Looking Back, Looking Ahead:

Remembering

As I reflect on the spring term, I am stunned by the amount of information that has been exchanged within our class. We have learned from our professor (Dr. Hilary Brown), each other, and ourselves.  I have learned to reflect openly and much more honestly and to cut the system a little slack.

So, what is it that I want to say about the learning through this personal project (5 blogs and a summary blog)?  I'm still not sure.  The most surprising thing for me is "I'm not sure" is not sending me into a frenzy of anxiety.  I sit with my computer on my lap doing exactly what I ask my art students to do -- just get started and see where the activity takes you.

I value learning -- you would hope this is true as I am in a Masters of Education program -- and believe that each new experience is a building block for the person I will become.  So how has the learning in this course been different?

The learning was my own.  I didn't need to take responsibility for it; I was invited to learn and given the responsibility to direct it myself.  This reads as simple comparison, but the two statements are separated by a deep chasm.  If I am directed to take responsibility, then it is a job, a must do, a requirement for course completion.  If I am invited in and given a responsibility it is mine to own and complete.  If I am the director of the learning, it can go where ever I need it to go.

The learning has done just that.  It has been a journey of many side streets, some interesting, some horrifying, some deeply moving, and some needing to be saved for another visit.  At times, it was a visit to a special friend where secrets could be shared, examined, cried over, then laughed about.  At other times, the learning dropped at a movie theatre and forced me to watch myself as a teacher filled with weakness and strengths.  My favourite destination was the haunted house.  There I learned about the strength of fear and adversity, and having survived the terror, I again emerged ready to strike out on the next adventure.

As my metaphor of a journey continues, so too my learning progresses.  I want to be able to wrap it up in a succinct summary statement and to provide a tonne of professional references to back it up, but that doesn't feel right.

Learning to be invitational and holistic in my teaching requires me to become these things in all areas of my life.  Coming into this class about invitational and holistic learning theories, I was expecting to get a list of things to do and be as I went about my daily teaching.  So here is what I truly learned: 

• I will never be finished with my learning, my practice will always be evolving, and I will never be the expert teacher I imagined myself becoming.
• The above statement is not an admission of defeat or failure.  It is a simple truth and one that I am now ready to accept.
• There is no magic panacea or formula to guarantee success.
• I am valuable for the teacher I am now, but I am worth the work needed to become the teacher I envision (even though the vision with change with time).
• I need to return to story and to the love of story telling and story listening.
• If I remain purposeful and intentional as I take invitational and holistic theories into my daily life, they will spread gracefully into my teaching practices and into all of my relationships and dealings with people.
• My mantra since 1993 has been 

"Life is not being; it is a becoming." (anonymous)

and now I add

"Embrace the mistake; Follow it's lead." (me during a class activity -- write a six word memoir)

I finish this summary, by saying that finding my own articles to read and share was the best way to discover the basics of invitational and holistic theories and to explore how they may fit into my own practices.  The blog allowed me to drift through my thinking and learning.  The personal project challenged to me examine my thinking in a different mode and to push through my comfort zone to create the following:

I am tempted to go back through this blog and format with headings, and but in information that requires academic citing,  but I am going to leave it as it stands.  I am leaving it because as it is best reflects how raw and fragile my learning still is.  I am only just beginning to develop my skills and understanding in this area, but the journey and the learning will continue.

Thank you Hilary!

Judy  

Take a Side Street Along the Journey

The greatest treasures can be found there.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/images/stories/large/
2011/07/21/graffiti1311277644.jpg

Today, I sat through a class of presentations all centred around Invitational and Holistic Learning Theories.  Each one was so uniquely different that, rather than being bored by the rehashing of each theory, I found insights into the people behind the presentations and nuggets of gold to carry with me on my journey.  

                                                                                                                                                              One of the presentations presented the importance of story and the need for teachers and administrators to take the time to learn about a student's story. I drove home reminiscing on a drama class I took 20 years ago.  It was called the art of storytelling.  We learnt about the craft of storytelling and shared personal and creative stories.  I remember commenting about how exhausted I felt after 3 hours of just listening.  It wasn't that the time went slowly; on the contrary the time flew by.  It was the emotional investment of the storytellers and the listeners.  Each story was worth listening to and each listener poured as much of their heart into the listening as the storyteller did into the telling.

