One aspect of the Science Teaching Leadership Programme is Leadership (strangely enough!).
Leadership has never been one of my focuses. In fact it has usually been something that I have always said I will never do! That was, I guess, because of my definition of leadership and my experiences. My father has always been my teaching role model and he has always rejected leadership opportunities / offers - 30+ years of teaching and he always remained a classroom teacher, turning down HOD numerous times.
But the past few weeks of reading "The Leadership Challenge" by James Kouzes and Barry Posner(one of our required programme texts) has made me re-define what leadership is and acknowledge the fact that possibly I have already been demonstrating leadership qualities. And I know that my father was definitely a leader despite his vehement denial of it!
A leader doesn't have to have a title or be that head of department, lead teacher etc. A leader is someone who acts like a leader - out of the box thinking, willing to try new things, supporting colleagues, helping others to lead and share. I'm still working on the definition.
The point to this ramble is that I'm not feeling so apprehensive about going back to school in July and being thrust into the leadership role in science (well I am a bit still - it is a school of 600 students!). I'm starting to feel excited about all the opportunities for my school, excited to share my learning and vision, especially excited to see my thinking around science in primary schools is backed up by what I am reading and learning.
This programme is giving me the confidence and skills to be able to share my vision and stand up for what I believe is the best way for our school to create those scientifically literate citizens, those critical thinkers.
I'll blog my thoughts on the book over the next few days / blogposts.
Leadership has never been one of my focuses. In fact it has usually been something that I have always said I will never do! That was, I guess, because of my definition of leadership and my experiences. My father has always been my teaching role model and he has always rejected leadership opportunities / offers - 30+ years of teaching and he always remained a classroom teacher, turning down HOD numerous times.
But the past few weeks of reading "The Leadership Challenge" by James Kouzes and Barry Posner(one of our required programme texts) has made me re-define what leadership is and acknowledge the fact that possibly I have already been demonstrating leadership qualities. And I know that my father was definitely a leader despite his vehement denial of it!
A leader doesn't have to have a title or be that head of department, lead teacher etc. A leader is someone who acts like a leader - out of the box thinking, willing to try new things, supporting colleagues, helping others to lead and share. I'm still working on the definition.
The point to this ramble is that I'm not feeling so apprehensive about going back to school in July and being thrust into the leadership role in science (well I am a bit still - it is a school of 600 students!). I'm starting to feel excited about all the opportunities for my school, excited to share my learning and vision, especially excited to see my thinking around science in primary schools is backed up by what I am reading and learning.
This programme is giving me the confidence and skills to be able to share my vision and stand up for what I believe is the best way for our school to create those scientifically literate citizens, those critical thinkers.
I'll blog my thoughts on the book over the next few days / blogposts.
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