LearnHub

Summary of the Learn Hub experiment:

I started out this topic with a question about the growth of a community in a school. How one would need to control it yet allow their employees to have a community that will allow for growth. I ask the question how this is done at your school? The responses where great. I was not sure of the overall tone or how the question would go over but it took and so I am very pleased.

What came out was a great sense that all administrators need to allow for teachers to rise to any occasion and allow them to also fail. Through failure comes some of life’s greatest lessons. However, it must be said that when one fails there should be some sort of safety net that we can fall into rather than hitting a hard floor. It is clear that only threw such things a PLC’s can this be accomplished. These groups are set up for sharing. Sharing ideas, beliefs, knowledge, and failures is one way that we can soften this blow. This can and should look different in every school community. What should not look different is the attitude of school leaders who needs to bring out the best in each teacher they have.

Motivation and management are two important things that directly affect the success of any organization. In order that employees reach a level of higher understanding and productivity they must be motivated and managed properly. In order to have a good grasp on organizational management, a leader must have full control over their employees, however, at the same time it is integral to the learning process that the manager encourages positive social interaction and a self-motivated active learning environment.

I think this all comes back to relationship building. In schools if the teachers feel that they need to protect themselves and have their guard up they might not be willing to take chances and have failures. If this does not happen then there will be no growth. If there is positive reinforcement and good relationship then perhaps if the staff is willing then there can be growth. What is also important is that administration continues to think as educators and allow people to grow with each other and as a community.

I think it is unfair to say we are replacing the roles of parents. However, I think that schools compliment those people buy either introducing student to proper character traits or simply reinforcing these things. I think that one of the most important jobs a teacher can do is to drive home the proper way to act with people in society. It is too bad that this has fallen off the wayside for many teachers. It seems to be that “back in the day” when participation marks were handed out we could reward students for their actions. However, now such a emphasis is placed on math and literacy (very important) we forget about the other parts of education.

It is wrong for schools and their members not to get involved in the lives or their students. This may be a club, sport, organization, charity, and so on. Our job as educators is to teach student in a whole way. Not just about the facts of textbooks. It our student are interested in certain things who are we to stand in their way. I figured we were all in this profession because we wanted to help all sorts of people not just to help in the class room. I educated students in an inner city for a while and came to learn of the fact that many students stay out of gangs, drugs, and other things because they loved a sport or got caught up in a extra curricular activity. This is the power of those things. I hope.

I think that it is important for people who are older to feel like they still belong and are not being forced out the door or are being replaced. This may happen when new technologies are coming out. Although people are still people and mostly the same, there is now an understanding or at least an unfair generalization that more mature individuals are not as computer savvy as the younger generation. It is no surprise then that there is some sense of uneasiness when people of this younger generation begin to enter the work force. Often the idea is “out with the old, in with the new”. This is not the case. According to D.W. Tileston technology has altered the day-to-day lives of everyone. What should be the common practice is for the organization to invite the younger students to lead a seminar on all the new forms of technology that can benefit both the workers and the industry for the more seasoned who perhaps do not have the same computer savvy. There should not be any fear of loosing one’s job from lack of technological education. Especially, if the education is available and the candidate is willing to learn. If these two things are in place there will be no communication breakdown due to age gap. Unless we are talking about types of music … Who are the Rolling Stones?

To most impressive leader I have ever been around was a educator a Niagara university named Paul Vermette. This man had more energy than anyone I have ever been around. He took every flaw a person had and turned into a positive. Because He wanted us to do well we wanted to do well too. No person would ever challenge him on his knowledge and he was strong without being arrogant. He is the reason I teach the way I do today. He is the only “real” person in my life to have this strong of an effect on me. Usually I think I know it all and can do it all this guy made me think that I was only at the beginning of the journey and had some much more to learn and experience. I would love to work with him again.

