Great Leaders

Great Leaders

            We need great leaders to be a visionary for the teachers and students. Leaders need to be there in order for the stakeholders to know what the vision is for the school. Many leaders need to have a good gauge of what the community, faculty and students need in order to know the areas that need improvement within the school. Also, this allows the leaders to determine areas of excellence. I work with leaders that are able to motivate and drive their staff and students while they are making changes that are important for the students to be successful. After all the overall vision/mission is for the students to be successful and to leave us being better prepared than when they walked in the door. Each day we need to strive for the best in ourselves and our students and a great leader is there to encourage us along the way. When we begin to lose sight of our vision we then lose sight of why we became an educator. A great leader will be able to recognize when a teacher might need a boost or have a conversation with them to determine if there are things that might be bothering them. To me a great leader is one that has systems in place to make sure they know when teachers or staff members are struggling and to find ways to motivate the individual to get back on track. Great leaders need to have some empathy and realize that everyone has issues and that we need to just make sure that the issues are not stemming from problems in the classroom. When we have great leaders in place they realize that there is not any replacement for great teachers. Therefore, we need to make sure that we are taking care of our teachers and staff who work so hard with the students to keep them encouraged and focused.

            A great leader in a school should be a learner. The leader needs to be reading and researching along with their teachers to find strategies that can improve instruction and help with student success. Also, great leaders know that teachers need to be given opportunities for professional development in order for the teachers learn new strategies that they can take back to their campus and implement in the classroom. As a leader we should be showing our teachers, staff and students that you should always be trying to learn new things and be open to changes. Sometimes these changes are hard but you don’t know if they will work if you don’t try. This is especially true in the classroom. There are times that a new program or strategy might seem like a lot of work, but if we go into this experience realizing that there is always something that you can learn then it might make it a little easier to make the changes or at least to give it a try. I have been told that sometimes it is the learning process and experience where we grow and develop not necessarily the end result. We should not be afraid of failure because sometimes that is when you learn the most. It is through the learning process that you gain insight and stretch your limits.