This is the area to post your group's Chapter 6 blogging statement.
34 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The primary goal is for principals to become leaders of leaders. As the leadership builds, the principal strives to help the school become a community of leaders. After reading the chapter, and knowing what you know about how the forces of leadership are foundational and must be provided to ensure that schools will work, think about how your principal applies or uses the forces talked about in the chapter to become a good leader and ensure the success of your school. How does your principal use the stretcher forces (symbolic and cultural) to help your school rise to levels of extraordinary commitment and performance?
My most recent principal did a great job of using the technical force to get our school running more smoothly when she took over. We had some significant issues preventing our staff from working together effectively, and she was able to alleviate many of them simply by streamlining and clarifying many of the management aspects of the building. That definitely had a positive impact on the level of contentment and security felt by the teachers. If she hadn't addressed the technical aspects first, she would not have been as successful as she was when she began addressing the educational aspects.
My principal does a really good job with the first three forces: technical, human, and educational. However, one of her weaknesses is the ability to use the symbolic and cultural forces. She has often been perceived to lack the ability to articulate and motivate the staff. Her style is comfortable for the staff; but, sometimes we lack the motivating "fire" being lit that would transform us from a very good school to a great school.
Our principal would be from the "human" force, although he has characteristics from several of the forces of leadership. Of his strenths, he uses participatory decision making often. He definitely involves us in decisions which induces us to invest in the outcomes of our decisions. This technique is a way of having us "buy in" to his ideals and have us make a personal commitment at the same time.
We all love our principal and most will do anything for him, mostly because he is "Mr. Nice Guy" all of the time and is way too nice to us. If he were more mean and strict, then people wouldn't do as much for him. However, as I've said before, he gets taken advantage of, and the sad thing is, he knows it. He just made a comment to me this week about how he needs to quit being so nice to people!
My principal, for the most part, shows the qualities of technical and human force. Within my tenure, I have never worked for a principal that is adapt at using the educational force. Is it because I work at a middle school where there are so many behavior problems that education takes a backseat to day-to-day management?
I believe that my principal wishes that she could use more symbolic and cultural force, but with all of the other problems that occur, how do you prioritize?
After reading the chapter, it seems to me, that if a principal takes the time to use more symbolic and cultural force, than the other three forces would be easier to manage because the staff would feel motivated to tackle problems more efficiently.
Our principal is strong in symbolic force. He is very visible in the school, and he takes an interest in the children. Our school has ceremonies and reward programs to honor accomplishments of students and teachers, so rituals play an important role in bringing everyone together. All of this helps to create a positive culture in our school.
My principal does a wonderful job of using the symbolic force. She is never in her office. She is always visiting the classrooms, lunchroom, and taking others on tours of the school. She knows all the students by name, and is constantly checking up on their grades and what they are reading.
My principal enjoys sharing our school with the community. Throughout the school year, we have many school/community events where members of the community are recognized.
i found it neat to fill in the grid on the bottom of page 141. Patterns did emerge and the most interesting part ws realizing the differences between my principal and asst. principal. But, those differences, I suppose, are what makes working at my school so unique. They compliment each other, in a good way. They know, and we know, which administrator can handle which situation best. While not "playing one against one the other," I've come to see where I get the most mileage, or bang for my buck, if you will! One is symbolic- the other, educational.
The culture at at my school is not conducive to student success. I believe the main reason for this is a lack of understanding of cultural and symbolic leadership. There is no consesus of values at my school and I see no plan in place to re-create the successful culture that existed 4 years and two prinipals ago.
I too can notice the difference in the principal and assistant principal. In my case the principal is the more management/discipline type where the assistant principal is geared more toward the educational goals. It doesn't take long to know which administrator to go to for whatever you need. I do believe that the technical, educational, and human forces are more evident in my principal.
My current principal is a very technical force principal, which overall is very good, but there are some things that are missing, which are not conducive to a strong culture in our school. He needs to be more visible and seen interacting, not only with the students, but also a little more with the teachers in more than just a technical way. Many of the teachers come and go, do what they need to do, and leave, though there are plenty that also put a lot of extra effort into creating an overall school culture.
