My first thoughts about the ETL504 unit is that everyone says to leave it as late as possible in your course: that it’s hard, and that you need to draw on the wealth of knowledge you have already gained in the other subjects. So I start the session with some trepidation, worried about the workload I’ve been warned about.
I am interested in what the subject might bring, though. I’ve been pondering leadership styles over the past 12 months, as my school has undergone a leadership change and now has a new Principal. Their leadership styles are vastly different: my former Principal was a visionary, inspirational, a shrewd judge of character, somehow terrifyingly powerful yet at the same time, supportive and approachable. I admired her, was inspired by her, so deeply wanted to succeed and achieve and make her proud. Some aspects of the school and her leadership were lacking, but I was proud to work for and with her, and I willingly put everything I had towards my work. I felt like she had my back, and I trusted her. I miss her greatly now, but she continues to inspire me.
Our new Principal was different. He came in touting collaboration, which sounded positive, but in actual fact it often meant a lot more work for teachers. We found ourselves in mindless group meetings, going around in circles with our colleagues, in order to feed back information to the executive team about what we wanted for the school. Whilst this sounds good in theory, in the end he did what he wanted anyway (and perhaps what he had already decided to do, prior to calling the meeting), and it very much felt like the illusion of collaborative practices. Most of the staff felt less happy with their day to day work life, worn down. There seemed to be greater administrative burdens, more time pressures, and less job satisfaction. No one knew exactly where they stood, and felt uneasy.
However, he did give me, as a brand new Teacher Librarian, a chance to lead, and I stepped into the role of High Potential and Gifted Education coordinator. It wasn’t easy, as I wasn’t on the school executive so often wasn’t privy to all information in exec meetings. But it did make me think that I could lead, and I guess that’s my primary reason for wanting to be a TL – because I could enact more change on a whole-school level, that I could make a difference to more than just the kids in my classes. Indeed, when I first named this blog, back at the start of ETL401, I called it ‘Learn, Lead, Library’ because perhaps even then I recognised the intrinsic relationship between the library and leadership and the opportunities it would offer me.
I’m excited to see what the session will bring.