CURRO PRIVATE SCHOOLS 2011

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

21st Century Curro Teachers

DATES: OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011 VENUES: CURRO PRIVATE SCHOOLS FACILTATOR: MITCHELL MESSINA

Materiaal voorberei deur: M3 Quality School Improvement Consultancy Lead our children to a quality life. CC E-pos: mitchm@iafrica.com Webtuiste: www.m3teachme.co.za

Discussion

Time: 15 minutes

Characteristics of the 21st Century Teacher?

What are the characteristics we would expect to see in an effective 21st century teacher? Well, we know they are student-centric, holistic, and theyre teaching about how to learn as much as teaching about the subject area. But highly effective teachers in todays classrooms are more than this much more. The 21st Century teacher must be an Authentic Leader.

WHAT IS AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP?

Authentic leadership is about being true to the self, acting with passion and integrity, having respect and love for others, and not following the crowd but inspiring the crowd to move toward achieving a great vision with hope and faith.

THE FIVE MARKS OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

Many people have written on what it means to be a leader. Almost everyone identifies influence as the primary characteristic. But leadership is more than influence. It certainly includes influence, but it is more. It includes at least five characteristics or five marks of authentic leadership:

1.

Authentic leaders have insight. Sometimes we refer to this as vision, but that usually has exclusive reference to the future. While leaders must have vision, they need more. They need wisdom and discernment. They need to be able to look at complex situations, gain clarity, and determine a course of action. Authentic leaders exert influence. Real leaders are contagious. People catch what they have. People are drawn to their vision and their values. They are able to gather a following and move people to act. To change metaphors, they are like human wave pools, creating a ripple effect wherever they go. Authentic leaders demonstrate integrity. Integrityor the lack thereof ultimately determines the quality of a persons impact. According to John Maxwell it is the most important ingredient of leadership. In a sense, this is the foundation of authentic leadership. Authentic leaders have impact. At the end of the day, leaders make a difference. The world is changed because of their leadership. They are able to create real and lasting change. Unless something has shifted, they arent leaders. The measure of leadership cannot be found in the leader; it is found in the impact the leader has on his or her followers. Authentic leaders demonstrate initiative. They go first. They dont sit on the sidelines. They dont ask others to do what they are unwilling to do themselves. I Instead, they lead by example.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Leaders must be deliberate and intentional if they are to be successful. These five qualities can guide us as we grow in our ability to lead. Activity

Time: 45 Minutes DVD: 30 minutes Questions: 15 minutes

ARE YOU GROWING AS A LEADER?

Reflection on the DVD: If you are not growing, you are dying (Dr. David Molapo)
1. Why do you think it is important for leaders to develop and grow continuously? What have you done recently to develop your own leadership skills? . . . 2. According to Dr. David Molapo: A leader must have V......, P.............., I....., be C and take calculated R.. in order to be an effective leader. What must you still work on as a leader? . . 3. Write down the 5 skills he is referring to? Which skills do you still need to sharpen to become an even more effective leader? . . .

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5. What is your biggest challenge as a leader within your school and how to do you manage it? . . 6. What is the most important discovery that you have made about yourself as a leader while watching the DVD? . .
Time: 20 Minutes Individually: 15 minutes Groups: 5 minutes

ACTIVITY

My influence
My life shall touch a dozen lives Before this day is done. Leave countless marks of good or ill, Eer sets the evening sun. This, the wish I always wish, The prayer I always pray: Lord, may my life help other lives It touches by the way. ~ John C. Maxwell ~ Every teacher is a leader because every teacher influences other people. Leaders can be identified by the influence they have on other people within the school. Any school has the greatest chance of being successful when all of the stakeholders work toward achieving its goals. Since leadership involves the exercise of influence by one person over others, the quality of leadership exhibited by the teachers is a critical determinant of a schools success. Teachers can learn about leadership through research. A traditional definition of leadership: Leadership is a dynamic interpersonal relationship based on mutual influence and common goal between leaders and collaborators in which both are moved to higher levels of motivation and M3 Quality School Improvement Consultancy CC 4

moral development as they affect real, intended change. (Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg) Three important parts of this definition are the terms interpersonal, influence, and goal. Interpersonal means between persons. Thus, a leader has more than one person (group) to lead. Influence is the power to affect others. Goal is the end one strives to attain. Point for Reflection: John Maxwell is asking two questions regarding the influence of any leader: 1. Will you unleash your leadership potential? 2. Will you use your leadership skills to better mankind?