My principal's leadership is derived from the technical force. He is very good at managing the school. He believes that workplaces should be characterized by a degree of order and reliability. The human force is a weakness for him. Interpersonal needs of students and teachers are often neglected because of his priorities to technical and management issues. Judy Willis
I am in a different situation than most other schools because my principal is not only principal but he is also superintendent, accountant, assistant principal, he teaches 3/4 courses, and he is coach. With so much on his plate I sometimes feel like he is lacking in all the forces of leadership. This year has been an exceptionally negative year. I am hoping to help support my principal so that these areas can be strengthened in my school.
My principal is uses technical, educational, and symbolic forces. The term "chief" is used in the book when describing the role of the principal when using symbolic force. My principal is very good at the managing aspect, but also wants the community to have faith in the school.
I have seen principals manage a building by trying to be all of the forces at one time. I feel it is great if that person can do it, but sometimes it was to much of a stretch, and the person had a hard time focusing on the building in general. I have found the most effective ones have the human force because they are able to build relationships and learn from others about other aspects of learning or managing a building.
Our current principal has an excellent grasp of some of the symbolic and cultural aspects of leadership. He is the the most vocal "Cheerleader" a school could have. In the community at large, he is an ever present force and advocate for our school and the programs it offers. He seeks support from the business and industrial sectors and touts the accomplishments of our students. The drawback to this focus is a neglect of some of the technical, human and educational force aspects of leadership. Fortunately, our assistant principal picks up leadership in these areas.
My principal shows signs of all of the forces of leadership. But, I think the one she excels in is the symbolic force. She does walk throughs daily. She talks with the children and cleans up messes during lunch time. She speaks to each child and knows them all by name with a school population close to 700. She calls children into her office just to chat. And she has each child read to her sometime during the year. She makes sure every student and teacher feels like they have an important role in the school.
My principal's strength is educational force. He has provided much information for his teachers and always keeps new information and research flowing through our school. We struggled for the past three years with accrediation and with his educational support we are now fully accrediated. Some of our other areas have suffered because of the weakness in the other forces.
My principal's strength is definitely in the area of technical force. He loves order and structure and devotes most of his time to organizing, planning and scheduling to ensure that everything runs without glitches. However, the human force is sacrified for the order that he craves and we are becoming more and more a school without a really meaningful ideological vision. I will give him credit for some positive symbolic force. He probably knows every student (415) by name and knows many on a personal level. He is visible throughout the day and does interact with the students more than many other high school principals I have seen.
My principal, like others I’ve read about in this blog, also demonstrates various strengths in regard to the five forces of leadership. While I have not picked up on any particular weaknesses per say I have, however, observed that some of her strengths are much more prominent. I believe her most notable strengths are the human and educational forces. If multi-tasking and having energy comparable to that of the Energizer Bunny were a leadership force, my principal would undoubtedly take 1st prize. On a serious note, she is ultimately an advocate for our students and doesn’t mind putting anyone (including veteran teachers and central office administrators) in his/her respective place over the welfare of a child.
When my principal came on board last summer, he inherited a schedule that was designed for the benefit of a few faculty members as opposed to what was best for the students. After listening to teacher concerns during the first semester, he has already developed a schedule for next year that keeps the focus on what is best for student success and shared it with the entire staff. Our time in academic classes has increased. There is very little down-time for students or teachers; we are consistently on-task. Everyone can focus on achieving our goals without having to watch the clock. Another area that is a strength for our principal is symbolic force. He is highly visible, trying to visit every classroom at least once each day. He walks through the cafeteria during each lunch period and helps on bus duty every afternoon. He actively shows the students and faculty that he is accessible.
In my experience while student teaching, I observed that the principal of the school was extremely approachable and trustworthy. He seemed to be more of a "regular guy" even compared to most unseasoned teachers. I never heard anything bad about him, besides his reserved character. I believe his forces are compiled into Technical, Educational, and Human.
