesn’t say how it is going to do those things but it is clear that there are strong motivating factors behind this mission. Their vision statement is also short and direct, but talks more about what will be coming, rather than what is.

S.R. O’Brien Resource Centre, Mount Carmel College

It think this is the best example of the three in terms of mission statement, particularly the first sentence- the second could have gone into the vision statement. The vision statement has elements of mission statement to it- actionable, direct. The last paragraph, particularly describing the library as it is now, could possibly have been included in the mission statement.

Action: I have emailed my boss to discuss the school Vision & Mission statements but also to arrange a time to discuss the library strategic plan and link it to the school plan. Hopefully, this will allow some scaffolding around the expectations of the job and provide me with a clearer understanding of what everyone expects from me in my role.

References

Bruce D. Johnson (2010, May 12). What’s the difference between mission and vision? [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2MyaR0gMo0&feature=youtu.be