LQS #2 LQS 2-Modelling Commitment to Professional Learning “A leader engages in career-long professional learning and ongoing critical reflection to identify opportunities for improving leadership, teaching, and learning” (Alberta Education, 2018, p.4). I was not a bit surprised when reading my survey results from the 16 Personalities Test. I am always a bit sceptical as I find people manipulate their answers, which impacts the validity of the result. However, I tried hard to be true to myself when taking the test. “The Executive,” no surprise! Over the years, I have come to embrace and accept my personality; the strengths and weaknesses that come with it. I am aware that I am at times, I am inflexible, become uncomfortable with people’s emotions and my resting face can seem neutral. I value hard work, honesty, dedication, and have trouble seeing the world in tones of grey. Executive personalities want to do right in their roles and responsibilities, and truly have genuine sincere hearts. However, at times their ethics, moral judgement and drive to succeed can leave people feeling unable to meet the standard of approval and isolated. Many of these traits make Executive great leaders, but also give them just as many areas for growth. I used to avoid taking these types of tests because they would expose the ugly truth of my potential as a leader. Now, over years of leadership roles and simply maturing and becoming comfortable in my own skin, I now focus on those skills that make me a strong leader and continue to stretch myself in the areas I know need growth. I have come to realize that it is not about who you are as a leader, but what you can become. I feel part of the strengths of my leadership personality is the dedication, focus, and devotion that I bring to a school community. As stated in the summary of my personality test, “the Executives are good at bringing everyone together, to organize and lead groups down difficult paths,” (16 Personalities, n.d). This skill set directly links to the LQS competency of, “engaging with others such as teachers, principals, and other leaders to build personal and collective professional capacities and expertise” (Alberta Education, 2018, p.4). I am aware, that while leading learning, the journey will not always be a straight path, that I need to be flexible in the journey, listen to teachers along the way, and be open-minded. Constantly keeping relationships at the forefront is the foundation of a successful learning community, as trust is essential for anyone to feel comfortable to grow and learn. Digital Citizenship Modelling a commitment to Professional Learning took on a whole new lens when the pandemic came. All aspects of this competency had strong foundations in our brick and mortar building, but when my school took on cyber walls, leading and learning with this competency was challenging. If you would have asked me to reflect on my digital learning journey a year ago, I would have said that it has always been at the forefront of my teaching and leading, an area I felt confident with my skills and knowledge. Now, post-COVID19, my skills and knowledge, have been challenged and stretched in the past three months. The saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know,” rings very true. I have been trying to lead a learning community; teachers and students, while managing the anxiety and the unknowns all without trying to put more stress on everyone. The Teachers Qualification Standard (TQS) competency three, teachers, administrators, and other education professionals have to develop, maintain and apply the knowledge, skills, and attributes that enable them to use technology effectively, efficiently and innovative in support of learning, (Alberta Education, 2013, p.4), never seemed so daunting. Previously, digital learning was embedded in the curriculum, it was perceived as fun, an extra if time allotted. Then, without warning digital learning became essential; where the teachers and students were required to learn and be assessed in a new paradigm. A tool that made learning fun and at times seemed non-essential became essential and overwhelming. At the same time, I could not keep up to the learning pace my teachers were with adapting to digital, and emergent teaching. At first, I felt I needed to keep the course with them, but it was impossible with my role that pulled me in many directions. I eventually came to the realization that I did not need me to be as techno-savvy as them, they just needed me to prop them up for their successes, listen to them, help them problem solve and not point out their perceived inadequacies in comparison to their colleagues. It also became evident that the complexity of the pandemic for my school context was that we were all dealing with great disparities in the resources and supports available to our students. Some have devices, some did not, some were sharing with parents and siblings, and some had insufficient bandwidth to complete their assigned tasks. Some had parents who were fortunate to be able to work at home, some parents had to leave home to go to work, and many had lost employment. Some of our students were caring for younger siblings while parents worked. Some children were at home alone long before they really should be. Many families opted to not engage at in in education. All per-existing stresses amongst my school families were multiplied during this time. These factors left me asking, to what extent am I responsible for getting the student's devices? When do I require parents to put some skin in the game? According to the Learning and Technology framework (Alberta Education, 2013), it is my role as a leader to cultivate innovation and build capacity within the system to leverage technology in support of student-centred learning and system efficiencies (p.6). I am left with more questions, than answers, and the journey continues. I spend more time now researching, reading, and reaching out to colleagues about their current practices. My commitment to Professional Learning and what is best for my community of learners and teachers has never been higher. As I approach the fall, the complexities of digital learning will not be going away. All stakeholders’ ideologies of technology within education have changed with COVID 19. Teachers' innovations in providing home based learning was so successful, it will now always play a bigger role in schools and in the home.
Reflections; Year # 3
I highlighted the area in orange what I was thinking in year one. This is very true, I have really grown in my skin realizing that I need to like the skin I live in. I have strengths and areas for growth and this is okay!!! I say this I have a perfection personality and overcoming it and understanding and living with my weakness is a growth areas.
What I find really interesting is that what I thought were the BIG ROCKS in year two of a pandemic were not even close to our big rocks. Getting students on line , getting them was devices were important but now in tyear three the emotional and mental wellness of my teachers is a bigger rock. They are burnt out and tired, keeping them going and finding way to support is bigger rock.