I also made a connection to a blog that I came in contact with about a year ago.  I had not thought about it until today, yet when I first encountered it, I was determined to follow it faithfully.  The blog was introduced to me during an innovative assessment course at Brock University.  Professor Susan Drake presented the blog Pair a Dimes by David Truss as quality educational blogging.

Truss writes about the stories of a history professor that touched his learning and his life and describes 6 ingredients that are central to the art of storytelling.  I will quote the 6 ingredients later.  

I would like to offer a connection to the learning journey I am on.  If story is important to connecting with others, and if we all have a story to tell, why do we, as educators, often stifle our story behind, beneath, and within curriculum.  Why can't our (students and teachers) stories be a means to explore and uncover the meanings within the curriculum?  I think that the art of crafting a good story can be applied to the crafting of a culture of invitation and a holistic pedagogy. 

Let us begin with the 6 Key Ingredients to the Art of Storytelling by David Truss.

Purpose or Meaning;  Cantor; Weaving; Relevance; Serendipity; Authenticity

Then, let's take a look at what they mean to storytelling and to Invitational and Holistic learning.

Key Ingredient	Storytelling (quoted from http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/6-key-ingredients-to-the-art-of-storytelling/)	Invitational & Holistic
Purpose Meaning	Be it to share laughter, joy, or to deliver a lesson, the journey needs an ending that satisfies a simple question:  Why was this story told?	Be it to get to know a little more about a student, to share a smile, ease a hurt or teach a lesson, the conversation or question needs as ending that satisfies the simple question:  Why was this story shared?
Cantor	This varies considerably, with some storytellers streaming ideas like periodless poems, while others can captivatingly hold a pause much longer than would normally be comfortable in a conversation.  There isn’t so much a ‘right’ cantor as much as a practised art of delivery.	This varies considerably with each situation and each student as well as with each teacher and purpose.  Silence can be powerful.  There isn’t so much a ‘right’ cantor as much as a practised art of respectful interaction.
Weaving	‘Seamlessly’ connecting what would otherwise be unconnected ideas.  Touching upon subtle points or thoughts that seem unnecessary right up until they are relevant.  Foreshadowing is a well used form of this, but not the only form.  Like a weaver would return to the use of a previous pattern or colour, or in my attempt right now to return to the very metaphor I used to describe this section.	A teachable moment!  It is an art to recognise that moment, embrace it, use it, refer back to it, and yes, weave it into the fabric of relationships, the classroom, the lesson, and even the curriculum.
Relevance	Sometimes ‘the devil is in the details’, and going into minute details or overly descriptive information adds value to the story.  Other times the details are just a distraction.  Does the story need a detailed setting, or can the setting be minimalist?  Also, digression into the side-story is meaningfully weaved into the stitching of the story’s purpose.	Sometimes the details keep us from experiencing the whole canvas, but sometimes they are needed to lay the foundation of the building.  Digression can be the means to unearthing the true motivation, interests, worries, and fears of our students and ourselves.
Serendipity	[H]appenstance connections, chance meetings, accidental or incidental luck.  This can produce the ‘problem’ or the reason for the story, or it can help with the solution.  I read somewhere that in creating a story, it is ok to let chance get the protagonist into trouble, but chance as a way out of trouble is cheating.  That may be true for a murder mystery, or an action film, but I don’t think that applies in telling true stories.	I believe that we need a vision within our teaching and a purposeful implementation of pedagogy towards creating that vision.  But . . . We must also be purposeful in looking for the happenstance along the way:  the unexpected spark of an idea, the joy on a child’s face, the touching of a heart, the standing in the silence of awe, the sharing of ourselves, the teachings from a student must all be looked for and savoured for their spontaneity.
Authenticity	Delivery of a story, (enthusiasm, tone, emphasis, pitch, expression, humour, etc.), can excite an audience or turn an audience off.  I’ve heard incredible stories that lost credibility and authenticity not because of what was said, but rather how it was said.  I’ve also sat riveted to the words of a simple story well told.	We must teach from our hearts, and we must allow our students to learn with theirs.  If we aren’t authentic within out teaching, how can we expected learners to be authentic in their learning?

