Reflect

1. REFLECT:

I have found that my value systems are not the same values as everyone. I know, wow! I assume all teachers want their students to do their best, they all want to work hard and move their students forward, they all want to meet diverse needs, but not all have the skills or the feelings that they want to work that hard. When teachers don't share my values then I am biased toward them and think less of them. This then impacts my ability to be a good leader. Knowing this about myself and understanding that just like students, teachers are all at different levels of learning and it doesn't mean they don't want to do better, they just need help and guidance to do better. I need to not tell them what to do but ask them what they need help with.

In reflection of my leadership skills and abilities after the past modules, I have realized I have a tendency to lead with an enthusiasm I assume others have for education. When others don't share my excitement I have taken that for apathy for teaching and wanting change. This is a wrong assumption. I need to take time and ask my group members where they stand on the task, what they think would be a good strategy, and then use their base of knowledge to lead.

In this workshop I learned that I need to take into account that many people can be aware of privilege but it doesn't mean they understand how it affects them and or others. Being aware of privilege is one thing but in order to help the layers of privilege break down we need to not just acknowledge it but to work to lesson it. Until we as a society work together at one time to abolish the thoughts of racism, heterosexuality, and sex as means of privilege and discrimination we can not overcome it. Just recognizing that there is such a thing privilege doesn't help to eliminate it.

I found the passage stating we should guide teachers to speak of experiences instead of opinions and beliefs. I need to ask questions, allow my teachers to give me ideas into where they are in their learning and understandings so I can build on the known and give value to their experiences and use them to grow.

What are your next steps to continue your growth as a teacher leader?

My next steps as a teacher leader is to share my experience with my colleagues to encourage them to join my in the Teacher Leader process so we can build a leadership team that will support the needs of our students, parents, and school as a whole. Many of the teachers in my school do not see themselves as leaders and going through this process with support from other teachers is a wonderful way to empower yourself in your profession. I will continue to learn how to better meet the needs of my students while being their advocate.

What was the most valuable part of the TLI process for you?

During the workshop I learned that even though we all read the same article and are all educators we all interpreted the meaning of equality a little different. My teaching background, always being of the minority in my schools, has made me understand when teachers say we don't see color and we are growing students who are from a culture of kind but I think that is a naive place to be. We all see color, we all have preconceived notions about race that have been subconsciously or outright put in our heads. For example my generation was taught that Russians are bad and media supported through movies and television. The generation before was told Japanese were bad because they bombed us and my grandparents still held bad feelings toward that culture. Today I find my students being negative towards middle eastern people. We are programed through social media, youtube, our parents, to have feelings of unrest towards different cultures. As teacher we need to be able to discuss race and social equity and if we don't have materials to share about different races and cultures we can share authors from diverse backgrounds. If we don't start a safe conversation with the students about our differences and our similarities who will?

Artifact: Where I started to where I am now