Dr. Boone, Campus Leadership

7:40

Distributive leadership - leadership is not hierarchical, pyrmid form but a shared activity. Leaders emerge naturally and are utilized.

It does not happen naturally or by osmosis.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:40

7:44

The Learning Organization - Peter Senge - Fifth Discipline

Organizations have the ability to adapt to changing new environments.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:44

7:45

The Fifth Discipline brings word of "learning organizations," organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. Five disciplines are described as the means of building learning organizations. Case studies are provided to show how the disciplines have worked in particular companies.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:45

7:46

http://www.rtis.com/nat/user/jfullerton/review/learning.htm

Monday July 28, 2008 7:46

7:48

I am my position. Identity is tied up to what they do in the organization. Over time peopein organizations develop intense id. with their position -- who they are is what they are in the organization. Myopic environment.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:48

7:50

The enemy is out there. When we think of who we are as the position we hold or the job we do, then when things go wrong we imagine that someone out there "screwed up." It becomes natural to think of people ouside th organization as "enemies."

Deficit perspective in schools is an example.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:50

7:51

Anyone else reading here? If you are, post a commennt so I can add you to the notges.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:51

7:52

The illusion of taking charge. If we believe that the enemy is "out there," pro-activeness becomes reactive with the gauge turned up 500%. Thue proactiveness comes from seeing how our own actions contribute to our problems.
Circle the wagons.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:52

7:54

"Flotations" are events. We are conditioned to see life as a series of events and for every event, we think that there is one obvious cause. The irony is that hte primary threats to our survival come not from events but from slow, gradual processes.

The threat to the survial of organization is not from a single event but rather a series of small events over a long period of time.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:54

7:55

If this decline is slow and gradual, then the solution is also within the organization.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:55

7:57

The parable of the boiled frog. We are very good at reacting to sudden threats to our survival, but we are very poor at recognizing gradual threats. This is analogous to the frog who will sit in a pot of water and let itself be gradually be boiled to death.

Slow, gradual threat identification is tough.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:57

7:59

The delusion of learning from experience. We learn best from experience -- from trial and error -- but we never experience the results of our most important decisions. The most critical decisions made in organizations have system-wide consequences that stretch our over years or decades.

The impacts of decisions will not occur for several years.

Monday July 28, 2008 7:59

8:00

How do you do this is an environment of high-stakes testing?

Keep chipping away, keep pounding and stay focused.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:00

8:05

Kirby Decision - 1989 - Funding is on the 85% of the districts are funded equally.

Per pupil funding

Texas is probably the most equitable per student in the union.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:05

8:06

1972 - spending per pupil ranged from $1500 to $9000.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:06

8:07

Senate BIll 1 was the final bill in the spending per pupil.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:07

8:07

Facility support did not come into the picture until the late 90's.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:07

8:09

Title 1 funding - How much money goes into the school? Title 1 is federal money that is passed thru the state to the local district. It is based on free and reduced lunch and the number of students.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:09

8:12

$1.50 per $100 value per assessed value. Tax rate.

Compress the maximum allowable rate - went to $1.00 in 2007.

Assumption was that new money would come from increase in house property values.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:12

8:12

Three levels of lies
White Lies
Damn Lies
and Statistics.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:12

8:16

The myth of the management team.
Most teams operate below the level of the lowest IQ in the group. The result is "skilled incompetence," -- teams of people who are proficient at keeping themselves from learning.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:16

8:17

Building the Learning Organization

Learning organizations are built trhough the expertise within.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:17

8:18

Building share vision is the practice of unearthing shared "pictures of the future," that foster genuine commitment.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:18

8:20

Personal mastery is the skill of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:20

8:20

Skill of constantly reviewing our own personal vision

Monday July 28, 2008 8:20

8:21

Mental models are the ability to discover our own internal pictures of the world, to scrutinize them, and to make them open to teh influence of others.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:21

8:24

Team learning is the capacity to "think together" which is gained by mastering the practice of dialog and discussion.

Dialogue and discussion for creating change.

Conflict will generate conflict.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:24

8:24

Conflict is the DNA of an organization. It is built in.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:24

8:26

Systems thinking is the discipline that integrates the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:26

8:28

A system is an entity of interrelated, interactive and integrated parts. Systems theory comes from Biology.

Most plan and animal life are part of a system - Eco system.