ACTIVITY

Individual: 10 minutes Group: 10 minutes

WHAT IS INTEGRITY?
IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT OF LEADERSHIP
Image is what people think we are. INTEGRITY is what we really are. When you always tell the truth, people will trust you. When you do as promised, they will RESPECT you. When you make people feel special, THEY WILL LIKE YOU. ~ John Maxwell ~

Why is INTEGRITY so important?

1. It builds Trust The leader must build and maintain credibility. Subordinates must be able to trust that their leader will act in good faith toward them. Cavett Roberts once said: If my people understand me, Ill get their attention. If they trust me, Ill get their action. 2. It has high INFLUENCE VALUE We tend to forget the high influence value integrity has on followers, especially in our schools where learners minds are changed through observation and not argument. Children do what they see. 3. It facilitates HIGH STANDARDS Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers. What we have in our country is M3 Quality School Improvement Consultancy CC 5

a sound Bill of Rights, but what we urgently need is a Bill of Responsibilities. John D. Rockefeller Jr. said: I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. 4. It results in a SOLID REPUTATION, not just image All of us have known those who were not the same on the outside as they were inside. Are you the same person no matter who you are with? Thomas Macauley said: the measure of a mans real character is what he would do if he would never be found out. 5. It means LIVING IT BY MYSELF before leading others We cannot lead anyone else further than we have been ourselves. Too many times we are more concerned about the end result (product) we try to shortcut the process. There are no shortcuts when integrity is involved.

4 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE 21ST CENTURY TEACHERS

We hear a lot about the 21st century learner but what about the 21st century teacher? There is an expectation that teachers will teach values, so we must model the behaviours that we expect from our learners. We are often the most consistent part of their life, seeing them more often, for longer and more reliably than even their parents. The 21st century teacher also models tolerance, global awareness, and reflective practice, whether its the quiet, personal inspection of their teaching and learning, or through blogs, twitter and other media, effective educators look both inwards and outwards. To have anywhere, anytime learning, the teacher must be anywhere and anytime. The 21st century teacher is fluent in tools and technologies that enable communication and collaboration. They go beyond learning just how to do it; they also know how to facilitate it, stimulate and control it, moderate and manage it. 1. Be an Authentic Leader Authentic leadership is about being true to the self, acting with passion and integrity, having respect and love for others Imagination is a crucial component of the educator of today and tomorrow. They must look across the disciplines and through the curricula; they must see the potential in the emerging tools and Web technologies, grasp these and manipulate them to serve their needs. If we look at the technologies we currently see emerging, M3 Quality School Improvement Consultancy CC 6

how many are developed for education? Reflection: _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ 2. Build relationships. In this technology-driven era, it is more critical than ever that we foster relationships with and between our learners. We must model and demand courtesy, we must model and demand communication, and we must model and demand respect and cooperationour learners need us to show them how to treat each other. Interpersonal relationship skills must be taught in our classrooms so that our learners can go on to be effective in the workplace and fulfilled in their lives. Helping learners learn lifes lessons is becoming increasingly more importantinterpersonal relationships, letting learners know teachers genuinely care for themand will help learners be more successful in life. Reflection: _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ 3. Be an Effective teacher Harnessed as we are to an assessment-focused education model, the 21st century educator must be able to adapt the curriculum and the requirements to teach to the curriculum in imaginative ways. They must also be able to adapt software and hardware designed for a business model into tools to be used by a variety of age groups and abilities. They must also be able to adapt to a dynamic teaching experience. When it all goes wrong in the middle of a class, when the technologies fail, the show must go on. Blogger, Wikispaces, Bebo, MSN, MySpace, Second life, Twitter, RSS as an educator we must be able to leverage these collaborative tools to enhance and captivate our learners. We, too, must be collaborators; sharing, contributing, adapting and inventing. Reflection: _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ 4. Be a lifelong learner. We expect our students to be life-long learners. Teachers, must continue to M3 Quality School Improvement Consultancy CC 7

absorb experiences and knowledge, as well. We must endeavour to stay current. To be a teacher, you must learn and adapt as the horizons and landscapes change. I have found that not only for teachers, but anyone involved with using technology to enhance their productivity, whether it be in manufacturing, sales and marketing, science and research, or education, the most important quality is to be a flexible, life-long learner, willing to accept and embrace change, willing to make a mistake and be wrong (with the caveat that from those mistakes improvements are made and new skills are learned), and to keep the focus on the process and the outcome, rather than the tool. After all, when the day is over, technology are simply tools to improve our quality of life; when they fail to do that, its time to invent new tools. Chuck Dinsfriend, MBA, CTO mentor, director of Information Technology Reflection: _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________

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