21st Century Ed Leadership Reflection

The course, 21st Century Ed Leadership, has been one of my favorites throughout this program. I liked it so much because it felt very aligned to the work I do as a TOSA in our district. We plan district-wide PD, plan staff meetings, and periodically observe other staff members, so I really enjoyed digging into resources tied to these topics to help improve what I'm already doing.

My favorite assignment in this course was the walk-through. In my opinion, educators do not have enough opportunities to observe each other. In my TOSA role, I am constantly in other people's classrooms and I have to say, there is just SO much talent across our district! We have amazing things happening at all grade levels and at all buildings, and it would be so beneficial if teachers could have more time to observe and learn from each other. This walk-through form helped me to narrow my focus when going into a teacher's classroom to observe for technology integration. It made the observation so much more targeted and the conversations after the observation much more productive. I plan to continue to use this form with teachers who are asking for feedback on their lessons.

Another assignment that I really enjoyed was the PD plan. As a TOSA, I am planning PD all the time! However, I enjoyed the challenge to incorporate Malcom Knowles' Theory of Andragogy into the plan. Thinking about how adult learners learn best put a different focus on the plan and I really tried to incorporate opportunities for self-guided exploration, discussion, choice, and application of learning into my one-day PD plan. I focused this plan on learning about the SAMR model in a "train the trainer" workshop. I look forward to planning future PD sessions, keeping adult learning theory at the forefront!