I leave you with an image of one of the most surprising places I have ever visited.  The side streets not only lead you to interesting doorways with welcoming faces behind, but they can lead you further up the side of the mountain or deeper within the walls of the canyon.  In either direction, each corner unmasks a treasure of sight and sound that you simply want to share.

Ma'allula, Syria

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/62795087.jpg

What are your stories?  Who have you shared them with lately?  What stories have you heard that have changed you?

I hope you share a few with me.

Judy

What Does It Mean To Be Mindfully Aware?

What Does It Mean To Be Mindfully Aware?

Now that the apologies are made, and I have made an agreement with myself to be forgiving of my mistakes and weaknesses, what comes next?

I need a better understanding of what Kathryn Byrnes (2012) calls mindful awareness.  I first turned towards research papers for connections to education, thinking that I would arrive at an understanding through professional applications.  There was a lot of information, but most of it was given as background to why a particular research focus was chosen.  I quickly realized that I needed a more grassroots approach.  I turned to the internet and a Google search of "mindful awareness".  

I found myself in the realm of on-line magazines and self-help blogs.  There I discovered the following recurring words and phrases:  centered, whole being, meditation, spiritual, Yoga, change, transformation, calming, breathing, and being in the moment. I became a little concerned that this path of inquiry might take me into the realm of Eastern Philosophy and a great deal of reading before I could begin.  

Just as I was becoming frustrated with the amount of material available and the task of weeding through it for a way to begin I found a Website called Mindful: Taking Time for What Matters 

In an article titled 5 Steps to Mindfulness meditation master Thich Nhat Hanh is quoted: “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.” The article describes mindfulness as stopping in the present to appreciate what is happening right now.  It encourages the reader to examine the environment, conversation, activity, and relationships that are taking place at the moment.  The article offers the following steps to initiate mindfulness:

1. Mindful Breathing:  As you breathe in  you name the in take of breath as your "in-breath".  As you breathe out you name the exhalation as your "out-breath".  This focuses your mind on the act of breathing and allows it to recognize the importance and reality of simply breathing.
2. Concentration:  As you are mindful of each breath in and out, you focus on the flow of the breath into the lungs and through the body.  As you follow the path of the breath in and out, you are developing concentration that is centered in the moment.
3. Awareness of your body:  In this exercise, as you breathe in you say "I am aware of my body."  As you breathe out, you repeat "I am aware of my body."  The goal behind this exercise is to join the body and the mind in the same moment.  Your focus is on the actions and reactions of the body as each breath is drawn in and exhaled.
4. Releasing Tension:  This exercise begins with recognizing that there is tension in the body and then using the breathing exercises to allow the tension to be released.
5. Walking Meditation:  Like Mindful Breathing, walking meditation connects the mind with the body.  The idea is to become of each step as a miracle and a joy.  Rather than hurry through the walk, focus on each footfall and experience the miracle of your body as each bone, muscle, tendon and nerve work together to make the motion possible.  

These are steps that I have already begun to use.  As I write this post, I am trying to be mindful of my breathing when I stop to think.  The amazing thing?  When I began to write, I was tense and fretting over the amount of work still to do before the course ends.  As I began to breathe and recognize the in and out of each breath, I realized a smile had crept across my face.  You will see by the time of the post that this piece was written after a full day of teaching, an evening of reading and research, but yet, there is a smile on my face, and even at this hour, I am enjoying the process of learning.

As I think about how this can be used practically in my teaching day, I see it as a means to truly connect with my students.  As I rush from room to room (teaching off a cart), I often find myself asking student to wait until next time to share a last bit of information.  I am hoping that by applying mindful breathing, I will slow myself down and give myself, and my students, time to create a moment of peaceful contemplation at the end of each lesson.

I offer the following website as a place to get more information on making mindfulness practical in daily life. The Huffington Post Healthy Living 

Check out the video on the home page.

