Ready to Go with My Leadership Vision!

Prior to initiating my leadership at Wakefield School in July of 2014 I wrote my leadership vision. My professional goals for the year were based on this vision. I see my vision as my map and my goals as the directions that lead me in the proper path to deliver the mission of the school I represent. My vision is a guiding light that leads the way. I waited until the end of the year to share my vision with the faculty I work with. There are mixed messages as to when, if and how to share your vision with your colleagues. I wanted to ensure that my vision, and the direction I was taking was aligned with both the mission of the School and its strategic initiative. More specifically, could I point to specific actions that aligned my vision to the school's mission and strategic vision. Indeed I could!

I have asked the Lower School faculty over the summer to write both their professional vision statement and a vision statement for their classroom. When we return in August we will add the goals (more goal posts later). It will be interesting to see how all of our visions intersect and provide the unified direction that will move us to deliver the mission of our wonderful school!

Margo’s Personal  Leadership  Vision

My vision as Head of Lower School at Wakefield School is to cultivate and support a responsive and authentic learning environment where  members are understood, cared for and challenged.

In order to be responsive I will incorporate opportunities into my practice that will help to understand the backgrounds, needs and interests of all community members.

In order to cultivate  an authentic learning environment, members should have opportunities to develop and practice skills that will help them to navigate and succeed within and outside of the school community. Experiences  that explore and practice collaborative decision making, ethical leadership, interconnected and effective communication, global citizenship, and responsible stewardship will facilitate this authentic learning environment.

I believe that a challenging learning environment includes opportunities for community members to: generate questions, problem solve, take risks, make mistakes, have choice, and have fun.

Although personal reflection is a huge part of my professional practice, this past year it remained just that “personal” or “behind the scenes.” I hope to return to this public space in order to reflect with, collaborate and learn from educators around the world. I look forward to another great year of learning!

Preparing Our Students for Childhood

Before departing for the summer I shared with my educational community a video by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs. The two questions she considers in the video are: Who owns the learning? and What year are you preparing your students for? No matter where one is in their journey as a professional educator or no matter what lens one uses to view the educational journey of the “students” who will be competing, collaborating and leading within our society, all of us should be contemplating these questions. All of us have unique societal roles;  educators benefit from the guidance of our parent community and our community supporters. Their roles as entrepreneurs, and members of the workforce are essential in helping us understand some of the needs our students will face in their future.

As an Educational Leader with the interests of society's youngest students front and center, I ponder these questions:

Who owns the learning?

• Choice of product and process should be a consistent part of the learning journey.
• Content should be engaging and should tap into and extend the interests of the students.
• Students should establish the norms and identity of their classroom community.
• Students need opportunities to pose and solve problems.

What year are you preparing your students for?

• As educators of elementary school students, we must acknowledge that “College or University” will look a lot different than it does now, therefore, isn’t it our job and responsibility to imagine, predict, plan for and provide diverse and unique learning opportunities that will be relevant anytime and anywhere?
• We do know that our students will face multiple challenges, will interact with a variety of people across continents, and will be expected to innovate, therefore shouldn’t we ensure that the educational journey includes creativity, collaboration, and cross-cultural understandings?
• Regardless of the year we may be preparing our students for, let’s remember that we are guiding them through their childhood. “Childhood” is a time to imagine, play, experiment and interact within the world. “Childhood” is a magical time. There is nothing more authentic, timely and satisfying than to help students discover and grow through the most marvelous learning journey of all - Childhood.

We are preparing our students for Childhood and they own their learning! It is our role as educators to guide and support them through their learning journey.