I think that understanding who you are as a leader, what your authentic leadership style and beliefs are, allows you to be authentic with others.

When my middle child was younger, he used to come home from school and melt down in tears or lose his temper. He was full of positive energy all day at school but when he got home was emotionally spent and needed down time in order to recharge his social battery. I was thinking about this when I got to work this morning; I was sitting in my car emotionally preparing myself for the day. It has been an incredibly stressful start to the school year, and I am finding that I am not always the person I want to be when I walk in the school doors. I am generally a positive person, assume the best in people, and err on quixotic optimism! This is my authentic self, and it is how I want to lead my classes.

For me this week, 'getting real' about who I am is reminding myself what I belief to be true: this will all work out, my students are young people trying to be the best versions of themselves, and my colleagues are with me in this. A friend and former colleague used to always say to her students, "You got this!" A phrase I repeated this morning as I got out of my car and brought my authentic self into the classroom. The positive, optimistic - real me.

Like my son used to do, I can be the best version of myself, as a leader in my class and school, and at the end of the day, take the time to recharge. Authentic leadership doesn't mean that I let my emotions drive my decisions, but that I am mindful of how I'm feeling so I can lead effectively.

Brown's metaphor of "cultivating worthiness" is an apt one. In our daily lives, communication happens all the time, and we sow the seeds of trust in every interaction. When conflict does arise, strong relationships can handle them.

I am reminded of one of my first interactions with a new principal. I was working in our outreach program and we had just undergone a restructuring. We went from having very little oversight in our day-to-day work to being severely micro-managed. We regularly advocating for students in creative ways: having pre-reqs waived, doing credit recovery, helping students find jobs for work experience credits, etc.

The new principal, sent me a plan for a student that I had been working with for months already. I challenged the principal because I didn't think the new plan was in the best interest of the student. The principal didn't know me, didn't know the level of advocacy we did for students in outreach, and saw this as a challenge to his authority. He called me into his office to admonish me. He listened to my side and realized that my challenge to him came from a motivation to help the student, and that by working with the outreach teachers, rather than 'managing' us would help cultivate a mutual trust. We all had the best interests of students in mind and collaborative problem solving would build that trust, so when disagreements do arise, the shared trust that we are working to the same goal allows for a more effective solution.

In previous weeks, we have looked at examples of school leaders who have attempted to make changes in their schools and have encountered reluctance and at times conflict. So how does a principal decide what needs changing, and how do they effectively move a school community towards that change?

In, "A Principal's Perspective: The Importance of School Culture" Wagner quotes: "The Principal's Role in Successful Schools." In that article, Habegger says that the first step is to get out of "daily survival mode." She states that "all the other roles and responsibilities of a school principal are important. But a positive school culture is imperative." Of all the school leaders I have worked with, the most effective ones are the one's that are not reactive, but proactive. While this might sound like a cliche, the truth is that those who are caught up in the day-to-day tasks of 'managing' a school, end up spending their days in their office behind a computer screen. We have all fallen into the trap of having important conversations with people in the same building over a series of emails, but more often than not, a five minute conversation would have been quicker and more effective. Early on in my career, I had a mentor tell me that "there is no such thing as a bad phone call." He encouraged me to pick up the phone and talk to parents whenever possible, rather than email them about their kids. These face-to-face (or on the phone) conversations may be a way to deal with the daily tasks of leading a school, but they are essential to relationship building. 

The next step put forward in this week's readings is Leah Shafer's idea that culture is "not a hazy mass of intangibles, but [a] something that can be pinpointed and designed." She lists five interwoven elements of culture. 

In my own informal leadership roles, I have focused mostly on the first: "Fundamental beliefs and assumptions." It is my belief that in a school, we are there to help our students become the best versions of themselves. For me as an ELA teacher, this is demonstrated through my choices of literature. As an Indigenous Studies teacher it is shown through the honesty I show in my own reconcilation journey. As a local PD-chair, through my committment to connecting teachers to the PD they need to improve their own practice. It is in the day-to-day conversations with students in the hallways at break and it is every Friday, when my students leave the classroom with my advice to "make good choices."

It's a tough question, 'how do you come to know what you don't know'? But I think that's the start of it -- as Ted Lasso puts it, "be curious not judgemental" (S01, E08). Assume you don't know, but have a constant willingness to learn. 

References: 

Couros, G., & Apsey, A. (2024). What Makes a Great Principal: The Five Pillars of Effective School Leadership. Impress, LP.

Habegger, S. (2008, September/October). The principal’s role in successful schools: Creating a positive school culture. 

Martens, S. School Awards [Video]. Ambrose University Moodle course.

Shafer, L. (2018, July 23). What makes a good school culture? Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Wagner, K. (2016, November 28). A principal’s perspective: The importance of school culture. Edutopia.

Young, T. Get Informed Video Introduction. Ambrose University Moodle course.

In this week's readings, I found Robert Evans', "The Human Side of Change" resonated with me. The idea that a shift in culture needs to "enlist almost everyone" (211) is a tall order. Where I can apply this to my own informal leadership position would be as Indigenous Learning Lead. When I started supporting teachers in TQS 5, I knew there would be pushback and reluctance and wanted to go all in right away, to make people understand the importance of shifting their perspectives, teaching, etc. Even in developing an Indigenous Studies LDC and organizing events, I wanted to go big right from the start.