The following videos give an introduction to mindfulness.  The second video presents the meditation master, Thich Nhat Hanh, speaking on what it is to be mindfully aware.

Apologies

My Apologies

To the Mistakes and Challenges in My Life,

          Please forgive me for my negative attitude and assumption that your very presence in my life is a problem to be overcome.  I know you are often pushed to the back and quarantined in the backrooms of my memories. 

          I have often wondered how you managed to escape those rooms to creep up on me.  You often appear suddenly as I drive home from work, or prepare for a presentation.  Until today, I thought you were there to remind me of how stupid, forgetful, uncaring, and uncoordinated I can be.  How could I have known that your timing was intentional and meant to support me in my future endeavours?

          Your presence in my life has helped to shape me into a strong, independent, problem solver who is still able to recognize when help is needed.  You have taught me how to overcome fear and indecision.  I strive to be better at my profession and to be a better person because of the adversity you put in my way, and the constant sneak attack reminders you send.

          So today, I would like to say thank you.  Thank you for the many different forms you take and the people that carry you into my world.  Thank you for the students, parents, colleagues, family members and friends that present your case and force me to look again at the person I am becoming.  Thank you for the lessons you have taught me and the guidance you continue to offer.  Thank you most of all for your persistence, for it is that, that provides the uncertainty and discomfort that leads to my deepest learning and lasting life changes.

                             Yours now and always

                             Judy

Explanation

I have always thought of myself as a reflective person, but I have often undervalued the challenges, obstacles and difficult situations in my life.  Kathryn Byrnes (2012), in an article entitled A Portrait of Contemplative Teaching:  Embracing Wholeness, introduced me to the idea of contemplation.  She describes contemplative teaching as embracing the reciprocal influence of the outer being on the inner being.  It requires acknowledgement of strengths and weaknesses.  Together a whole being is made.  Within us, there are strengths and weakness, courage and fear, and moments of confusion balanced by moments of clarity.

The apology letter is my first step at acknowledging the weakness within me as valuable to the whole that is Judy.  It is my first step at embracing vulnerability (Brown, 2010) and applying purpose to a personal invitation for change within me.

References

 Brown, B. (2010).  The gifts of Imperfection.  Center City, Minnesota, Hazelden.

  Byrnes, K. (2012).  A portrait of contemplative teaching: embracing wholeness.  Journal of Transformative Education, 10(1), 22-41.  DOI: 10.1177/1541344612456431 http://jtd.sagepub.com

Being Intentional

LEARNING TO BE INVITING

As I walk this journey of learning, I am bombarded by the word intentional.  When studying innovative assessments, looking into the methodology of professional development, exploring the nuances of school-home connections, delving into New Literacy Studies, and working on backwards design with an instructional coach, intentional action has been the goal of each relationship and task.  With intention as a pivot point for so many aspects of teaching, it is imperative that I have a firm understanding of what it is and what it looks like in all aspects of lesson planning and delivery, assessment for and during learning, and in building the relationships that are the foundation of a classroom.

In order to refine my understanding of intention, I turned to the dictionary.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines intention as "done in a way that is planned or intended."  Dictionary.com defines it as " done with intention or on purpose."  For me the two words that stand out are purpose and plan.  Each of these words refer to the thought process behind an action or decision with a focus on looking forward to a goal or development of a strategic program of action.

So how does this change what I do as a teacher?  I already plan my lessons, strategically map out units of study, and ensure that skills and content are in alignment with the provincial curriculum.  Is this not intentional teaching?  On the surface, the answer is yes.  So why do I no longer feel that my level of intention is sufficient?

The answer lies within the principles of invitational learning, and the skill of being purposeful or intentional in your invitations.  William Purkey, Dorothy Russell, and Betty Siegel (1982) describe the teacher who purposely invites students into learning as "artfully inviting".  "The arfully inviting teacher is one who is optimally successful in guiding and facilitating student development -- social, emotional, physical, and intellectual." (p. 35)  It is important to understand the foundations of Invitational Learning Theory and the Levels of Intentionality.

