Task I - Leadership Reflection: Use specific illustrations or concrete examples from your classroom, school, policy work and/ or association and TLI experience to support your responses.
OVERARCHING COMPETENCIES:
During this year as a Teacher Leader I have seen slow and steady growth in my Pathways. I have spent the past months reflecting on how I communicate with my team members and how I listen. I read an article, ‘10 Simple Ways to Get People to Like You More’’ by BY JOHN BRANDON MAY 29, 2014, originally published in Inc.com
It might seem odd to read an article to get people to like you but I know I am shy, which for many means stand-offish and I also know I can be overwhelming with my enthusiasm for learners and wanting everyone to share my excitement, so I knew I needed some guidance with dealing with my colleagues.
1. Ask questions: This was a difficult one that I am still working on because in the environment of my school, asking questions is seen as being confrontational and I have been reprimanded by my administrator for this in the past. Although I still ask questions, I have worked on my delivery when asking questions and have been careful to ask questions in a manner that shows my misunderstanding and not questioning the other teachers knowledge.
2. Talk more, not less: I have not had a problem with beginning this strategy. I have begun to share funny stories with my literacy coach as well as my fellow teachers. I go for humorous stories to build relationships and then I am more able to add suggestions about procedures in the district in which I am trying to understand.
3. Give your time: This is an area I have already shown I am willing to do. I have numerous after school activities I do with kids which allows me to have time to help other teachers, however I find I am left on my own at this time because the teachers at the district leave as soon as the contract day is over.
4. Listen better: This has been a huge one for me and thankfully I have grown in this area. I was ready to bulldoze into the middle school and demand to know why our students are not treated better and why they are not part of the orientation schedule of the other elementary school, but then I took a breath. After asking some questions and really listening to the administration I heard that they have the same frustrations and haven’t had open communication with our building in the past. By listening I could see we were on the same page.
5. Really and truly care: This year I really took the time to get to know my team members and learn about their lives outside of the classroom. I appreciate where they are coming from and understand why they may react the way they do to certain situations. This is something I wish they could share with their students as well because they may understand that these teachers care they just show it in a way the students may not understand. Everyone comes to school with their own baggage.
6. Admit it, you don’t know everything: Although I know this, the teachers may think I think I know everything. As I said before I can appreciate that everyone comes to the table with different backgrounds but due to the situation in which I teach, my colleagues don’t always give me the same grace. So many of the staff are from the small community and do not trust outsiders and do not realize there is a lot of education going on outside of the community. I have learned to rephrase my suggestions in a way that does not sound arrogant. I also am quick to show I can use suggestions and ask for help from my colleagues when working together so we can build ownership in the project we are working towards.
7. Don’t be pushy: This is one I never intend to do but can easily be interpreted wrong. I learned to ask what others think and go to my stakeholders and ask what they want before I tell them what they want.
I have put these strategies in place and have found that I am able to build relationships better when I let others talk more. I am still curious how a 'conversation' is had when there isn't a back and forth of ideas, but I am beginning to see that listening is the way to build relationships and relationships are what help make change. Through this process I realize that leaders can't lead if no one follows and in order to get followers you must make others ideas feel valued. I learned that I must develop the relationships with the teachers and administrators at the middle school before I can expect my students to.
I began the institute, delving into the Diversity, Equity, and Cultural competence section, and felt I was hovering between Developing and Performing on the Growth continuum. The first bullet about dealing with oppression and inequities has been an area of growth for me in that I teach in a unique situation. I teach in a school that is 100% Native American and the teachers I work with are 75% Native as well. I need to understand the oppression and racism they have experienced so that I can gain trust and respond consistently and appropriately when trying to understand their background. My school, which is on the reservation, is part of a district that is off the reservation. This poises challenges when transitioning my students to the middle school. In this situation I have learned to advocate for changes in the system to help students transition in a successful manner while helping the primarily European-American teachers appreciate what the students bring to the school and challenges which may be unique to them. I have moved more firmly to Performing in that before I was engaging in ongoing “self” reflection and now I am working toward purposefully promoting equitable practices in our school environment, especially with the focus on classroom and special education working together within our building and in the district as a whole. This is a struggle my school has faced and we find we lack support of the district when services are allocated. I have become a better advocate for students and teachers as we discuss this issue as a leadership team.
I have begun to collaborate purposefully with the Middle School by having conversations ‘explaining the strengths and limitations of their skills and/or organizational practices when interacting with the incoming Native students’. Collaborating with the counselor at the middle school we are working to create a situation where they understand the unique limitations our students have due to cultural differences and have brought the key players into the elementary building on the reservation to include them in a PD opportunity Trauma Informed Communities and Restorative Justice Practices. Although I don’t believe we have begun to implement a plan moving forward, I do believe the discussion have started and misunderstandings between the buildings are being corrected and past walls are being torn down. I have begun discussion with my administrator focusing on moving supportive meetings for parents of fifth graders to our elementary building, which is closer and more comfortable to parents. I have read and researched the history of the oppression of the Native peoples over the last year so I can better understand my stakeholders and know how to move forward with these meetings. By doing this I am hoping to create and facilitate involvement for the stakeholders from the community, who in the past have questioned and mis-trusted the school district. I am going to move forward next year to ask them what they see the needs are for their students success as well as educate them on a school system they may not be familiar with due to limited access to school in the past and a traumatic experience with the system.
Now that I understand the Foundational Competencies for Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competences I am able to be more focused and direct on my approach to help support my school in a situation where they do not have the opportunity to interact with a culturally diverse population. I was able to really reflect on the distrust my colleagues may have for me, as an outsider to their community. I have reached out to my fellow teachers in a social way to build the relationships so we can work together to advocate for our students inside and outside of our school.
As stated above I have delved into talking and researching the past educational experiences the people of my community have experienced. In order to understand the present, we must understand the past. Everyone brings baggage and researched shows that the trauma the grandparents of my students experienced has been breed into their DNA. Even though students today live with cell phones and the newest NIKE tennis shoes, they still live with one foot in each world. The trauma the students experience daily, on top of the past, has left my students unable to take a big breath and relax. This causes behavioral issues that often have nothing to do with actual situations that occur. My awareness of this situation means that I have a job of educating the administrator of the middle school, who often deal with the academic and behavioral issues, that they need to be aware of the cultural background of these kids and not take the attitude that it’s in the past and celebrating a week of Native American Days makes the students feel accepted. I will be working with the administration next year to help them understand the difference between inequity and inequality. I have taken on the goal of moving myself from Emerging to Developing in the Explore and Challenge Inequity Competency by engaging in ongoing self-education to learn about the culture of our students but I can’t make everyone take the initiative to do the same. In this I will have to be a voice for the students who currently lack one. It is a sticky conversation to discuss cultural differences and practices which create inequities but I for one was not clear on the difference between inequity and inequality. Building relationships will be my goal for next year so I can then begin to make change.