527 Weekly Blog 6

With the conclusion of our class I am much more aware of what it means to be a leader. I am also much more aware of the process of making change within my school. In the past I have often been frustrated why change did not occur more frequently or often in the districts that I have taught in in the past. Now having played the "Change Game" I am much more aware of the process through which change should occur. On Friday in my district we had an RTI speaker on how we were going to implement RTI change in our school. There were several times when I smiled to myself as our district seemed to be following the same steps we took in our change game. Another concept that I will take away from the class is the importance of getting people involved in the change process. As we painfully discovered in our group during the change game you will never get everyone on board and spending an exorbitant amount of time trying to get every last person on board can be counter productive. Finally, I want to comment on our last class and the 2 million minutes. I thought that was really cool and sparked some great discussion. It will be interesting which direction we will go as country when it comes to how hard we want to push our math and sciences.

527 Week 5 Blog

I wanted to take some time on my blog to comment on the change game we played last week. I enjoyed the game and learned some things from the experience of playing the game. First, I will take away the idea of getting people on board with change first. As a team we kept trying to design the change we wanted before we had the support of the the majority of the people in the school. Once we had most every ones support the change was much easier to implement. I will also take away the idea that not everyone needs to be on board for effective change to occur. I was guilty of this in my group as I kept trying to get Pat, Irene, Wilma (I think those were the reluctant three) to buy into our change. When we had extra money at the end of the year or if we wanted to make a quick move we would spend money trying to get those three on board. All of this was to no avail and eventually I think just through assimilation they were able to move into the the next phase. Finally, I want to talk about the monetary aspect of the game. The idea of using money or loosing it was foreign to our group. We are all used to getting the money back that you don't spend. So each year we spent more money then the previous year. In conclusion I thought this was a great game and enjoyed playing it.

527 Week 4 Blog

This past week was interesting as we discussed Who Moved the Cheese. I had read the book over the summer for my own enjoyment. While I thought the book on the whole had some good points I felt that I did not get as much out of it as I have on some other readings. However, I guess the thing that stuck out most for me was the need for change in all areas. I have been told the only constant in life besides death and taxes is change. Therefore I feel it is important on both a personal and professional level to embrace change and to not fear change. If you never change as we saw in Who Moved the Cheese or if you stay in the same place the proverbial cheese will eventually move. We then have basically two choices: we can let it go and sulk about it, or we can go after the changes/cheese. I am not sure why so many people are reluctant to change. I have been told we are creatures of habit, but it seems to me on personal level I have experienced the greatest transformation in my own life when I embrace change. On a personal level the greatest changed I embraced was to move from Minnesota to Hawaii. The experience could not have been eclipsed in my wildest dreams. So to take a personal point of view and turn it into a professional view I feel that I am more reluctant to change in my professional career then in my personal life. In reflecting on this I think it has to do with job security. As we all know these are tough economic times and nobody wants to "rock the boat" with change in their districts for fear of potentially alienating themselves.

527 Week #3

I have really enjoyed all of the discussions and the two videos this week. I think they brought up some important ideas and philosophies. I really like the idea of viewing our schools as a system ultimately within a system . It seems so much of what we do in our schools is compartmentalized. The issue of compartmentalization is something our department is dealing with right now. There are differing views between the regular education teachers and special education teachers in the amount and type of modifications that students need and are receiving. Neither one of the two sides see themselves as working together in a system but rather as an isolated unit geared solely for student success. To break this issue down more simply the question is how do modifications help special education students function in the system of our school? More importantly how will these modifications affect the students success once outside the shelter of the school environment? To answer these questions effectively one must consider what the students plan on doing after graduation. If they plan on going to college at a competitive four year school then the modifications should be geared to help them have the most success in that environment/system. If they plan on going to a trade school or Tec College then the modification should be designed for that type of system. I really like the idea of viewing things as a system in which we are only on small part. I give each of my students one of my favorite quotes on my syllabus regarding systems. The quote comes from Joseph Campbell and is as follows: "Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?"

527 Week #2

I have thought a great deal about leadership this past week, and what my style of leadership seems to be. I have also thought a great deal about how I like to be led and what traits I look for in a leader. So to begin I feel most confident leading in areas that I feel most comfortable. I have had many leadership opportunities in my life and the ones that I felt I excelled most in all took place in the outdoors. Having been both a wilderness canoe guide, and a kayaker who took Japanese tourists to swim with dolphins I found these two leadership opportunities the most challenging in regards to my leadership, and the most rewarding. When dealing with peoples safety and well being in a strange environment the will immediately look to you for leadership. Therefore it was paramount to have confidence in my work and my decision making abilities. This made my decision making process much easier as people were unable to second guess my decisions as they knew nothing about the environment they were in. Thankfully I always errored on the side of caution and all of my groups had safe trips into the wilderness. On the flip side I look for qualities in a leader who does not get rattled when things become stressful. I like a leader who is confident in their abilities to make decisions and then to stand by those decisions. Finally, I like leaders who are respectful of my time. Our current department head is great with this as he will only call department meetings when necessary and not simply call meetings for the sake of meeting.