Leadership in Technology

As I reflect on the reading and discussion that we have been doing so far I have really tried to think about what kind of leader I am.  When I think of leader one of the first things I think about is the control that a leader possesses.  Yes, being a leader is much more than being in control, but I do feel that how you handle the control determines the type of leader that you are. 

I do know that I like being in control, sometimes I can be a bit of a control freak I guess.  A lot of times my mode of leadership depends on the situation that I am in.  For example, I am a new mom and when it comes to my son I feel that it is my way or the highway.  The only person that I feel has to right to share that area of control is my husband.  We want to be positive, Godly leaders for him in every aspect of his life. 

In my work environment I don't mind being a follower.  I teach reading (which is not one of my favorite areas) so when our reading team is planning I am more than willing to sit back and let others take control.  However, when it comes to something that I feel more passionately about or something that is my brainchild I do have a harder time not taking the reigns.  I tend to like to step up more when I feel comfortable.  Technology is one of those things. 

This school year I have been taking a different approach in my classroom.  I have gotten brave and decided to take on technology with fifth graders.  Let me tell you, that is an eye-opening experience.  I have had to become their sensei!  I work with a lot of low socioeconomic students and many of them do not even have computers at home so this has been an adventure.  When teaching students to use a technology that they are not all that familiar with there has to be a level of patience.  It is so easy to get frustrated when they don't know what you mean by "copy" or "file" or even "right-click".  I have a tendency to want to just do it for them, but I know that I can't.  I have to take a step back and then give them step by step directions. 

My students have been very successful and I am so proud of them.  They are completely engaged in my classroom now and I think that they are even taking more of an ownership of their learning experience.  As  leader that is an area that I still have control over, but I have been able to hand it over to them. 

All of this brings me to what we talked about in our meeting; what does success look like?  Well, in my classroom I feel that my administrator can walk in a see that my students are having some true success.  We have stepped out of the box in my reading class and we no longer use the basal textbook.  Our reading is all novels and short stories.  My students are grouped by their instructional reading level and each group is reading a different novel.  Trying to get students to have a conversation about their book is like pulling teeth.  You run into students who don't want to talk out of fear that they will be wrong, students who don't do the reading and so on. 

This year I have begun using Edmodo with my reading class.  I use it for exit tickets, reviews and reading discussions.  I no longer sit at a table with my students trying to pump information out of them.  They are now facilitating their own discussions and really digging into the meat of their novels.  I think that this is really helping my students because they are learning some real life skills on the computers, they are more inspired to get into their novels so that they can work on Edmodo and they are not as reserved about talking because they are able to think about what they are going to type. 

I believe my students and I have reached a level of success in our classroom.  I gauge that success based on the fact that they are all engaged, they are all learning and they are learning to manage their own learning.