Showing posts with label #leadwild. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #leadwild. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Where the Wild Things Are by Jennifer Kloczko


Wild first grade writing
Deep conversation. 
On a Sunday. Questions. 
This question.
Are we really leading
wildly
if we are talking about
something
we could have done
20 years ago?
Is it technology?
Is that what makes us
wild?

Is it just-right pedagogy?
The art and science of teaching and learning.
Is it creativity and collaboration?
Or inspiration?

 What if the most powerful learning I see in a day
is written in pencil
in a notebook
on the floor and under a table by a 7 year-old?

Or on sentence strips
written in marker with the word
chameleon
spelled wrong
by a first grade zoologist.

Old school tools for future ready schools.

Whether learning or leading
where the wild things are really
found
are in the connections,
the ideas
that spread like wildfire
fueled by technology.

Technology that allows a Bee-bot dance 
coded by two fourth grade girls
in California
to be shared
anywhere
in the
world.

Live.

What was old is new
again
Kagan and Calkins and
brain-based strategies are now
remixed with rich academic language
and content
for a digital world.

New is the audience.
Sharing.
Shining a spotlight
on the work of kids and teachers.
Twitter and Voxer.
Storytellers of our time.

New are the leaders willing to connect with
a souped up walkie-talkie
to ask questions
to listen
to learn
to be inspired to try out an amazing idea the next
day.

New are the leaders who learn first
Fearless and thoughtful.
Reflecting in a public space
sharing struggles
and celebrations
in blog posts or a tweets or in stories of
only 7 
words.

Radical? In a way. 
Revolutionary? Maybe.
Relentless?
Yes. Leading wild means digging in and digging deep.
It means never giving up.
It means saying I don’t know
but I’ll try.

Learning has no destination.
We may never arrive, but we are on a journey.
Together.
Traveling a path where strangers are friends
and impossible is nothing.

Lead wild.

Cross posted on Lead. Learn. Sparkle.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

#leadwild not lead mild; How management almost overtook leadership this week. by Catina Haugen

Jon Corippo inspired the start: #leadwild not lead mild

 Jason Markey cemented the rest with a single supportive Vox.

 I have high expectations for myself.  I work hard.  Some days, I make my work look easy.  I am fallible, wrong at times, and have much to learn.  And I am good at what I do.  I bring value to students' experience every day, and I support teachers up to their potential and beyond.

 This week, I allowed management missteps to cloud my leadership.  I wallowed in my own errors and failed to rise above and LEAD. Who is to blame?  At whom should we point a finger?

It doesn't matter.
Point at me.

 What matters is how I (we) move forward.  What do I do when I get mired in management when my eye should be on the prize which is LEADERSHIP. I think it's a common pitfall for admin.  The management/leadership balance is always delicate.  Rather than try to maintain a balance, this week has taught me, it's more important to manage our reaction to management's pull rather than try to pit one against the other.

 I did not manage management well this week.  I allowed myself to get sucked into petty decision-making, scheduling and communication errors when I should have looked to the vision.  What do students need?  How do I fit that need? Then I would have overcome management and remained fixed on leadership.

I lost my way. Who is our worst critic?  Yep, it's me.  It's you.

 So management is a part of our job.
Got it.

When it threatens to degrade the REAL WORK of school, I need to get uber focused, laser like centered and do the work.  Then move on.

 That's what management is. The what, why, who, how... but it can never overtake the WHY.
Why?
It's all about student SUCCESS.  It's all about students WANTING to be at school.  It's all about students feeling SUPPORTED by the adults around them.  It's all about LEARNING.

 I'm on board for that.  I can give time to schedules, staffing, grounds and maintenance but MY REAL JOB is about students, their well being, their growth. 

It's #leadwild, not mild.  That's LEADERSHIP.


Cross posted from catinahaugen.wordpress.com
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Sunday, April 19, 2015

What does it mean to #leadwild? by Eric Saibel


Powerful rivers begin as small trickles, wending their way down mountains, at first drop by drop. When the droplets converge they gather strength; movement that is at first imperceptible to our senses becomes audible in its downward cascade - sometimes deafening. At first, water must find its way around the many obstacles in its path; eventually, it shapes the landscape around it.

Ideas become reality in much the same way; a thought emerges first as a lone droplet, and grows through contact with others. In the fall of 2014 a couple school administrators - who had connected through Twitter - decided to use the Voxer app as a way to share and discuss professional readings. The first name for this small group was "Leadership Book Club." After a few earnest attempts to get started, it became evident that there wasn't the time or capacity to do that kind of serious reading on top of jobs, families, and the many rapids of life.

There was, however, a deep desire to continue to grow the small stream of ideas as a source of nourishment, inspiration, and growth - both professional and personal. As this group expanded, it began to understand that a singular focus was too narrow; the collective curiosity, experience, passion for learning and commitment to shaping the educational landscape of the future was too strong. The name this group eventually came to adopt reflects the spirit of the untamed river - a place where life flourishes, where new trickles of water join and expand the collective force of our forward movement:

#LeadWild.

LeadWild is a state of mind and a way of being. Powerful educational leadership does not come from a title, rather from the connections we make between people and ideas, the strength we help others find in themselves, and an incessant commitment to pushing forward through stagnant, comfortable tradition.

What does it mean to #LeadWild? Our growing stream of school an district leaders answers below in our inaugural post; our first droplet of water in a growing stream of thought, action, reflection, experimentation, and innovation.




















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