My principal definately uses the educaional force and the human force. He truley is the "principal teacher". With our math scores below an acceptable level, he developed a review for all students that all staff are a part of, including himself and the assistant principal, all guidance, and the resource officer. Along with the development of the program, he developed the schedule, rotation, and review lessons along with the math depatment. With the human force, he has built relaionships with sudents and teachers. He motivates students with rewards for honor roll and accelerated reader goals, but also incorporates progress of sudents who may not be there yet. Teachers feel comfortable speaking with him and know that the decisions he makes will be whats best for the school putting everyone in a win-win situation.
symbolic Like many others that have posted thus far, my principal also exhibits all five forces of leadership. However, I feel he most closely relates to the symbolic force of leadership. He is constantly "out and about" in the school being visable and keeping track of the instructional culture of the building. During this time he is quick to point a lack of engagement by the teacher and also quick to point a good lesson that is taking place.
My principal exhibits all the forces at different times. I think he practices the cultural and symbolic forces through direct interactions with students and staff on a daily basis and works very hard to make each interaction one that is meaningful to achieving the vision for increased student achievement in our school.
As others have posted, my principal exhibts most of the forces discussed in the chapter. He has focused a lot on the cultural force with "bonding" activities. This year has been very stressful in our school as we are a PASS school and through it all, we have remained a "family". We are all striving to work hard so our students will be successful on the SOL's.
The principal at our school is new in her position, but not new to our school. She has served as our assistant principal for several years. She has already made several changes that have positively affected the climate of the school. She uses sound management techniques, or the technical force. She also works hard to meet the interpersonal needs of students and teachers. In my opinion, her strength lies in the human force. She is definitely the instructional leader of our school. It impressed me when she completed a second Master's Degree a couple of years ago in the Reading Specialist Program at Emory & Henry College. She said she wanted to know more about reading instruction when she was asked why she was enrolling in the program while expecting her second child. She visits classrooms several times a week and helps with bus duty in the afternoons. She participates in all school activities with her whole heart.
My principal is a very firm but a caring person. He displays all the forces at one time or another. He makes sure that the school is running in a fashion that has no choice but to succeed. He empowers and knows how to motivate staff and students. He is a very committed man.
I feel my principal also embodies all of the forces at one time or another depending on the situation. I think that in order to be a flexible and effective administrator you must exibit all of these forces.
While I believe that our principal is great I do feel that she doesn't spend as much time interacting with the students. She would rather spend her time working with the teachers. Just recently she and the assistant principal finished a professional development project for teachers in grades k through 2. I think this is awesome but I'd also like to see her spend more time with students. Oddly enough the remark has been made that she spends a lot of time in the classrooms but I might see her once a week if that.
Being that I work in a school that is directly though the Dpt. of Ed. in the state hospital, the understanding of culture and sybolism couldn't be any more important.
We feel we are governed through so many eyes and sets of policies/procedures (Our director is at the Dpt. in Richmond; our hiring agent is the local county LEA; and then within the hospital there are numerous trainings and policies that we have to stay on top of). If the teachers didn't have an outstanding leader, they would easily become bogged down and unmotivated.
Our principal, keeps us focused on "students first". We are reminded that we serve a special group of students with very unique needs. Due to this uniqueness, lesson planning and high expectations are strongly enforced, but at the same time teachers can vent to each other and our principal without fear of any type of criticism.
One example of meeting a cultural need in our setting is collaboration. Collaboration is encouraged through common planning periods and the principal and myself with cover classes for teachers if they need more planning.
I feel that my principal would classified as a “human” force. However, she takes a strong interest in the students and is often seen in the hallways and classrooms, leading to her being more symbolic. In a middle school, especially ours this is difficult to do because of the need to handle behavior problems that seem to continually arise. From talking to her I realize that while she does try and spend time working with the students, she would like to be much more involved with the individual students, spending less time in her office.
My current principal has three forces that are prevalent for him: human, technical, and cultural. Because he lives and works in the community he knows the people, he interacts as he sees them in the community in church at stores, etc. This collegiality and familiarity carries over into the school setting. Many like his style and the fact that he pays attention to detail and the humans involved in all situations. This way of leading has proved successful for him.
