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Reflective Paper: A Look at Becoming a School Leader

Fannie Moore
University of Tennessee Chattanooga

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When I decided to pursue a degree in school leadership I thought that I knew what
made an effective leader; however, two years later I look back, reflect, and realize that I
now truly understand what makes an effective leader. Beyond understanding what makes
effective leaders, I have been able to use my time in my classes, field experiences, and
discussions with my peers to understand what makes me an effective leader. While my
book knowledge and experiences are important and I appreciate the opportunities that I
have been given over the past two years, it is the self-reflection that will allow me to
become an effective leader and separate myself from others.
Self-Reflect
In his article, Brandt (1991) states thinking deeply about what we are doing leads
us to ask better questions, break out of fruitless routines, make unexpected connections,
and experiment with fresh ideas (p.3). Throughout this experience I have found that it is
extremely important to take the time to stop and think about what could have we done
differently so that the ending result would have been better. Ultimately a school is there
to impact student achievement. Everything must tie back to student achievement and we
must constantly be reflecting on practice to see how we can make things better so that
students can be served better and achieve more.
Throughout the TILS standards we are faced with the School Improvement Plan.
As an effective leader, it was necessary to work with the schools leadership team to
examine data and then reflect on the programs and teaching approaches that we had been
using within the school to determine whether or not the desired results were being
achieved. If the desired results were not being achieved, then it is up to the leader to
initiate the change initiative. The change initiative would not have been a productive one
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if the team did not reflect and examine the key components of the programs being used
since the root of the problem would have very likely been missed.
It was also absolutely necessary to reflect when looking at many of the standards
listed under TILS B. Whether we were looking at our schools discipline plan,
conducting a climate analysis, revising the handbooks, critiquing the website, or
supervising the cafeteria it was absolutely necessary to stop and reflect on what our
current practice was and how we could change that practice so that it could improve. As
we looked at the cafeteria situation we realized that the amount of adults in the cafeteria
simply was not going to work because the ratio was completely inappropriate. While we
all love duty-free lunch, it took time to reflect for many teachers to realize that what was
best for our students was for our teachers to take on weekly cafeteria duty.
Another example of how reflection led to improvement would be when the
administrative team critiqued the handbooks. Throughout the previous year there were
countless complains from the Exceptional Education Department regarding how many
referrals were made from the regular education teachers and how many of those referrals
were completed inappropriately. When the administrative team got together to reflect
and discuss the handbooks it didnt take long to realize that Exceptional Education
protocol was missing from the handbook. How are the teachers expected to know what
to do if they are never told? Through this reflection changes could be made.
On a personal note I took time to self reflect on my days. Each day I had to
interact with my peers, students, parents, community stakeholders, and administrators.
After each discussion and interaction I stopped and thought about how that interaction
could have been different. This is important because these interactions impact the
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climate and culture within our building and that ultimately affects student achievement as
well.
Marzano, Boogren, Heflebower, Kanold-McIntyre, Pickering (2012) state,
Reflective practice facilitates the processing and integration of new knowledge and can
help students and practitioners make sound decisions when confronted with unfamiliar
situations(4). This is an extremely important thought to consider as I enter into the next
chapter of my professional life. It is important that with each activity that I undertake
and with each step that I take I stop and reflect as to how I could have changed things and
how I could have made things better. Through this daily self-reflection I will be able to
tackle the unknowns that every administrator and educator is faced with each and every
day. I must also understand that through this self-reflection I need to think about how I
can step outside of my comfort zone and enter into unchartered territories because these
may be the territories where the best answers to our problems and concerns lie. It is
important to remember that a good leader does not merely jump to conclusions, but rather
thinks things through completely and reflects from all angles so that all possible solutions
can be considered and so that sound decisions can be reached when changes and new
situations arise. Ultimately, as an effective leader I realize that throughout the day I will
find time to stop what I am doing and either reflect privately about things that may
pertain only to myself or I will take time in group meetings such as leadership team
meetings to reflect with a the group to determine how we can constantly keep our school
moving in the right direction.
Communicator
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Gorton and Alston (2009) state, of the various proficiencies that make
outstanding K-8 principals, few are more important than the ability to communicate
effectively (p. 96). As a communicator we communicate in various ways. We
communicate when speaking, writing, and listening. Throughout my experience I had to
use all of the communication skills and I found that all of them were equally important
and that in order to communicate effectively, you had to consider which form of
communication you were going to use and when.
Throughout the past two years I have constantly had to communicate. Every aspect
of my job requires me to serve as a communicator in some fashion. An example of me
being a communicator was when I served as a mentor to a new teacher. In this situation I
found that I had to be a very clear communicator. I oftentimes had to remind myself that
she had very limited background knowledge and that I had to put everything in the most
simplistic terms so that she didnt get overwhelmed.
On the other hand, I have to be a consistent communicator when I was dealing with
veteran teachers as a grade level chair or as the instructional coach. These veteran
teachers had been in the world of education enough time to form their own biases and
many of them had very firm believes. In fact, if you werent careful they were likely to
get you to jump ship. Gorton and Alston (2009) reminds us, barriers to effective
communication with persons to who the message is directed may stem from their lack of
interest, their inability to understand certain elements of the message, their own personal
biases, social barriers, and factors about the situation itself (p. 98). I have found that in
my role as instructional coach, I oftentimes had to allow other teachers to vent their
frustrations and just listen until I had fully processed what was being said so that I could
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provide them with the best answer and so that I would not agree to something that I
would regret later.
Listening is a very important part of communication and is a part that I need to work
on. Gorton and Alston (2009) state, perhaps one of the most important roles an
administrator can play as a recipient of communication is that of listener (p. 111). In my
role of principal designee, I have to listen to people constantly and I have found that I
must show that I am being an active listener otherwise my peers will simply say, never
mind. As a leader, I do not want to come across as being not interested in what someone
else has to say. I know that I have probably missed out on many great ideas because I
appeared to be uninterested. I have to remind myself of this during afterschool meetings
when we are getting tired or I have a thousand thoughts running through my head.
I also have learned that being an active listener means that I need to work on taking
notes especially when meeting with parents or teachers about a particular case. This was
something that proved to be challenging for me last year and it is something that I need to
work on as I move on in my professional career. As I reflected on my visit to observe Jill
Levine I recalled how she dealt with parents and teachers and being the liaison between
the two. Ms. Levine made sure to get the story from her teachers before she ever thought
of calling the parents and she made sure she had every detail straight in her head. I must
make sure that I do that so that I do not stumble around when talking to the parents. By
keeping notes this will help me keep my thoughts straight and the story clear should
questions come up in the future. This will continue to be something that I work on.
Finally, I will continue to communicate through writing. I think that every teacher
wants a pat on the back. I will continue to give shout-outs to teachers in my weekly
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Curriculum Connection because I think that this is something that our teachers value and
something that they do get information from; however, I will continue to work on giving
them shout-outs in other ways as well. A written note in their mailboxes for a job well
done, a verbal shout-out over the PA, a pat on the back walking down the hall, or a
simple congratulation during grade level planning are all simple ways to communicate to
the faculty and staff for a job well done.
On the flipside, I will also have to continue to work with my administrators to
develop additional strategies for working with teachers who are proving to be ineffective.
This is an area that I have had limited exposure. I did work with a teacher who was
having difficulties in the area of discipline. It was very important to be very clear with
this teacher and to be very consistent with the information that was being communicated
to her; however, when communicating with teachers who are ineffective in their practice
it is extremely important that you communicate verbally and in writing and that you
document all communication.
Builds Relationships
A third conclusion that I reached throughout this process is that an effective
leader must build relationships with all stakeholders regardless of the activity that is
taking place. I found that taking time on the front end to build relationships proved to be
worthwhile in the end. These relationships allowed the individuals to work through
differences and sticky situations that may arise as the year progressed. Although this
proves to be extremely important in any type of workplace, this becomes especially
important in a school where emotions often run high and the situations change in a matter
of seconds.
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Building relationships with our stakeholders was of key importance throughout
this year. Our tutoring program was a huge success and it was because we reached out to
our community partners, built a relationship with them, and collaborated with them to
create a tutoring program that would best meet the needs of our students and teachers. If
these relationships were not put into place then the tutoring program would have looked
very different and the success rate would not have been the same.
When I was given the opportunity to serve as the principal designee I quickly
realized the importance of building relationships with all stakeholders. When students
are in trouble and getting suspended you must have a relationship with their parents. This
is something that is important for administrators to understand, but it is also something
that is important for teachers to understand as well.
Finally, I really had to work on building relationships during my role as
instructional coach. Throughout the year I was faced with walking into teachers
classrooms or conducting professional development sessions where teachers had to make
themselves vulnerable. They were expected to put themselves out on the line so that I
could in turn attempt to help them. This would not be possible if I had not started off
building relationships with the teachers first. Sullivan and Glanz (2013) state
"supervision is the on-going, nonjudgmental, collaborative process that engages teachers
in dialogue that encourages deep reflective practices for the purpose of
improving teaching and student learning" (pp. 160-161). Although I was not technically
evaluating the teachers that I was working with, I was going in and collaborating with
them so that they could improve their teaching and their students learning and the reason
I could do this was because I had taken the time to build relationships with the teachers.
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Relationships are definitely the glue that holds any institution together. Robbins
and Alvy (2004) state, schools are communities of human beings, bound together in an
organic, continuously developing web of relationship, and that without community
nothing else matters. The principals skill at building relationships among individuals and
weaving together individual values and beliefs into a shared vision of care, compassion,
and quality teaching and learning is crucial to student achievement and school success
(p. 187). As I look ahead I will make sure that I continue to work on building
relationships with all of the stakeholders that are involved at East Brianerd Elementary.
Regardless of their position, they are valuable members of the team and they must be
viewed as such. I will treat them with respect and listen to what they have to offer and I
will make sure that they understand that they are welcome into our school and that we
yearn for their suggestions as to how we can improve our school so that our students will
continue to soar.
I will also continue to further develop our relationships with our community
partners since they have been such a key component to the success of our school. As we
go through the next few years I will continue to work on developing ways to not only
seek opportunities for our community members to support us, but for us to find ways to
support them.
Visionary
The final conclusion that I reached was that you must be a visionary if you are
going to be an effective leader. In his article, Brandt (1991) states, Thinking deeply
about what we are doing leads us to ask better questions, break out of fruitless routines,
make unexpected connections, and experiment with fresh ideas (p. 3).
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When looking at a school it is important to look at data from the past so that you
can make decisions about the future. This is exactly what we did when thinking about
our School Improvement Plan. As part of the schools leadership team, we were able to
work as visionaries to take the data from the past to create a plan for the future. This was
extremely important since the School Improvement Plan ultimately states the goals and
the programs we will use in order to achieve those goals. Thacker, Bell, and Schargel
(2009) state, Increasingly, schools are dealing with a growing number of nontraditional
students who come from nontraditional homes of which traditional teaching and learning
techniques do not work (p. 17). This was something that our leadership team found to
be true for our school and it felt like we needed to devise goals that specifically spoke to
those subgroups.
Another time I was able to show my ability to be a visionary was when I served as
a Literacy Support Provider. During my time in this role, I was given the opportunity to
work with the schools administration to create a professional development plan for the
school. This was an important task since professional development is a key component
to running an effective school. As a leader I realized the importance of being a visionary
and having a very clear vision of where you want your professional development plan to
lead your faculty and staff.
A final example of when I was given an opportunity to be a visionary was when I
was given the opportunity to serve on the hiring committee. While serving on this
committee I had to think about how each candidate would mesh with the existing grade
level team and school as a whole and also think about what the candidate would bring to
the school in terms of curriculum ideas, behavior management ideas, community support
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ideas, etc. Just like with any other change that occurs within a school, the administration
and hiring committee had to have a clear vision about what we were looking for in a new
hire to make sure that the climate and culture within our school stayed in tact and to make
sure that the grade levels we were hiring for continued to run the way we had envisioned.
Warren Bennis (1989) states, Leaders who empower their employees pull them,
rather than push them, to a goal by embodying the vision toward which the rest of the
group strives (p. 6). As I look to the future I yearn to be this type of leader. I want to
provide the gentle pull that encourages my faculty and staff to try new things that will
support the schools vision. By pulling I will be leading the way because I will be
walking the walk and talking the talk and this will encourage the by in from as many
faculty members as possible. I want to keep the spark alive because I think that when the
spark leaves a school that is when things begin to die. Teachers need to feel energized
and excited about their workplace and I want to create that workplace by keeping the
vision alive.
Conclusion
Gupton (2003) states, the central target of the mission of any school organization
the improvement of students educational experiences and achievement should be
clearly evident (p. 37). Throughout this experience I have concluded that in order to
achieve this improvement for students, the effective leader is one who is self-reflecting,
able to communicate, a visionary, and can build relationships within a school. These
elements are the key components that separate an effective school from one that is not
effective. Overarching these key components are other key characteristics such as
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honesty and maintaining a sense of balance within life. As I enter into the next phase of
my professional life, I can look back at my experiences and copy and expand on the good
experiences and learn from the bad ones so that I can constantly grow.











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Resources
Bennis, W. (1989). Why leaders cant lead. Training and Development Journal, April,
34-39.
Brandt, R. (1991). Time for reflection. Educational Leadership, 48, 3.
Gorton, R. & Alston, J. A. (2009). School leadership and administration: Important
concepts, case studies, & simulations. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Gupton, S. L. (2003). The instructional leadership toolbox: A handbook for improving
practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Marzano, R. J., Boogren, T., Heflebower, T., Kanold-McIntyre, J., Pickering, D. (2012).
Becoming a reflective teacher. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory.
Robbins, V. & Alvy, H. (2004). The new principals fieldbook: Strategies for success.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Sullivan, S. & Glanz, J. (2013). Supervision that improves teaching and learning:
Strategies & techniques (4th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Thacker, T., Bell, J. S., & Schargel, F. (2009). Creating school cultures that embrace
learning: What successful leaders do. Larchmont, NY: Eye On Education.