Transferred to organizations in the early 80's

Organizations are a series of subsystems and that they interact with each other. You cannot change one system without affecting the other systems.

Entropy -

Monday July 28, 2008 8:28

8:29

Equilibrium is the opposite of entropy.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:29

8:31

A system based on equilibrium is takes feedback into consideration.

A school does not exist as its own system. It is part of a series of system. Since the school is a subsystem, it must pay attention to the larger system. It must seek data and information from outside continually and constantly.

The school is not immune to the larger system. You either adapt to the changes in the system or you die.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:31

8:32

Process inputs and create outputs.
The schools output is the students.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:32

8:32

Leaders must keep in constant contact with the larger system.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:32

8:34

Three nested systems ...

Classrooms [teachers, studens, parents]

School [superintendents, principals, board members]

Community [complexity, interactions, leverage]

Monday July 28, 2008 8:34

8:35

Why is this important?

School reform has been systemic. Change the system from the outside in.

It has not been successful for a number of reason. School climates tend to be very resistant to change.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:35

8:35

New approach is to work from within. Change the classroom which will influence the larger system.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:35

8:37

Change when you change any single part, eventually the impact will reach to the other systems within the organization

Monday July 28, 2008 8:37

8:38

Core concepts of learning organizations

Every organization is a product of how its members think and interact.

Learning is a connection.

Learning is driven by vision.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:38

8:41

[Image]

vision.jpg View

Monday July 28, 2008 8:41

8:47

Schooling is a very conservative activity by its very nature.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:47

8:47

The primary role is to pass the culture of that society onto the next generation.

Monday July 28, 2008 8:47

8:49

[Be Right Back Countdown]

10 minutes

Monday July 28, 2008 8:49

9:13

Donaldson - Cultivating Leadership in Schools

Monday July 28, 2008 9:13

9:14

Donaldson emphasisizes the need for developing and nurturing teacher leaders.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:14

9:15

Two kinds of leaders

Formal - dept. chairs, team leaders, curriculum specialists, some teaching duties but formal responsibilities outside the classroom

Informal - expertise, ability to help and nurture others, prestige, other factors, person who do not hold formal leadership responsibilities.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:15

9:17

Two parallel organizations -
formal and informal

Leaders in the formal organization are selected based on representativeness of what the organization values.

Informal on prestige and respect.

Every school has both.

The informal can be positive or negative.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:17

9:18

Who leads the informal group?

Who would you go to if you sought advice, without going to the Principal? This person is the leader of the informal organization.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:18

9:46

Chapter 8 Leaders put relationships at the center

Foster connections - maximizing opportunties for staff to come together.
P 129 -130. Create space and scheduling for collaboration.

Proximics - science of how physical strtuctures of the facility effects learning.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:46

9:48

Honest staff feelings about their work --
behaviors and feelings of staff - recognize your staff, know your staff, you do not have to know them intimately.
Look, observe and become sensitive to others.
Know your staff but do not cross the line.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:48

9:50

Clarifying roles and redefining roles

Balance and define roles - allow choice but also assign roles. Having conversations.
Putting teachers in roles that will stretch them.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:50

9:56

What skils, talents and qualities do leaders need to practice these activities?

Interpersonal skills
encourage growth by others.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:56

9:57

Chapter 9 Leaders face challenge and renew commitment.

Monday July 28, 2008 9:57

9:57

What do leaders do to help colleagues face the essential challenges of school reform?

Monday July 28, 2008 9:57

9:57

Take responsiblity

Monday July 28, 2008 9:57

9:58

Out of sync with the surroundings - social trends, political trends, get out and observe, understand the roles

Monday July 28, 2008 9:58

10:00

Be well read, find out what is going on in society.

ID a couple of journals that you can rely on to get information

Find a popular one as well,

NASSP - practice
TEPSSA Journal - good one.

Read the newspaper. One metropolitan daily. Find out what is going on in the world.

Monday July 28, 2008 10:00

10:01

Cultivate sources.

Monday July 28, 2008 10:01

10:01

Getting on the balcony - Change your point of view.

Get distance from the action to see the bigger picture.

Monday July 28, 2008 10:01

10:05

Tradition of avoidance
not taking responsibility for bigger picture.
performance falls out of character with the schools purpose.

Monday July 28, 2008 10:05

10:05

analogous to blaming other people, not recognizing that you are part of the problem.