34 comments:
The primary goal is for principals to become leaders of leaders. As the leadership builds, the principal strives to help the school become a community of leaders. After reading the chapter, and knowing what you know about how the forces of leadership are foundational and must be provided to ensure that schools will work, think about how your principal applies or uses the forces talked about in the chapter to become a good leader and ensure the success of your school. How does your principal use the stretcher forces (symbolic and cultural) to help your school rise to levels of extraordinary commitment and performance?
My most recent principal did a great job of using the technical force to get our school running more smoothly when she took over. We had some significant issues preventing our staff from working together effectively, and she was able to alleviate many of them simply by streamlining and clarifying many of the management aspects of the building. That definitely had a positive impact on the level of contentment and security felt by the teachers. If she hadn't addressed the technical aspects first, she would not have been as successful as she was when she began addressing the educational aspects.
My principal does a really good job with the first three forces: technical, human, and educational. However, one of her weaknesses is the ability to use the symbolic and cultural forces. She has often been perceived to lack the ability to articulate and motivate the staff. Her style is comfortable for the staff; but, sometimes we lack the motivating "fire" being lit that would transform us from a very good school to a great school.
Our principal would be from the "human" force, although he has characteristics from several of the forces of leadership. Of his strenths, he uses participatory decision making often. He definitely involves us in decisions which induces us to invest in the outcomes of our decisions. This technique is a way of having us "buy in" to his ideals and have us make a personal commitment at the same time.
We all love our principal and most will do anything for him, mostly because he is "Mr. Nice Guy" all of the time and is way too nice to us. If he were more mean and strict, then people wouldn't do as much for him. However, as I've said before, he gets taken advantage of, and the sad thing is, he knows it. He just made a comment to me this week about how he needs to quit being so nice to people!
My principal, for the most part, shows the qualities of technical and human force. Within my tenure, I have never worked for a principal that is adapt at using the educational force. Is it because I work at a middle school where there are so many behavior problems that education takes a backseat to day-to-day management?
I believe that my principal wishes that she could use more symbolic and cultural force, but with all of the other problems that occur, how do you prioritize?
After reading the chapter, it seems to me, that if a principal takes the time to use more symbolic and cultural force, than the other three forces would be easier to manage because the staff would feel motivated to tackle problems more efficiently.
Our principal is strong in symbolic force. He is very visible in the school, and he takes an interest in the children. Our school has ceremonies and reward programs to honor accomplishments of students and teachers, so rituals play an important role in bringing everyone together. All of this helps to create a positive culture in our school.
My principal does a wonderful job of using the symbolic force. She is never in her office. She is always visiting the classrooms, lunchroom, and taking others on tours of the school. She knows all the students by name, and is constantly checking up on their grades and what they are reading.
My principal enjoys sharing our school with the community. Throughout the school year, we have many school/community events where members of the community are recognized.
i found it neat to fill in the grid on the bottom of page 141. Patterns did emerge and the most interesting part ws realizing the differences between my principal and asst. principal. But, those differences, I suppose, are what makes working at my school so unique. They compliment each other, in a good way. They know, and we know, which administrator can handle which situation best. While not "playing one against one the other," I've come to see where I get the most mileage, or bang for my buck, if you will!
One is symbolic- the other, educational.
The culture at at my school is not conducive to student success. I believe the main reason for this is a lack of understanding of cultural and symbolic leadership. There is no consesus of values at my school and I see no plan in place to re-create the successful culture that existed 4 years and two prinipals ago.
I too can notice the difference in the principal and assistant principal. In my case the principal is the more management/discipline type where the assistant principal is geared more toward the educational goals. It doesn't take long to know which administrator to go to for whatever you need. I do believe that the technical, educational, and human forces are more evident in my principal.
My current principal is a very technical force principal, which overall is very good, but there are some things that are missing, which are not conducive to a strong culture in our school. He needs to be more visible and seen interacting, not only with the students, but also a little more with the teachers in more than just a technical way. Many of the teachers come and go, do what they need to do, and leave, though there are plenty that also put a lot of extra effort into creating an overall school culture.
My principal's leadership is derived from the technical force. He is very good at managing the school. He believes that workplaces should be characterized by a degree of order and reliability. The human force is a weakness for him. Interpersonal needs of students and teachers are often neglected because of his priorities to technical and management issues.
