The other element of the course standard is Developing Shared Vision. This element emphasizes leaders’ engagement and collaborative process to develop a vision of teaching, and learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders (CPSELs, 2016). The article Requiring Collaboration or Distributing Leadership? underlines that “when teachers and principals share leadership in school, both the adults and students win” (Kennedy, Deuel, Nelson & Slavit, 2011). From this article I learned the importance of seeking, recognizing and using teachers’ expertise through differentiated top-down and the lateral decision-making process, as well as culture building through dialogue and collaborative inquiry (Kennedy, Deuel, Nelson & Slavit, 2011, p.21). …show more content…
Fullan suggests to be aware of the “fat plans” that might look great on paper but mean nothing unless they come alive through practice (2014, p.131). The author also encourages leaders to make sure the plan has shared ownership, meets everyone’s approval and affects everyone (Fullan, 201, p.130). This chapter became a reflection moment for me helping me analyzing my planning and implementation practices.
The online discussion of the article Requiring Collaboration or Distributing Leadership? was focused more on the practical side of collaboration at our schools. Since my school is small and has only one grade level per teacher, I had a dilemma how to start effective collaboration for everyone. The group gave me several great ideas. One of them was to start observing teachers of their grade level in other schools. I really liked this idea because it’s a great first step toward collaboration without putting a lot of pressure on the teachers. (Kivley, Votaw, Alan, MacDonald, online chat, September 15,