Facilitators: Crystal Land (cland@headroyce.org)
and Karen Bradley (kbradley@headroyce.org)
The goal of this group is to draw upon experience and readings from business, management and education to strengthen our skills as leaders.
What are best practices in these fields? How do they overlap?
How can we apply this wisdom to our schools and our work?
How can leadership be seen as an enterprise that can be undertaken from every seat in the community?
Friday, September 17, 2010
What does distributed leadership look like? What works well? What are the challenges?
What models are working in other schools? I'm particularly interested in departmental leadership in elementary schools that don't have department heads per se; grade-level leadership (what is the class dean's role at Bentley, Gina?); task force leadership.
How much can you ask a teacher to take on before reducing his/her teaching load or adding to his/her salary?
How to provide leadership training for teacher-leaders?
How to empower teacher-leaders? What is the source of their authority: the charge?
I'd love to share insights, too, into the art of delegation -- how we learn to delegate, and how to delegate skillfully. Picking people you trust, training them well, knowing that they'll make mistakes, just as we've done, as part of the learning process. I'm finally at the point where I realize that delegation is the key to my own survival, so the risk of someone else not doing a job just as I would do it is less frightening than the risk of burning out if I don't let go. . .
More . . . The Fall 2010 issue of Independent School magazine has a good article by Reveta Bowers-- Developing Future Leaders: One School's Solution (p. 42 ff -- I couldn't diigo it because it's not available on-line, I don't think). It offers answers to some of the questions I posed above.
I'd also like to learn more about the "bands" at Live Oak. . . Emma?
Authority, assumed or granted, seems to be the key with distributed leadership. Class deans at my "visit" school were initially in charge of coordinating student support in the grades they oversaw, but this was removed as a responsibility when it was determined that they didn't really have the authority to coordinate support effectively.
Similar question to Rebekah's: How do we cultivate authority in teacher leaders?
Some questions others may be able to answer:
ReplyDeleteWhat models are working in other schools? I'm particularly interested in departmental leadership in elementary schools that don't have department heads per se; grade-level leadership (what is the class dean's role at Bentley, Gina?); task force leadership.
How much can you ask a teacher to take on before reducing his/her teaching load or adding to his/her salary?
How to provide leadership training for teacher-leaders?
How to empower teacher-leaders? What is the source of their authority: the charge?
I'd love to share insights, too, into the art of delegation -- how we learn to delegate, and how to delegate skillfully. Picking people you trust, training them well, knowing that they'll make mistakes, just as we've done, as part of the learning process. I'm finally at the point where I realize that delegation is the key to my own survival, so the risk of someone else not doing a job just as I would do it is less frightening than the risk of burning out if I don't let go. . .
More . . . The Fall 2010 issue of Independent School magazine has a good article by Reveta Bowers-- Developing Future Leaders: One School's Solution (p. 42 ff -- I couldn't diigo it because it's not available on-line, I don't think). It offers answers to some of the questions I posed above.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to learn more about the "bands" at Live Oak. . . Emma?
Authority, assumed or granted, seems to be the key with distributed leadership. Class deans at my "visit" school were initially in charge of coordinating student support in the grades they oversaw, but this was removed as a responsibility when it was determined that they didn't really have the authority to coordinate support effectively.
ReplyDeleteSimilar question to Rebekah's: How do we cultivate authority in teacher leaders?