In unit 1, I shared a decision I had made as a leader. My decision occurred when I was acting admin for 2 days in my school and I had to make a discipline decision. In this particular incidence, I do not feel I would’ve made my decision differently. My decision was based on school policy, written behaviour plans for this student as well as on the values of our school and school safety policies.
I have gained new insight throughout this course and might approach this situation differently. In my first post, I wrote about how my past experiences influenced my decisions. Now that I reflect on this decision, I realize that as difficult as it may be, it is important as a leader to not base your decision solely on past experience. In my situation, I was making a decision that was partly based on a students history. While this particular student has significant history, this may not be the case in all situations and as a leader, it is important to recognize that. People change and grow, and children do this at an incredibly fast pace. Some students may grow from year to year. Although I was confident that busier, less structured times of the school year are stressful for this student, he was also a year older and there is a chance that I could’ve been wrong in making the assumption that the more chaotic times in the school year are stressful for him. This is something that I always tried to be mindful of when I taught this student. Each day is a new day, a chance to start fresh, without the influence of yesterday affecting how I treat my students today. Although a leader may be influenced by past experiences, a leader should base their decision on current and present findings and facts, and not solely on past experiences. A leader that is basing decisions on past experience, is allowing their individual bias to influence their decision and may have a negative influence on the decision. It is important to evaluate all viewpoints and to carefully examine the viewpoints of all who will be affected by the decision. Past experiences may influence decisions of a leader, but not be the only factor in decision making.
After taking this course, I believe that this specific situation could be turned into an action research project. For years, this student has struggled in our school system. Nothing has worked and neither the teachers, administrators or student have experienced many moments of success. We have a team of 6 adults trying to come up with ideas and implement them, only to find out that they too, do not work. This student has now been expelled from the school and is not allowed at the other school in my town. I do not believe for a second that we haven’t exhausted as many possibilities as we were capable of, however, maybe through a structured action research project, with additional research and data to support the situation, we may have been able to come up with something else to implement for this student.
In conclusion, I believe that this course has provided me with tools and insights that I need in order to be a more effective leader.
Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. -Anthony J. D'Angelo. A TWU Digital Learning Commons site