Judy Willis
I am in a different situation than most other schools because my principal is not only principal but he is also superintendent, accountant, assistant principal, he teaches 3/4 courses, and he is coach. With so much on his plate I sometimes feel like he is lacking in all the forces of leadership. This year has been an exceptionally negative year. I am hoping to help support my principal so that these areas can be strengthened in my school.
My principal is uses technical, educational, and symbolic forces. The term "chief" is used in the book when describing the role of the principal when using symbolic force. My principal is very good at the managing aspect, but also wants the community to have faith in the school.
I have seen principals manage a building by trying to be all of the forces at one time. I feel it is great if that person can do it, but sometimes it was to much of a stretch, and the person had a hard time focusing on the building in general. I have found the most effective ones have the human force because they are able to build relationships and learn from others about other aspects of learning or managing a building.
Our current principal has an excellent grasp of some of the symbolic and cultural aspects of leadership. He is the the most vocal "Cheerleader" a school could have. In the community at large, he is an ever present force and advocate for our school and the programs it offers. He seeks support from the business and industrial sectors and touts the accomplishments of our students. The drawback to this focus is a neglect of some of the technical, human and educational force aspects of leadership. Fortunately, our assistant principal picks up leadership in these areas.
My principal shows signs of all of the forces of leadership. But, I think the one she excels in is the symbolic force. She does walk throughs daily. She talks with the children and cleans up messes during lunch time. She speaks to each child and knows them all by name with a school population close to 700. She calls children into her office just to chat. And she has each child read to her sometime during the year. She makes sure every student and teacher feels like they have an important role in the school.
My principal's strength is educational force. He has provided much information for his teachers and always keeps new information and research flowing through our school. We struggled for the past three years with accrediation and with his educational support we are now fully accrediated. Some of our other areas have suffered because of the weakness in the other forces.
My principal's strength is definitely in the area of technical force. He loves order and structure and devotes most of his time to organizing, planning and scheduling to ensure that everything runs without glitches. However, the human force is sacrified for the order that he craves and we are becoming more and more a school without a really meaningful ideological vision. I will give him credit for some positive symbolic force. He probably knows every student (415) by name and knows many on a personal level. He is visible throughout the day and does interact with the students more than many other high school principals I have seen.
My principal, like others I’ve read about in this blog, also demonstrates various strengths in regard to the five forces of leadership. While I have not picked up on any particular weaknesses per say I have, however, observed that some of her strengths are much more prominent. I believe her most notable strengths are the human and educational forces. If multi-tasking and having energy comparable to that of the Energizer Bunny were a leadership force, my principal would undoubtedly take 1st prize. On a serious note, she is ultimately an advocate for our students and doesn’t mind putting anyone (including veteran teachers and central office administrators) in his/her respective place over the welfare of a child.
Amber Lam
Sherry L
My current principal has characteristics of technical, human, and educational. I do believe that he lacks the ability to motivate the staff.
When my principal came on board last summer, he inherited a schedule that was designed for the benefit of a few faculty members as opposed to what was best for the students. After listening to teacher concerns during the first semester, he has already developed a schedule for next year that keeps the focus on what is best for student success and shared it with the entire staff. Our time in academic classes has increased. There is very little down-time for students or teachers; we are consistently on-task. Everyone can focus on achieving our goals without having to watch the clock. Another area that is a strength for our principal is symbolic force. He is highly visible, trying to visit every classroom at least once each day. He walks through the cafeteria during each lunch period and helps on bus duty every afternoon. He actively shows the students and faculty that he is accessible.
In my experience while student teaching, I observed that the principal of the school was extremely approachable and trustworthy. He seemed to be more of a "regular guy" even compared to most unseasoned teachers. I never heard anything bad about him, besides his reserved character. I believe his forces are compiled into Technical, Educational, and Human.