The Basics of Invitational Education

The International Alliance for Invitational Education lists the foundations as the democratic ethos, self concept theory and the perceptual tradition.  The website lists the basic assumptions as:
1.  People are able, valuable, and responsible and should be treated accordingly.

2.  Helping is a cooperative, collaborative alliance in which process is as important as product.

3.  Human potential can be best realized by places, policies, programs, processes that are intentionally designed to invite development, and by people who consistently seek to realize this potential in themselves and others, personally and professionally.

How Do I Measure Up?

1.  I do believe that people are able and valuable.  But . . . thinking of my young students, do I always consider them responsible?  I have to answer no.  I know that I often put routines in place based on the assumption that my students will not take the initiative to be responsible for specific tools, materials, or tasks.  I am wondering how often my assumption of a deficit actually sets the stage for the deficit to exist.  Does my intention to have a smooth running classroom stop me from truly getting to know the true habits of responsibility my students have?

2.  I have always believed that process was just as important and product.  In many ways, I may have placed more importance on processes than final product and presentation.  So, I believe it, but am I using it?  The answer is a resounding yes and an echoing no.  Using the arts and writing as a platform, I strive to give the process time and to demonstrate the importance of exploration, evaluation, and revision.  However, the constraints of a school time table and the pressures to produce a product often push me off course.  Of late, I have let those pressures take over and control my intentions, rather than working with the intention of developing the process through smaller steps and then allowing time for it to applied to a product.

3.  I believe that potential can be realized, but I am currently in a state of conflict with the policies and programs being implemented within public education in Ontario.  I am reading research and learning about different theories and strategies, but what is being presented to classroom teachers has often been manipulated to fit existing policies and expectations for standardization.  As a result, I am hard on myself and the system.  I am not professionally inviting with my actions, discourse, or internal mantras.  Here lies the greatest challenge ahead of me. 

The Levels of Intentionality

Level One -- Intentionally Disinviting:  This is a toxic level.  This is to be ugly, cruel, demeaning, insulting racist and/or sexist and know that you are doing it.

Level Two -- Unintentionally Disinviting:  This is to be hurtful, cruel, demeaning, racist and/or sexist and not know it.

Level Three -- Unintentionally Inviting:  This person functions through trial and error:  the domain of the natural born teacher, helper, nurse.  Sometimes inviting and sometimes not.

Level Four -- Intentionally Inviting:  This person assumes the invitational stance of Trust, Intentionality, Respect and Optimism and invites dependability.

(Taken from a member resource on The International Alliance for Invitational Education Website. http://www.invitationaleducation.net/members/activities/levelsfunctioning.pdf )

At What Level Do I Operate?

I want to be able to say that I am working at a level four, but in truth, I function around level three. I want to believe that I am not solely trial and error.  I do a lot of reflecting and am fairly consistent with what is working and looking for what is not.  However, that does not mean that I am working with a conscious intentionality.  I think it means that I am intentional in my teaching, but not in my invitation to learning.   

Changes To Be Made

I am still learning about what the changes need to be.  Campbell (2011) states that teachers must first begin by changing themselves.  To me this means that I need to begin by becoming more invitational to myself.  I need to invite the mess and insecurity of new learning and accept the time and practice needed to allow the changes to become a natural part of how I plan for invitations to learning.  Once I have learned more about making these personal changes, then the changes will need to expand to include the my classroom, and the development of my program.

I began this series with the title THE JOURNEY CONTINUES.  I think it needs to change to THE JOURNEY HAS JUST BEGUN!

References

Russell, D., Purkey, W., and Siegel, B. (1982).  The artfully inviting teacher: a hierarchy of strategies.      Education, 103(1), 35-38.

The International Alliance for Invitational Education Website.  http://www.invitationaleducation.net/ 

Campbell, L. (2011). Holistic art education: A transformative approach to teaching art. Art Education, (2).

Invitational Education

The Journey Continues:  Invitational Learning

It has been almost a year since I last posted to this blog.  I find myself in another course and needing to create a blog.  However, I come to the blog out of choice this time.  I am inviting myself to continue my learning in the digital realm and to again risk presenting my views to a wider audience.

