Farrow Reflective Paper

Ed.S Reflective Paper

Jasmine Farrow
EDAS 5810
17 July 2015

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Over the last eighteen months I have grown as a teacher, leader, and aspiring
administrator. The Ed.S program and all of its components have provided me with numerous
opportunities to demonstrate my leadership abilities as well as reflect on how I can become a
better and more effective educational practitioner. While preparing for this paper, I realized that
the number of lessons and A-Ha moments Ive had while in the program were seemingly
countless. Since I have to narrow it down to the most important conclusions Ive drawn I will say
those were: be flexible, collaborate and delegate, build positive relationships, and document
everything. These 4 things are important in both my roles as a teacher and a leader. As I continue
to improve in these four areas, I know that I will continue to build upon my foundation as a
leader and future administrator.
BE FLEXIBLE
When I think about being flexible, I think about situational leadership. Gorton and Alston
(2009) state that, The situational theory of leadership maintains that no particular style of
leadership or personal qualities of a leader is appropriate for every situation. The theory places a
high premium on the administrators adaptability and flexibility (p.13). During my time as a
school leader, I have been presented with many situations where being flexible was a must. As
principal designee I had to be flexible and adapt when there were no administrators in the
building and a classroom had a fire. After realizing the severity of the situation, I had to shift my
focus from the safety of my 19 students, to the safety and evacuation procedures of the entire
building. I had to think quickly, make sure the proper authorities had been notified, and make
sure that there were no students or adults left in the building. On another occasion as grade level
chair and a mentor, I had to adapt and change my way of thinking and assisting when I was faced
with interacting with a difficult mentee. This past school year, I had 2 teacher mentees. One of

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which was easy to work with and one who was the complete opposite. Working with a new
teacher with such a negative outlook on the profession was very new to me. In my past
experiences, the new teachers Ive worked with have been extremely eager and excited to learn
and improve. When dealing with the not so pleasant mentee, I had to adapt to her attitude and
communication style and make sure that I remained pleasant and helpful in spite of the hostile
environment she often created.
I also learned that you have to be flexible even when youve prepared and planned. At
the end of the school year, Id planned an end of the year celebration for the participants of the
new teacher mentoring program in which I lead. Id checked 1 month in an advance and secured
a location. I even checked on the room the day of the event and everything seemed to be in order.
As I prepared to set up for the event, I was told that the room was being used for 5th grade
graduation practice and had been reserved after school for chorus practice. At that moment I had
45 minutes to find another location and set it up before the teachers began to arrive. I had to
adapt to new and unforeseen circumstances and try not to let my frustrations with the
miscommunication and last minute changes affect my mood or my obligation to facilitate what
was planned for the mentoring program.
Success as an appointed leader will greatly depend on the extent to which a principal
possesses or develops the attitudes, skills, and approaches necessary to respond adequately to
new circumstances (Gorton & Alston, 2009, p.13). Ive learned that change in the teaching
profession is definitely inevitable. Whether its a new set of standards, a new text book adoption,
or a new and improved teaching strategy, nothing is ever constant in this field. Along with that
Ive learned that with all of the changes within the profession come changes to leaders and
administrators leadership styles too. As a teacher leader and future administrator I have to be

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prepared to lead in whatever type of situation or climate I am presented with. Emergencies,

schedule changes, bad attitudes, and a host of other things are all a part of the package, it is my
responsibility to be able to adapt, be flexible and handle those situations effectively.
COLLABORATE AND DELEGATE:
The goal for the administrator should be to involve people in the process of decision
making when their involvement could improve the quality, acceptance, or implementation of the
decision, and when the involvement is based on peoples desired level of involvement (Gorton
& Alston, 2009, p.48). I am very good at meeting with groups of teachers, including them in the
decision making process, creating a plan, and executing the plan. I have been given many
opportunities to collaborate with other teachers and plan professional development sessions and
other school related events. Faculty meetings provide a natural context for collaboration to
occur. Look for ways to ease into using the meetings as an invitation to learn (Robbins & Alvy,
2004, p.82). Throughout the school year, I have used our faculty meetings to present different
types of information to the staff after collaborating and planning with various individuals. I
worked with our math coach on 2 occasions to present information on Number Talks and Carol
Dwecks Growth/ Fixed Mindset to the staff. We worked together to review and select resources,
plan activities, create handouts, and facilitate the meetings. I really enjoyed working with her
because we had a similar planning and professional development style. As a member of the
leadership team, I worked with other members of the team to plan and facilitate our schools
faculty meeting/book club on the 5 Love Languages of the Workplace (Chapman, 2011). Three of
us met to brainstorm and create activities that highlighted the main parts of the book and we
worked as a team to facilitate the meeting. Collaboration has many benefits including creating
shared educational goals and developing a community sense of belonging (Loop, 2015, p.3).