Like many professional athletes I think that our job is extremely hard to know when to shut it off or turn it down. However, for all of our sanity it must be done. In no other way can we come back to our schools and lead our children down the right path if we are too tired to see that path. On the other side of the token we are a chosen few who have accepted the way of life that is teaching with all of its ups and downs. It is not only a job, not only a profession, but rather a passion that drives all those who are true to it. I feel sorry for any teacher who hates what they do because it is going to be a long hard life. However for those of us who love it you never really stop teacher others and you never really stop thinking about those you teach.

Wow, this is a hard one to grasp. I wonder though if all change needs to be so hard. I would like to think that yes all change does come with emotions, however, I feel that some of those emotions drive us to do great things. Everyone remembers the change of going from grade school to high school, or from college to the working world. All of these changes are needed and I think that most people (not all) are excited for these changes. I guess then that the question is how do we get people to have butterflies in their stomach over the change we want. I guess that this would only be done if the change is a natural step to something better. If all or most people see this change as a way to better themselves and the rest of the community. Excitement is often intrinsic, how do we get to the heart of people?

How do you get the team to buy into your schools’s goal? I think the best way is to look at it like a sports coach.

1.Remember what it was like when you first got hired?

• All too often we as people get caught up in the grind of making money. Pay the phone bill! Pay the Rent! Where will our next pay check come from? These are all natural feelings that most people have. However, for the most part when a person receives a phone call from a potential employer saying that they have been picked, they don’t think about those things. At least not right away. Not until the wants and needs take effect.

•We all remember the feeling of what it was like to go to work for the first time. That feeling of a high that you thought would never go away. What is in store for me here? What are the possibilities for movement? How will this all end up? It is these questions that drive us to look forward to work. However, when a person finds out these answers they quickly loose that high that was to be their driving force for the next decade.

2.Allow people to dream! Then let them live that dream!

• A dream is a very unique and individual thing. It could be as small as wanting to go to a movie with a co-worker or perhaps something as large as wanting to create a company wide daycare. When a person feels that they can live their “dream” they are able to focus on what makes them important to the rest of the team.

3. When you hire make sure you hire for the position of need. When you apply make sure you are applying to the team that you want to play for.

• All too often as a leader of a team we wish to take the “best player available” at the time. It does not matter what the job is; if the person has a MBA or a PhD then we hire them. The best player will make our team stronger. The more education the candidate has the brighter his/her future will be and thus the brighter our company’s future will be. This is often not the case. When we only look for the highest educational standings we leave out perhaps the most important thing in the team equation; The Brick! What is The Brick? The Brick is an idea that we all fit into our place as each brick fits into a perfectly designed building that will stand for centuries to come. Not every brick needs to be on the top of the building. Some bricks need to be the support of the building. Others need to be the bricks that surround the windows or the ones that hold the mortar in place on the third floor. If we only hire top bricks we might not have any bricks to lay the foundation for the building.

4. Who is the weak link? How do we spot them? •The worst thing that a coach can do is to put a player on the field that shouldn’t be there. It can only result in two things, both of them bad. The first is that the player causes the team to do poorly thus not meeting their goal of having fun and winning. The second and more important one is that they may hurt themselves or someone else.

• In the business world one might ask how a player could hurt someone else or themself. If a person is the wrong employee for the job and they don’t fit they will do a poor job. Moreover, when they then are eventually terminated they will have a harder time finding new employment. Subsequently, if a person is wrong for the job the team will suffer. The whole company may be hurt by the actions of that individual. Possibly on the far end of the spectrum bringing down the entire company which could cost numerous people their jobs.

5. Who will be the Quarterback to lead the team?

•All too often the leader of the team wants to be liked rather than lead the way they should. According to Love’em or lead’em, “So you think your workers want a boss they can like? Better think again.” You can be liked by your employees or you can be the leader that they need. However, it would be difficult if not impossible. No coach will be liked by ever player. In fact when I coach if I am liked by all of my players then I am doing something that is not in the best interest of my team. It is more important for the team to run smoothly than for the coach to be liked by all of their players.