My journey has been frightening, exciting, enlightening and exhausting all at the same time.  As I have met each writing or project challenge, I have tried to extend my learning into my professional practice.  I have found this more difficult than I thought it would be.  Prior to April 26th, 2014, I would have put the blame on institutional policy and hypocrisy.  April 26th was the opening class for Invitational and Holistic Approaches to Education, with Dr. Hilary Brown, and a day that changed my thinking. 

"Changed my thinking" sound profound doesn't it.  It really wasn't, and it didn't happen all at once.  I think I should back up and fill in a little of what has happened between May 2013 and now.

I have been pushing myself to balance home, work, and university.  I thought I was doing well until I found myself on playground duty and dealing with a name calling situation (student to student).  Given that this had been an ongoing issue in a particular class, and the fact that it involved slurs to heritage and orientation, I decided, along with the classroom teacher, to address it head on.  As we discussed the issues with the class, I made the mistake of letting my personal opinion slip into the conversation.  It was simply one of those situations when you try to show the diversity of thinking and call upon need for respect of all opinions, but your words are lost in the fact that there is a strong opposition to your particular thought or opinion.

It lead to parental concern and a meeting that forced me to reexamine my stress levels and abilities in the classroom.  My main concern, I thought, was the very thought that I may have misused the power structure of the classroom.  I reflected on what I could do to remedy the situation.  Anything I came up with either made the situation worse or demonstrated that some opinions should be held in secret or never held.  This goes against everything I thought I was trying to teach.  So how did I get to this point in my career?  Was it time to leave the classroom?  Some people would agree that it was and is.  Me?  I am still working through everything.

So, when I entered the university classroom on April 26th, I had a personal script that was weighing the pros and cons of staying in the classroom until the end of June or leaving before.  I was questioning my choice of masters program and fretting over the financial commitment my husband and I had already made to a Masters of Education degree.  I was open to the ideas, but sure that I would no longer see myself within them.

As I listened to Hilary and the conversation of my classmates, little snippets from my 20 year career made their way into my thoughts.  I saw myself exploring the rain with my grade one class in Saudi Arabia.  I remembered the grade 7 math lesson on integers that encouraged the students to ask their parents about how a bank overdraft works.  I re-read the letter from a parent thanking me for taking the time to know her daughter, and I sat again with the mother of twins as she told me that this was the first year that she actually had to read both report cards.  As the day progressed, I began to see the invitations I had put forward and started questioning my intentional use of these invitations.  

As we began to examine the 4 levels of intention with Invitational Education, I began to recognize the many times I had been intentionally and unintentionally disinviting to my students and their learning.  It became difficult to swallow, and I immediately began to push the thoughts aside.  This was not who I was, but was it who I had become?

The discussion moved on, but I stayed focused on who I am, who I was, and who I wanted to be when I first began this career.  I looked at my masters of education journey so far, and asked myself why I still felt that I was in the right place.  I forced myself to deal with the disconnect between the teacher I picture myself to be and the teacher that had been forced in front of me by the situation at school.  They both lived within me, but it was impossible for me to maintain them at the same time.  That was when my true learning began.

I realized that I had just moved from feeling sorry for myself and embarrassed by my lack of control into an attitude where I could begin refining my skills and approaches to become the teacher I believed I was.  I was in a place where I could truly learn from my mistakes.

The one single thought that sparked the change:  I need to thank the parents who were yelling at me, for without them I could not have learned from the mistake.

Judy

Please have a look at this video.  It is an introduction to Invitational Education by its founders.

Collaborative Leadership and Citizenship: Do they just happen?

21st Century Learning is a topic that still makes my head spin.  The more I read, the more I  discuss, the more I debate, the more I listen, and the more I watch, the wider the spinning circle grows.  I chose a topic for this blog that I thought would fill all the needs of my Educational Assessment Course, I looked for the digital connections and tried to lay out a connected, intelligent sounding blog.  What a disaster.  So this is me, just going back to having a conversation about the journey I am on.  


I went back to the reference graphic of Alberta's 21st Century Learner and found that collaboration and leadership are grouped together.  The combination fascinates me, and it allows me to see a future for my students -- their love of debate and ownership is undeniable.

