As an educational leader, emotional intelligence is a key component to working with all stakeholders, from students, teachers, support teams, community partners, and families. As an emotionally intelligent leader, I am aware of who I am, my strengths and weaknesses and what is within and outside of my control; I maintain an awareness of the culture and vibes of my surroundings and strive to hold space for the individuals around me to be their best and truest selves. I always want to assume positive intent, which to me means that everyone is doing their best in every situation.
Collaborative Instructional Leadership
As a classroom teacher, I learned the importance of self-reflection. Whether reflecting on the success of a lesson, the reactions of individual students, my tone of voice or actions, I learned to always look to myself first to improve situations. I learned the importance of learning more to impact student learning better, managing my own reactions to de-escalate situations, and learning about the individual needs in my classroom to best meet students where they are and discover ways to challenge them.
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These skills have transferred to my leadership roles. I make an effort to know the people I work with and give them space to be themselves while challenging them to grow and learn. In many cases with adults, this is evidenced by our collaborative conversations and collective decision-making. I strive to listen to those around me for input and suggestions, valuing their professionalism and judgment and sharing with them rationales for why I make the decisions I ultimately make. One of many examples of this is the collective goal my PLC team wrote this year and our subsequent plans to meet this goal.
This year, we practiced collaborative conversations and collective decision-making, first by defining "collective teacher efficacy" and listing ways in which we are building a culture of teacher empowerment. Then, we discussed the School Improvement Plan goal about student engagement, discussing how as teachers we could best impact this need. We wrote a collective goal and regularly have discussions about our classroom practices and we have held multiple rounds of peer observations to gather ideas from one another for improving our own teaching.
Self-Awareness
Over multiple iterations of my Strength Finder results, I have learned more about how I view professional situations. In my latest iteration of Lead with Your Strengths, my top 5 results were Learner, Strategic, Achiever, Relator, and Analytical. We took this assessment as part of the LAUNCH program through OPS’ leadership initiative.
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In a Zoom meeting, the Gallup presenter asked us to share what each of us loved most about our strengths, and I realized that I found all of my strengths a blessing and a challenge. My natural inclination in situations is to immediately begin looking for cause and effect, solutions, and potential outcomes for each situation. My personal challenge with this characteristic is slowing down to consider the human impact of these things.
Relational Management
From growing up in a family whose values of treating others well were instilled at a young age and in a small town where your reputation was based on your respectability, I have always endeavored to make friends and build partnerships wherever I go. This is especially true in the Omaha educational community. As a teacher, I strive to work as a team. As a leader, I work to find resources. As a person, I treat everyone with dignity and respect. Throughout my educational leadership journey, there are several key points on this path.
LAUNCH Program
In the 2022-23 school year, I was selected to participate in the Omaha Public Schools Launch program for future district leaders. Throughout this journey, I was able to make connections with the leader of Professional Development with the district, shadow the Teaching and Learning Consultant for the Teen Literacy Center, shadow the Assistant Data Principal at Marrs Middle School, and meet many other key leaders in a variety of departments around the district.
Additionally, I was able to make connections with the districts future Principals, Assistant Principals, Instructional Facilitators and so forth. These connections have already helped me maintain motivation in furthering my professional aspirations and been great resources of information and consult.
MOEC: Educational Ambassador
As a result of my participation in the Launch program, I was asked by the district to represent teachers in the Metropolitan Omaha Educational Consortium as a Teacher Ambassador in the 2023-24 school year.
Throughout the year, teachers from around the Metropolitan area have met together once a month for five hours at a time to learn from leaders in the consortium. Teachers have been placed in teams to present in May on the teacher shortage issues facing all of education. My group, consisting of 4 members from 4 area districts, are presenting a media campaign we call #MyTeacherVoice, where we intend to encourage building and district leaders to offer opportunities for their teachers to share their best and most joyful moments with one another and then with the community to raise consciousness about the joy teachers have for the occupation. The opportunity for teachers to feel heard and seen increases job satisfaction and elevates the conversation around the teaching profession.
Learning from leaders and teachers from around the district has given me an opportunity to understand the complexities issues and the range of solutions that are being pursued in the metro area. The time spend with highly motivated teacher leaders from around the metro has also increased my passion for the profession as a whole.
UNO Educational Leadership: TIES and Lead Like a Mav Events
My time in the UNO Educational Leadership program has been essential to creating lasting supportive and professional relationships. Throughout my courses, I have grown to know many educators from my district who have been helpful as I continue my leadership journey. Additionally, participating in the TIES and Lead Like a Mav events hosted by the program has given me insight into a variety of topics and exposed me to a variety of stories of leadership and learning.
Professional Growth
When my grandma would tell me “Education is the one thing one can take away from you” I took her to her word and became a perpetual learner.
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This is evident throughout my career in the form of formal learning through degrees and certifications, but also through my memberships in professional organizations, including NSLA, NSCA, and ISTE/ASCD.
