
“Leadership is action, not a position” by Donald McGannon

- Model
- Experience
- Share
- Trust
Model:
A leader in the classroom models the type of behavior and learning they want to see and encourage in their students. They are transparent in their own learning process, they do not hide mistakes or failures, their make their thinking, learning and process visible for others to reconstruct and follow. Leaders model by example not by ” Do as I say”.
Experience:
A leader in the classroom gives students the opportunities to experience the learning. Leaders in the classroom don’t skip steps because it is easier, less time consuming and possibly more convenient. By the same token, leaders are ready to experience and embrace new situations, new skills, new learning opportunities alongside their students. Leaders put themselves in the position of learners and don’t continue to only draw on experiences from another lifetime (when they were young or from a pre-technology world). Leaders encourage, value, support and celebrate “sticking your neck out” in order to experience new paths.
Share:
A leader celebrates, highlights and shares their classroom learning community’s accomplishments. The leader takes on the responsibility of documenting and strategically amplifying through a variety of venues. This can range from face to face in-school sharing opportunities to district, national or international conferences as well as online social network platforms (Ex. blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, Diigo)
Trust:
A leader in the classroom is always working on establishing and strengthening trust as an integral component of that leadership flow. Trust is the component that “lubricates” the movement of the flow. Leaders always seek and take advantage of opportunities to gain trust but also learn to trust their students.
While I agree in principle with the ideas presented, I perceive a teacher centrism that ultimately diminishes the leadership students must share for their mutual enrichment.
I like your four components of “Leadership”. Model, experience, Share, and trust. What great examples of what it means to be a leader in the classroom. As a future educator, I am beginning to understand the importance in embracing constructive criticism, and growing from it. A true leader will admit they do not know everything, but they will learn from it and share their new knowledge with others.
Hi! I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed reading your post on leadership. Obviously, this is a huge component in being a successful educator, and I really gained a lot from the examples you provided for the 4 ways to succeed in the “leadership flow”. I like how you said that leaders model by example and not “do as I say”. This stuck out a lot for me. Thank you for such a great post!
Taylor Calvi
I love the strategies you used to make the leadership role important. I agree with you completely 100%. I am so glad I was able to read your post and cannot wait to read more.
I am a student EDM 310. I love the 4 components you broke leadership down into. This will be very helpful in my classroom.
I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I love your illustration and description of leadership in the classroom. Students naturally follow by example. As teachers, students need to be able to follow us as examples as to what is expected of them. Our example of learning should inspire them to further their own learning.
I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I like how you gave the four components of the “Leadership Flow” and described each. In order to be an effective leader, one must model behavior, give the students the opportunity to learn on their own and share their idea with their peers. Also, teachers should develop trust within each other. For a future teacher, this information was very important to me. Thanks.
My name is Eva Mareno, and I am a student of EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post about demonstrating leadership in the classroom. Those four components are very important to establishing leadership effectively in the classroom.
One of your quotes you posted that really stood out to me was, “Leadership is action, not a position,” by Donald McGannon. I could not agree with this statement more. I think it is so important that people are acting on the word “leadership” not just considering themselves to be in some kind of position or role. A lot of times, leadership is shown without any designated position. I agree with each of your components: mode, experience, share. and trust. I think another component that could be added is: learner. In order to be a leader, you must want to learn about how you can become better, as well as how to improve your knowledge in any way that you can. Learning about others is also a good way to be a successful leader. When you are knowledgeable about the people you work with, you are more considerate because you know them well.