Alberta Ministry of Education

Competencies for the 21st Century Learner

Why collaborative leadership?
How else are we going to model authentic situations for our students?  They need to see us working together, not behind closed doors and in formal meetings, but in hallway conversations, shared teaching, shared learning, and shared curriculum development.  I am becoming more and more comfortable with the realization that our students need to be a part of this collaboration and that our schools need to be communities that thrive on the collaborative efforts of their citizens.

Our world has always been changing but the current rate of change is not manageable if a person is isolated and problem solving in solitude.  The very nature of the technological advances are rooted in social networking and in making collaboration across distances seamless and effortless.  There is no doubt that the future of leadership lies in the understanding of collaborative efforts and in the relationships forged through mutual respect and acceptance.

Now the question becomes, what is collaborative leadership?
At first glance, they seem to be polar opposites.  Collaborative paints a picture of people working together for a common goal, and leadership conjures pictures of sole heroes or dictators telling others what to do.  I think the following videos give a good grounding in what collaborative leadership is and what it is not.  

Creative Places + Spaces

The video would not embed, please take the time to connect to the link.







Creating Collaborative Leaders
This is my new goal.  Our students need to understand that collaboration is not just an agreement on a goal or putting together different parts to make a whole.  It is a philosophy and a way of thinking and doing.  Although everyone has a stake in the outcome, there still need to be leaders within.  These are people who are willing to ask the difficult questions and pose and the seemingly unsolvable problems.  They are people who recognize the strengths and needs of others and work with them to accomplish group and individual goals.  A collaborative leader respects others and values the ideas and work they bring to the group.  Most importantly, a collaborative leader needs to be able to step aside while others take the lead.  (Petersen, retrieved 05/21)  Collaborative Cultures

This is not accomplished by hoping students are watching.  It needs precision of thought, planning, implementation and dedication.  Again, the students need to see it in action.  They need to see their teachers working, talking, planning, teaching in collaboration with each other, their students, school administrators, parents and students.  It also requires a purpose for leadership.  I see that purpose (for my current school) in the building of community through citizenship. 

Citizenship and Collaborative Leadership
Community connections are part of our school mandate.  Our fundraising goes beyond our own school community and includes the wider area and nation.  However, we are becoming steeped in negative, uncaring attitudes and a sense of "why bother".  It is not just in our students and staff, but in the community as a whole.  

Creating a community of connected and caring individuals needs to be our first step towards looking outward to the world.  It is added to my growing list of summer goals -- developing a program outline that can be used by teachers and students to construct a deeper understanding of what it means to be a community together and how we can foster relationships that allow for collaborative relationships and leadership.

Below are a few articles worth taking a look at.  They all connect to collaborative leadership and the need to have inclusive, dynamic communities that reach out to each other and beyond.

Work,Learn, and Citizenship in the 21st Century  

Which way to the Good Life

Building Community Vitality

Inclusion in Education

My manners want me to apologize for the messy thinking that makes up this blog -- but, that is 21st century learning.  It is messy, filled with mistakes that need to be worked through and constructed understandings that need to be torn down and rebuilt brick by brick.  Please feel free to send me in the direction of further learning on collaborative leadership and developing citizenship.  I appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Thank you for sharing my journey.

Judy


References

Alberta Education. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2013, from http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/aisi/themes/21-century.aspx

Collaborative Leadership (n.d.). [Motion Picture]. Youtube. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VE3Tdc3gPY

Collaborative Leadership: John Kuypers talking with Amanda Silliker (n.d.). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r Ric0FQcl

Green, I., & Cote, A. (2007). Leading By Example: 50 prominent Canadians talk to us about the federal public service and why leadership matters. Ottawa: Public Policy Forum. Retrieved May 2013, from http://www.ppforum.ca/sites/default/files/Leading e.pdf

Peterson, K. (n.d.). NCREL Monograph: Building Collaborative Cultures. Retrieved from NCREL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/education/leadership

Youth Uprising: Overview (n.d.). [Motion Picture]. Youtube. Retrieved May 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVpYWfwLleU