Week 7 Reflection

This week’s reading came at the perfect time. I started reading Fullan’s  “Leading in a Culture of Change” right before I met with my school administrator to discuss changes in our grading system.   As I started reading chapter 1, it dawned on me, that as the official gradebook trainer for my school that I am a “leader” and I can use the 5 components of leadership to help me navigate and my fellow teachers navigate the new changes.  

After reading the chapter I realized I had been going about tech leadership wrong.  I had thought it was my job to find the perfect solution to problem.  I had been determined to find a way to make a complex problem (made even more difficult due to rapid change) - simple.  I was doing all kinds of things.  I was reading and researching but the problem was so complex that I was just getting frustrated.  Like Fullan said “leadership is needed for problems that do not have easy answers. The big problems of the day are complex, rife with paradoxes and dilemmas. For these problems there are no once-and-for-all answers. Yet we expect our leaders to provide solutions” (Fullan 2015).  I think I should just frame that quote and hang it up somewhere.
​ 
I went into my meeting with a different mindset.  I even shared Fullan’s quote.  I told my principal that the only thing harder than change is leading educators through change.   By focusing on my moral purpose I was able to make sure the natural resistance wouldn’t prevent good things from happening. During the meeting we came up with a plan to lead other teachers in my school through the big tech grading changes.  On Thursday I will be leading the entire staff but I am confident that I have a good framework in place and will be able to lead others through this change.