The ABCs of Leadership

The Executive Learning Coaching journey has been a phenomenal experience for my leadership. It has allowed me to truly reflect on my vision for teaching and learning and outlined how I can support teachers in bringing learning to action within their classrooms. This journey has provided me with opportunities to use new tools, such as Pages, that I previously had no experience with. It has pushed my thinking and helped me identify ways that I can be a stronger instructional leader in my school. The three focus areas of culture, capacity, and vision were highlighted throughout my sessions as we launch into some big changes in my second year as a K-4 elementary principal. I’ve developed a goal for my teachers to explore ways in which technology can be used as a better resource within their classrooms in order to make thinking and learning more visible.

Through this process, I learned about the Learning Center and Community resources to find an A-Z book template. One of the changes we are making at my school is in adding a SWPBIS program, where we will teach students how to be a LANCER (our mascot). LANCER is an acronym for specific traits and expectations we will build into the daily routine of our students. As part of our opening PD in-service days, I will have teachers create a book using the LANCER acronym. They will follow the same process that I did to find the template and to create their own using some guidelines I have established. We will then turn this into a learning activity where they will use a “speed dating” process to meet with other teachers to share what they developed. It will provide a great opportunity for us to reflect on the summer, what’s important to us, while also looking forward towards a goal we have for the new year. The entire process will be modeled for them, where upon they will create one themselves, and then be tasked with providing some type of similar activity to their classes in the opening weeks of the new school year.

As this experience challenged me to be a better educator and leader for my staff and students, I desire to provide the same type of challenge to those I serve. We will utilize our technology vanguard to support and coach teachers through the process as we seek to use technology in more impactful ways throughout the coming school year.

Overall, I am thankful for the experience I’ve had with the ELC journey - it provided a meaningful impact on my growth and development.

#GeneralMcLane