At the end of this project, I place myself at the developing stage in the overarching competency of personal effectiveness. In pivoting away from unrealistic goals, and devoting considerable energy to support our staff members whose lost their jobs, I "connected my strengths and leadership style to credibility, ethical practices and trust with colleagues." I include here as evidence an excerpt one colleague's response to messages from the Padlet I created and nudged many staff members to complete:
"Wow wow wow. If there was one thing I needed today it was another reason to ball my eyes out. Thank you all for the very touching notes on the padlet. I feel so loved. Between that, current and former parents and students sending me off with regards and questions and good luck notes…this has been a doozy!
I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the anger and grief I’ve been feeling the past three months. I still feel so incredibly robbed of the chance to watch those kids grow up and the opportunity to support my ELL student that I’ve had for two years and have been the most consistent adult in his life during that time period. The siblings of former students who I’ve already created deep connections with and won’t get to be a part of their Paxson journey. As those of you who have been going through this already know, and those of you who have been supporting us during this time, this whole process has been unfair, unclear, and so disheartening.
Paxson has some of the most amazing educators and support staff in the district, that I have no doubt. To everyone who has helped me in my time, I so appreciate you. This year was not just only the most challenging for me professionally, but personally as well. I can’t thank those who have been there to pick me up when I was down enough….Keep fighting the good fight, y’all.
This isn’t goodbye, but see you later!
Xoxo"(evidence)
In a text she sent to me privately, the same teacher wrote the following:
"Thank you, Jane. I was so incredibly touched by your message. Thank you for seeing me and acknowledging my hard work. Teaching can be such a thankless job but to be acknowledged and appreciated by your colleagues means so so much. I hope I don't get refired for my message in the chat [see above] but...it's all the truth. I don't mind leaving a spicy trail on the way out. Keep pushing and fighting and loving. So glad to have had the chance to work with you." (evidence)
Further evidence of my growth from the emerging towards the developing category in this competency is that I "overcame adversity in working in teacher leader roles." I recognized that my initial goals in this project were not only unrealistic but almost irrelevant given the much larger crisis we faced as a school and district. I modified my plans, made them more attainable, and shifted my energy towards helping manage the painful situation at our school.
The above messages from my colleague help confirm for me that I have also moved to the developing stage in the overarching competency of interpersonal effectiveness. Her words, and my efforts in support of my beleaguered colleagues "demonstrate growth in skills as a teacher leader in supporting colleagues" and show how I have "developed strong relationships with colleagues based on mutual trust and a shared vision for student learning."
In the foundational competency of "Collaborate Purposefully" I place myself now in the developing versus the emerging category. After attending various board meetings and staff meetings about the budget challenges, I have become more familiar with the "culture" of the board of trustees and the complicated funding structures and constraints that our district leaders must work within. I became much more aware of the "limitations of my skills and practices" regarding these structures and am committed to becoming better informed about them and thereby a more effective advocate for change.
I also place myself in the developing versus the emerging category in the leadership pathway competency of advocacy. In collaboration with colleagues, with a room parent from my class this year, who is now a school board member, and via the work of this Capstone, I have begun to "create a strategic plan to engage various communities to address student needs." The parent and I are in regular contact and she is involving me in her work with local and state political leaders and district administrators about plans for making changes to the school funding formula and other issues that impact our schools. Via my work on this Capstone, I am continuing to gather and curate data from students and families about the remarkable benefits we saw when we had our two interventionists.
The TLI experience -- in particular the conversations with other participants during Zoom breakout rooms -- helped me to be more realistic about, and to narrow the scope of, my project. As I wrote in one of my assignments, and referred to in the "Learn" section of this Capstone:
"I can now see clearly, thanks in part to a conversation I had during a break-out zoom group during our October meeting, that I cannot possibly expect myself single handedly to find a way to “fix” the funding problem and restore the interventionist positions in our district. This outcome is way beyond my individual capability and job responsibility. However, I can use my position as a known and respected senior teacher at Paxson, my years of teaching experience, and my diverse background as a teacher at a wide variety of schools, grade levels, and content areas to gather data from stakeholders and speak from personal experience about how very effective the funded positions were. My hope is that the data I am well placed to collect and present will serve as an eventual catalyst for policy shifts and long term change. In limiting my goal to a more realistic one, I am also strengthening my ability to respond with resilience. Setting myself a more attainable, manageable goal will make it much easier for me to stay grounded and resilient and care for myself versus getting lost in frustration and overwhelm in the face of a much larger and more unwieldy challenge."(evidence)
The most valuable part of the TLI process for me was being forced via the assignments, my work toward this Capstone, and my conversations with the other TLI fellows, to narrow the scope and goals of my project, and to learn to pace myself in terms of changes I hope to help bring about. Rather than feeling demoralized in the face of this year's much larger budget cuts than the ones I was working against at the beginning of this project, I feel confident in what is becoming a more measured approach to advocacy. I am more aware of the resources available to me, the people I can collaborate with, and the extent of the amazing work that teacher leaders are undertaking across the state.
My next steps in continuing my growth as a teacher leader are:
1) to read and reread this Montana Free Press article until the Montana school funding formula makes sense to me
2) reach out to families whose students I taught during the 2022-2023 school year to continue to document the tremendous benefits that result from their children's work with the interventionists
3) help campaign for Mark Thane for HD 89 and Ryan Busse for governor
4) share the padlet messages with local and state legislators to illustrate the impact on individuals and schools of budget cuts
5) stay up-to-date, via my trusted former room parent/current board of trustees member, on pending education-related legislation and how to advocate for what is best for our students and schools!