• In order for a coach or the principal of the school to be liked they must be able to make the tough decisions. If they are able to make those decisions they will gain the respect of their team. The worst thing any coach can do is to be unsure of what they are doing. Confidence like many great qualities has a trickle down effect. If you as the leader are sure of your ideas and decisions, tough or not they will be the right one and thus respected. Maybe not liked but respected.

6. Good intentions won’t win the Super Bowl.

•Don Meredith who was a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys once said “If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, wouldn’t it be a Merry Christmas”. In a game and in the work force good intentions or “I was going to do that” won’t get your team to the championship. This may seem like it is a harsh thing to say, however, all great teams have goals and ideas and follow through with them. Certainly, sometimes things are out of our control. Yet it is our job as the leader to ensure that our team is in a position to win. Never allow the referee or industry to set the tone for a loss by your team. If a ref blows a call in the last minute of the game which causes your team to loose you have not done your job. The game should be so far out of reach for your opponents that no one play could turn into a loss.

7. Keep the team playing for you.

•Recently Stats Canada released an article that looks at trends from the past 15 years. It stated that Canadian businesses lost the highest number of workdays due to strikes and lockouts in the year 2005. It is very difficult to have a winning team if the team is not on the field. Sometimes the best thing a manager can do is to allow their employees the freedom and ability to grow. However, that growth should be monitored. Instead of allowing a group to organize into a union perhaps agree to a legal document stating that they will receive compensation based on the normal average dependant on the industry standard.

1. Howard, Chris. Canadian Business. Love’em or lead’em: So you think your workers want a boss they can like? Better think again. April 10, 1998 2. Statistics Canada. (2005). Retrived April 13, 2007. Study: Time lost due to work stoppages. http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060823/d060823c.htm

I think it is important to make sure you are speaking the same language. John Gray, the author of “Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus” made reference to the fact that men are speaking Martian and woman are speaking Venusian. This is not the first most have heard of this concept. In fact, most who are married will notice that they may say one thing and at the other end it gets transformed into something else. No one’s brain is the same and that is to be expected. It is how we reacted to the initial words that truly cause or deflect a problem. When we encounter something that we think is not right we should stop and think about what might have been meant. Often the meaning of what is being said is the same as what is thought. However, for the time that it will save taking 5 seconds to pause and clarify wont hurt.

I really think this is a great question. There are a few Gender books out there that talk about the same thing. How women in the work places or politics are often seen as mean or worse when they come across as strong. Where as if a man comes across as strong they are seen as just that, strong. I think that men and women will always have different choices to make when faced with hard times. What is more, it is clear that as long as men and women see each other as different we will always be different. What a great and interesting topic. I think it is very neat that we are all so passionate about how we are treated in schools by parents, staff, students, and administrators. I think what is important is, that we remember that we don’t want to let our personal bias to be felt when we become administrators. It’s often hard to remember all of the time but we are all human, with human feelings and flaws.

Although I do respect your opinion in this matter it seems to me that you are making a hasty generalization about one incident or person. I wonder if this is the case with the whole staff or just one person. I think this could be reversed in many schools. How often do we hear about preferential treatment within work places from either side of the spectrum? Within schools there seems to be a gender gape between both male teacher and female teachers and male students and female students. I think that this goes back to grade school. It seems that for the most part school favors females (historically the way that they are set up) according to many theorists. As where young males are more hyper and social than that of young females. I think that this translates to the work place when they are older. I think that questions is, which is more important the process or the outcome. Is it wise for humans to compare their relationships to that of another? I have seen many females who possess greater skill than any man they come across in both life and leisure. I think that the key is and will always be building relationships with those around us. Moreover, part of building relationships is knowing when to follow the rules to a T, or when to perhaps deal with situations through feeling it out. The most important thing in our job is to feel like we are backed up on our decisions. Perhaps talking to your principal about the lack of support you receive or feel you receive is better than being upset about the over support your co-worker receives. Hope this helps.