Introduction

INTRODUCTION: PERSONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

As an educator who is excited about seeing the lightbulb moment go off for students  in the classroom, I started working with other educators in my buildings in order to brainstorm innovative ideas to keep classroom learning fun and engaging. While going through this process, I started realizing that more and more educators were coming to me for advice as well as collaboration sessions in order to improve various areas of their classrooms. While immersing myself in the process I was not only improving my own classroom, but I was also learning how to lead people and get them excited about their own experiences of being an educator. 

These experiences also allowed me to reach other educators in various new ways such as being a listening ear and eventually an advocate for my co-workers in the building as I ended up being asked to be on the Building Leadership Team. While on this team, I was not only analyzing data in order to improve instruction within the building, but I was also able to speak candidly with other administrators about how people felt in the building about certain situations as well as how we can improve the culture of the building among the staff as well as students. This position also allowed me to be a good listening ear and shape me into a person who could help people problem solve, feel more confident about themselves, as well as become the best version of themselves after having conversations. 

Enjoying having a role like this allowed me to open my mind to diving into administration and leading people as a transformational leader instead of a transactional leader as many leaders can end up becoming. This role interested me enough in learning more about becoming a leader and my mind started shifting towards leading adults rather than just children through life. 

After completing the coursework for my administrator’s license, and completing my practicum experience there is no doubt in my mind that my calling is geared towards leading adults as well as children in an educational setting because seeing adults have that same lightbulb moment and seeing them get excited to try new things as well as improve who they are as an educator gives me the fuel I need every day to continue leading others and to not only lead just for the sake of leading, but rather be a transformational leader, and lead by example every day. 

This quote by James MacGregor Burns empowered me to go ahead and try to be the best transformational leader in every area of my life: "“By utilizing the four strategies inside of Transactional Leadership: Individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence, they have all resulted in extra effort from workers, higher productivity, higher morale and satisfaction, higher organizational effectiveness, lower turnover, lower absenteeism and greater organizational adaptability to changes in the environment”