I have been thinking a lot lately about the people I know in my school board who are interested in formal leadership. I took some time today to think about why I haven't reached out to them to talk leadership and engage in discussions that can benefit all of us with respect to our work and development as leaders. This thought led to action as I contacted several colleagues and asked them if they wanted to participate in discussions around leadership by examining leadership literature (articles/readings), the use 21st Century tools to connect and grow our professional learning community, and examining our portfolios to prompt further discussion and growth.
I believe that participating in this type of learning community can benefit my practice, the practice of my colleagues, and our school board by meeting the following Catholic Leadership Framework expectations:
- establish, in collaboration with staff and other stakeholders, a commitment to purpose and vision which is embedded in the Gospel and energizes our work
- help staff and diverse stakeholders understand the relationship between the school’s vision and board and provincial policy initiatives and priorities
- regularly encourage staff to evaluate their progress toward achieving the school’s goals (sipsa/bipsa)
- encourage staff to develop and periodically review individual goals for professional growth, as well as the relationship between their individual goals and the school’s goals (sipsa/bipsa)
- model collaboration in our work
- help staff (colleagues) make connections between school goals and ministry goals in order to strengthen commitment to school improvement efforts
The above expectations will provide us with a great start! I am excited to see what comes from our learning as we start our leadership learning experience.
