MAC Wk 3 BP 1

Leading from Any Chair challenges me to give up more control to the students. It’s very difficult for me to trust that I have provided my students with everything that they need to get their jobs done. Unlike the orchestra, my students aren’t assigned seats according to their training or specialty. A good deal of assessment would need to take place in order to assign the leadership tasks, I suppose that this is would come into play when analyzing learning preferences, strengths and weaknesses.

The 6th Rule reminds me to stop taking everything so seriously, stop worrying so much about the results of the state mandated tests and the predicament at my school. This is very difficult for me at this time, as I just received word that 11 of our students did not pass the reading portion of this test in the third grade. 18% of our students is a very high rate of failure. In the development of this crisis, meetings with angry administration have been held in which an obvious breakdown in communication has occurred. The critical selves of all involved have risen to the surface, and it is really difficult for all of us to find our central selves. We all, faculty and administration, need an opportunity to divert attention away from the threat against the survival of our struggling school towards the ever mounting tasks at hand. The time to react to the news is over, and we must create and commence upon a plan of attack to insure it does not happen again.

If I allow myself the time to be present in the moment and discuss the way things are, it feels very scary. I’m finishing a year of significant struggle to teach well and earn a master’s degree. I am so close to the end that I can taste the sweet victory of the degree with the bitter tinge of a massive disappointment as a teacher. The possibilities ahead of me seem grim. Will I be reprimanded for the diversion of attention away from my students toward my personal goals and gains? The question itself takes away from being in the conflicting moment of disappointment and excitement.

When reading Giving Way to Passion, I could only think of how I might use the new skills I’ve attained in the EMDT program towards guiding next year’s students toward success on this exam. I have already offered to participate in training for the online management system purchased by the school to help streamline administrative functioning as well as lesson plans and other classroom management tools. I’d like to participate in the training to attain proficiency with the program as well as to create training or tutorial videos for the faculty to refer when attempting to use it.