The Leader in Me

One of the things I am most grateful for this year has been the opportunities it has provided me. Opportunities to grow, adjust, learn, aspire, improve, and lead. My definition of leading has changed over the years and this year it seems to have come into focus. Leading is not about leading, it is about being willing to lead, to help other to meet their goals. Others in my life have been great leaders, not by leading me or telling me what to do, but by sharing their confidence in me and opened me up to ideas that I have moulded into my own. They really have done nothing other than let me know they believe in me and helped me be open to new things. This is how I look at teaching.

Teaching can be looked at as the sharing of ideas and knowledge, experimenting and engaging curiosity, practising and critically thinking about new concepts. And it is all that, and a bit more. Giving children a voice, helping them find their confidence and role in this world is also teaching. As we move ahead in this ever changing world, children are needing to meet the task of leading by knowing their strengths and have a willingness to share and collaborate.

One of my projects this year has allowed me to see this in action. We have been working on a project with a group of students, all at very different levels. The information given was very knowledge based and easily forgotten. I gave the students the task of arranging the information in a different way so that we could end up with a very different product. They took this challenge on and, although a bit worried at the start, I saw the learning happen. They were able to critically think about the problem and devise a solution. They came up with a plan self managed their learning and made a list of materials for me. They were not only ALL involved in this project but they were ENGAGED. Most importantly they were leaders. They took responsibility for their learning and I don't think what learned will be forgotten anytime soon.

The project is not yet complete, but I will post pictures and more explanation when it is complete.

Being a leader is more about standing back than about being up front.