One of the lessons I learned from working with community members and elders, is patience. It takes time to build relationships and trust. It has taken years, but through intentional and incremental steps, I can see the shift in culture from where we were 5 years ago.

Considering myself as a leader and the position I would like to see myself in; how does this apply to this week's questions?

The position I am seeking is Summer School principal. This is a bit of a nebulous role as it is hands-on in the summer, but during the school year, everyone disperses back to their home schools. We only have a few meetings prior to the start of summer, but we do have a lot of returning staff.

So for me, the first step would be the why. What is the core purpose of the summer school program? How does that impact our delivery method (online, hybrid, and in-person)? What should are workspace look like? How do we support new teachers joining us, students with different needs, etc.?

If given the opportunity to lead Summer School, the biggest challenge would be this balance between the vision and the pragmatic. With only one or two prep days, staff wants to get into their Moodle courses and get to work, but what should those courses look like? What should assessments look like? These questions require a clear vision of our why.

The first step would be to decide what our 'preferred future' looks like. The Division has goals that they want Summer School to achieve and the future of the program needs to fit those needs, but within that framework, it is important that there is a collective vision of how to achieve our why.

Secondly, would be to enlist the long-term returning staff to re-think how we approach teaching and learning to push towards this vision. Do we need to update courses, shift assessments, reconfigure where we teach? If we were starting over, what would Summer School look like?

From there, the step-by-step of yearly start-up becomes a re-iteration of this vision, a consideration of what our day to day looks like given what our end goal is.

While this is still hypothetical, it begins to consider some of the challenges posed by Evans. It includes the voices of those who have invested time and effort into Summer School. It doesn't rush change, but gives time to step back and consider the needs of the students without isolating or overwhelming staff. It brings traditions established in Summer School forward with a consideration of what they mean to our sense of culture.

Leah Shafer’s article, “Building a Strong School Culture” outlines the steps to build and continue building a positive school culture. Considering these traits, there are two that stand out as being the most vital: intentionality and connection. 

Shafer states that “culture is connections”; that many opportunities to connect are needed to create a thriving culture (Shafer, 2018). When I first started in my school, I was a fairly new teacher, and the school was coming out of a number of years of fairly toxic leadership. There was a new board, a new division office team and they brought in a principal who was an expert in building culture. I was connected with a mentor teacher who could answer day-to-day questions about fire drills, dress code, and other procedural elements. But I was also given prep time at the same time as him, so he could work with me, to help me get up to speed on department norms: common texts, assessment strategies, etc. We prepped units together, benchmarked essays, and I was supported as I began contributing to the departments PLC goals. This was immensely effective in ensuring that the shared vision the school was working towards was communicated to me. 

At that time, the school also had a number of longstanding traditions – big school-wide events that celebrated students and brought people together: pep rallies, staff vs. student games against the various sports teams or intramural tournaments, talent show, and a fairly infamous staff Christmas party. He moved the staff room into a larger space and furnished it with comfortable seating and ping-pong table. For the 5 years he was at the school, a large majority of teachers ate lunch together and spent their prep time in the staff room. 

All of these initiatives did not happen by themselves. As a department, we didn’t release time to work collaboratively, because a common prep with a new teacher made that connection from the start. While we had monthly staff meetings and a weekly memo, they were largely redundant, because staff (and admin) were regularly having these conversations over lunch. And the connections being made with students through sports, music, and door decorating competitions encouraged a shared sense of celebrating who we were as a community. 

By intentionally designing small and large connections, the culture flourished. As I look towards my own vision of who I am as a leader. I think about the challenges of creating these connections. It is my goal to move into the Summer School principal position. When I filled this role as acting principal in 2021, we had just shifted from an in-person Summer School to completely online. We had a staff of eight teachers, a tutor, and only 200 students. While Summer School is still online, we do offer some in-person and hybrid programs. We have grown to around 600 students and around 15 teachers. But summer school teaching is very isolating. Teachers tend to tuck into their classrooms, run their online classes and meetings with little connection to other teachers. We will have a pizza lunch or a freezie day (budget dependant) that connects teachers and the few students in the building, but by and large there is little connection and the closest thing to a culture is the shared trauma of working in an over-air-conditioned school for the month of July.

I have thought a lot about how to intentionally create a space that encourages connection, that brings people into shared space. I know that right now in my classroom, a fresh pot of coffee every morning does wonders. I have an endless supply of tea, not because I buy it, but the students who use the kettle every day, replenish the supply. Last year, a colleague and I moved tables outside everyday at lunch and it only took a few lunches for people to start to gather. We brought a couple yard games and even though lunch time was short, this little act brought people together every day. 

As teachers and leaders we want to see results, but real change takes patience. What I have learned from the First Nations leaders that I’ve worked with is that patience is important. You plant seeds and create the right conditions, and in time, they will grow. People crave connections; it is who we are as people. My vision of who I would like to be as a school leader, is someone who removes the barriers to making these conditions. It is not necessarily a difficult task, but it is a disciplined task. 

Bryk, A. S. (2018, July 23). What makes a good school culture? Harvard Graduate School of Education – Usable Knowledge. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/18/07/what-makes-good-school-culture

Bryk, A. S. (2018, September 6). Building a strong school culture. Harvard Graduate School of Education – Usable Knowledge. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/18/09/building-strong-school-culture