Michael Southee
My principal definately uses the educaional force and the human force. He truley is the "principal teacher". With our math scores below an acceptable level, he developed a review for all students that all staff are a part of, including himself and the assistant principal, all guidance, and the resource officer. Along with the development of the program, he developed the schedule, rotation, and review lessons along with the math depatment. With the human force, he has built relaionships with sudents and teachers. He motivates students with rewards for honor roll and accelerated reader goals, but also incorporates progress of sudents who may not be there yet. Teachers feel comfortable speaking with him and know that the decisions he makes will be whats best for the school putting everyone in a win-win situation.
Paul Love
symbolic
Like many others that have posted thus far, my principal also exhibits all five forces of leadership. However, I feel he most closely relates to the symbolic force of leadership. He is constantly "out and about" in the school being visable and keeping track of the instructional culture of the building. During this time he is quick to point a lack of engagement by the teacher and also quick to point a good lesson that is taking place.
BJ Lasley
My principal exhibits all the forces at different times. I think he practices the cultural and symbolic forces through direct interactions with students and staff on a daily basis and works very hard to make each interaction one that is meaningful to achieving the vision for increased student achievement in our school.
As others have posted, my principal exhibts most of the forces discussed in the chapter. He has focused a lot on the cultural force with "bonding" activities. This year has been very stressful in our school as we are a PASS school and through it all, we have remained a "family". We are all striving to work hard so our students will be successful on the SOL's.
The principal at our school is new in her position, but not new to our school. She has served as our assistant principal for several years. She has already made several changes that have positively affected the climate of the school. She uses sound management techniques, or the technical force. She also works hard to meet the interpersonal needs of students and teachers. In my opinion, her strength lies in the human force. She is definitely the instructional leader of our school. It impressed me when she completed a second Master's Degree a couple of years ago in the Reading Specialist Program at Emory & Henry College. She said she wanted to know more about reading instruction when she was asked why she was enrolling in the program while expecting her second child. She visits classrooms several times a week and helps with bus duty in the afternoons. She participates in all school activities with her whole heart.
My principal is a very firm but a caring person. He displays all the forces at one time or another. He makes sure that the school is running in a fashion that has no choice but to succeed. He empowers and knows how to motivate staff and students. He is a very committed man.
Dan Strong
I feel my principal also embodies all of the forces at one time or another depending on the situation. I think that in order to be a flexible and effective administrator you must exibit all of these forces.
While I believe that our principal is great I do feel that she doesn't spend as much time interacting with the students. She would rather spend her time working with the teachers. Just recently she and the assistant principal finished a professional development project for teachers in grades k through 2. I think this is awesome but I'd also like to see her spend more time with students. Oddly enough the remark has been made that she spends a lot of time in the classrooms but I might see her once a week if that.
Being that I work in a school that is directly though the Dpt. of Ed. in the state hospital, the understanding of culture and sybolism couldn't be any more important.
We feel we are governed through so many eyes and sets of policies/procedures (Our director is at the Dpt. in Richmond; our hiring agent is the local county LEA; and then within the hospital there are numerous trainings and policies that we have to stay on top of). If the teachers didn't have an outstanding leader, they would easily become bogged down and unmotivated.
Our principal, keeps us focused on "students first". We are reminded that we serve a special group of students with very unique needs. Due to this uniqueness, lesson planning and high expectations are strongly enforced, but at the same time teachers can vent to each other and our principal without fear of any type of criticism.
One example of meeting a cultural need in our setting is collaboration. Collaboration is encouraged through common planning periods and the principal and myself with cover classes for teachers if they need more planning.
I feel that my principal would classified as a “human” force. However, she takes a strong interest in the students and is often seen in the hallways and classrooms, leading to her being more symbolic. In a middle school, especially ours this is difficult to do because of the need to handle behavior problems that seem to continually arise. From talking to her I realize that while she does try and spend time working with the students, she would like to be much more involved with the individual students, spending less time in her office.
Cheryl Burrell-Graves
My current principal has three forces that are prevalent for him: human, technical, and cultural. Because he lives and works in the community he knows the people, he interacts as he sees them in the community in church at stores, etc. This collegiality and familiarity carries over into the school setting. Many like his style and the fact that he pays attention to detail and the humans involved in all situations. This way of leading has proved successful for him.
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