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I believe that one of my strengths is collaboration. I involve others during the brainstorming and
planning stages of events because I understand the importance and power in sharing ideas with
other professionals.
When it comes to delegating Ive found myself in situations where I wanted to do
everything or the majority of tasks myself because of fear that someone might mess something
up. When I conducted my first book club meeting of the school year on The 5 Dysfunctions of a
Team (Lencioni, 2002), I had a wonderful plan in mind. Because I thought it was so wonderful I
that decided not to ask for any help because I wanted my vision to be perfectly planned and
executed. I learned the hard way that working alone on a big task is hard, frustrating, and time
consuming. Delegation is one of the most important management skills for leaders, it shows you
trust your people and when you trust others, they tend to trust you (Why Should Leaders
Delegate? 2015, p .1). Upon reflecting after the book club, I realized that it was a lack of trust in
the ability of others to complete tasks to my satisfaction that was keeping me from delegating
tasks. As a leader, I have to be attentive to teachers strengths and use that knowledge to select
tasks for them to complete. It is not a healthy practice to overload myself because of fear, nor is
it fair to exclude teachers from using their talents. As I continue to plan more professional
development sessions and other activities, I will be sure to include teachers and allow them to
use their strengths to assist me.
BUILD POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS:
Meaningful and quality human relationships are key to any successful organization
(Robbins & Alvy, 2004, p. 59). I have had many opportunities to build relationships with
teachers both on and off campus. As the numeracy support staff member, I was able to build
relationships with teachers from all over Hamilton County during our monthly meetings. As a

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member of the leadership team, I was able to build relationships with teachers from other grade
levels and content areas. As the chair of the new teacher mentoring program I was able to build
great relationships with our new teachers as well as the teachers who volunteered to be their
mentors. As a mentor, I was able to build relationships with my mentees. As grade level chair I
was able to build relationships with each of my teammates that extended beyond the classroom.
I believe that taking time to build relationships helped me be a better teacher, mentor, and
colleague and I also believe that it greatly influenced the level of trust that I had with each of
those groups of people. Last year, my mentee received an unsatisfactory summative evaluation.
Because wed worked so closely throughout the year and Id proven to her that I was there to
help, she confided in me about her evaluation and asked for my assistance in appealing it. We
worked for several days collecting documentation and artifacts that would show that she had
implemented things throughout the year that showed that she was working hard and was an
effective teacher. I motivated her and encouraged her to go through with her appeal when she
decided it wasnt worth the risk. She went through with it and her evaluation was changed to
effective. She did not share that information or experience with anyone else, she felt comfortable
coming to me because of the relationship wed built. Another situation that arose this year in
which I felt I was able to handle because of relationships Id built was mediating a conflict
among 3 teachers on my team. Because Id built individual relationships with each of them, they
felt comfortable talking to me about their issues and agreed to sit down with each other with me
as the mediator in an effort to solve their issue. I believe that if I had not built positive
relationships with them they would not have been comfortable sharing their issues with me nor
would they have trusted me to be a fair mediator. Being trustworthy, approachable, and fair are
all characteristics that I will continue to build on as a leader so that I can continue to build

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relationships and gain the trust of others in order to effectively support them.
DOCUMENT EVERYTHING:
The administrator should keep written and dated documentation (Gorton & Alston,
2009, p.75). During my time in the Ed.S program I heard the phrase Document everything
repeatedly in almost every class, especially in Advocacy and Ethics. As a current classroom
teacher, documentation is stressed when it comes to RTI, lesson plans, and parent
communication. As a teacher leader, I have learned that there are many other instances when you
should keep a running record of documentation. While writing one of my reflections, I realized
that I did not do an effective job of keeping record of all of the activities and paperwork involved
with the new teacher mentoring program. In the beginning, I was doing a good job of keeping all
important documents pertaining to the program in a folder, but as the year progressed it became
less and less of a priority. I realized the importance and necessity of keeping documentation
while I was planning for the mentoring program for the upcoming year. As I sat with my co-chair
we had to sort through numerous emails and rely on our memory of what took place to create a
list of activities of what was done this past year. If I wouldve continued with my collection of
documentation, it wouldve been easy to skim through the notebook to see what wed
accomplished. Not keeping documentation can be also dangerous. If my administrator wouldve
asked for evidence of what was done for the new teachers this year, I wouldnt have been able to
provide him with much. As a leader, I must keep documentation to prove that I have been doing
my job, as a reflection tool, and as an evaluation tool to improve programs. I have already
prepared to be a better documenter by purchasing a thumb drive that is specifically for my
leadership responsibilities such as math committee and new teacher mentoring program chair and
leadership team member. I have also set a personal goal to create a 3 ring notebook for each of

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my leadership roles and keep all important information in them. I have asked the co-chair of the
mentoring program to assist me in this area.
CONCLUSION
From my educational journey through the Ed.S program and my personal leadership
experiences I have drawn this conclusion, an effective leader is one who is flexible and can adapt
to situations when they arise, collaborates with a variety of stakeholders and delegates tasks,
builds strong relationships, and keeps thorough documentation. I believe that there are other
important characteristics for a good administrator to have, but I believe that these four
encompass a lot of those other traits. As an administrator, if you are flexible then you have the
ability to look at the big picture, assess situations, and exhibit the type of leadership style that is
necessary for a particular situation. If you are an effective collaborator, then you are getting input
from various stakeholders, being a good listener, and valuing the input of others. These things
will help you build trust with your teachers as well as make you an approachable administrator
that people feel comfortable communicating with. Being an effective collaborator will also create
avenues for you to build positive relationships. If you have positive relationships and
communicate effectively, you will be more likely to be successful during the change process
because people will trust and value your vision because they were a part of the decision making.
An effective leader documents everything in order to stay organized and informed of progress
and effectiveness of programs and practices. Keeping documentation is also your safeguard when
meeting with staff, central office, or if a problem arises.
I have learned that it is my responsibility to be reflective and continuously work to
improve my craft. I am looking forward to new leadership journeys in which I can use the
lessons Ive learned in this program and through my field experience to be more effective,

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organized, and open to assistance. Although the majority of my leadership activities were
interactions with adults, I now have a deeper understanding of a phrase that my principal says
almost daily, We have to do whats best for kids. At the end of the day, everything Ive done in
this program had a direct impact on student learning. Working with new teachers and being a
mentor was helping to prepare teachers to be more effective in their classroom, facilitating
professional development during faculty meetings helped equipped teachers with best practices
and teaching tools to improve instruction, being the numeracy support staff member helped me
deepen my math content so I could be a better math teacher, and the list goes on. All
characteristics of a great administrator point back to that person being able to equip teachers and
staff members with what they need to positively impact the lives of students. It is my hope that as
I continue on my leadership journey, that what I do impacts everyone in my building, especially
the students.

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References
Chapman, G., & White, P. (2011). The 5 languages of appreciation in the workplace:
Empowering organizations by encouraging people. Chicago: Northfield Pub.
Gorton, R., & Alston, J. (2009). School Leadership and Administration: Important concepts,
case studies, and simulations (8th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw Hill.
.
Lencioni, P., & Okabayashi, K. (2008). The five dysfunctions of a team (Manga edition) an
illustrated leadership fable (Manga ed.). Singapore: Jossey-Bass.
Loop, E. (2015, March 17). The advantages of collaboration in education. Retrieved June 30,
2015, from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/advantages-collaboration-education19763.html
Robbins, P. & Alvy, H.B. (2004). The new principals fieldbook: Strategies for success.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD
Why should leaders delegate? (2015, May 15). Retrieved June 30, 2015, from
http://leadertoday.org/faq/skillsdelegate.htm