Leadership

In the world of academia, I've found the idea of LEADERSHIP weird at times. It seems we're always looking for it -- both on the faculty and administrative sides of the little universe known as higher education.

I work at a community college where microcosms of interpersonal skills bubble over in some extreme complex people play during meetings, e-mails, and hallway talk. For the close observer, these conversations come easily like the multiple voices of a schizophrenic trying to decide what to where today that will make her appear pulled together.

Those engaged in the conversations are like the many voices, simply looking for leadership. How do we increase retention? Enforce pre-reqs? Balance the budget? Increase professional development without offending the professional? Accountability, where is it? Whose is it? Mine? Yours? What about the leadership? What are they doing?

Then it dawns on everyone -- What is leadership to us? It's at that point we fall apart , we're unlike the the person with all the voices in her heard; we don't know how to recognize or manage leadership yet. So she leaves her house, fully dressed and appearing pulled together, knowing that one day she'll have to do the work to really heal.

Still she has us beat because we'd be content with appearing pulled together.

Space week 7

Greetings:

I really enjoy the open study space in Cook building. I sat down for my 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. office hours and now it's past two.

Over the past several weeks, I've seen and spoken to a diverse group of college employees. It's been pleasing serving two birds with one stone. I'm aware not everyone is interested in using their office time so publicly, but for me it's been worth the effort. I tend not to seek out people, crowds, or on campus action. My office serves as a secure nesting point (which I know is still there). Hey, I've even had my second student conversation of the semester!

Space the next 5 weeks

Weeks two - six:

I'm glad I scheduled an hour office time in the classroom because it allows me to arrive early enough to move the tables. The students move the tables too. It could be something about the creative writing student that makes them not want to face forward in neat rows.

I'm loving the white board most! We have a writing routine on Tuesdays, each student comes in and puts his/her chapter section notes on the board. They have about 20 minutes to copy them down and BOOM! notes are done and we proceed through them. I spend more time additional information and less waiting for notes to go on limited board space.

I've had no issues with technology, except forgetting my own power cord.

I'm not happy about not being able to teach in this space in the future.

having my office hours in the student lounge may not have been such a good idea. I've got to beat students there for a seat! I do like holding my hours in an open space. There's more security and still room for private discussions about student work. I've not had an increase in student traffic. They're still waiting for the last few weeks of the semester I think!

I do plan on holding my conferences there.

First Weeks in a New Space

Orientation
I was excited about the new teaching space and room 107, until I saw room 109... It has round tables! I thought automatic groups! Yes!! I requested, verbally, a room change. I thought it would be done and didn't double check. But there was a shadow in my mind as Tuesday came around and I went to 109 anyway to set up. Sure enough the Math professor came and was surprised to see me there. I packed up and went down to 107. I was still relatively happy and didn't think to make a fuss over the round tables.

I know I'd use the lounge space for office hours. I have office hours scheduled there on Tuesdays from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. This semester I have early morning hours in the classroom itself 6:45 - 7:45.

Week one:

I wish I had round tables, plain and simple. Still the white boards gave me some continued comfort. I moved the rectangular tables into "T" shapes where 5 students could sit in a grouping. I was short one table for completing sort of configuration for all the tables in the room, t works.

I used the white board right away. There weren't enough dry erase markers so I make a point to bring extra ones to every class.

The world is flat so Learn How To Learn

Greetings:

Friedman has four criteria for how education might prepare people for living in a flat world. Not a single one of them are based on knowing a specific area of study (not to say this is not important, it’s just not the emphasis). He places emphasis on HOW TO LEARN. This was one of the more poignant points for me. One of the questions I sometimes ask my students (now I think I should always ask it) is for them to tell me how they learn. If they don’t know I tell them they need to find out pretty quickly!

The first criterion for an educational foundation in a flat world is Learning How To Learn.

So what does it mean to learn how to learn? A colleague recently shared with me that he didn’t learn how to learn until college. We both agreed that is a bit too late. However, just because it’s late doesn’t mean helping students learn how to learn is not our domain. It is.

This “Learning how to Learn” idea came up recently at this year’s “Future of the Black Community in Grand Rapids” an annual dialogue hosted by several young community leaders. A young local high school student asked the panel of seasoned community members the following question:

You say students don’t want to learn, but why can’t learning be more interesting and in a place where kids wanted to become excited about learning? I want to wake up and want to go to school.

The response he got left me cold. He was told that schools can’t tailor themselves for every student and at some point students have to learn how to conform because there are goals schools must meet.

As I think about what the young man said, I truly believe his question was one of teaching people how to learn thereby getting them invested and excited about learning (my comment was going to be something like that but I didn’t get to give them because the dialogue ran quite over its time).

Friedman’s response to the 9th grader who asked him a similar question was to take classes with teachers who have a passion for teaching. The course subject matter is secondary because we need to focus on knowing how to learn and developing a passion (or at least a habit) for learning.

The second criterion Friedman gives is to be born with or develop a passion for learning—develop your Curiosity quotient (CQ) and Passion quotient (PQ). A high IQ alone does not translate into success (it never has and Friedman fries this idea more in a flat world context).

The world is flat-- so Get Untouchable...

Greetings:
I'm not sure many of us will disagree with Friedman that future jobs will require the right knowledge, skills, ideas, and self-motivation.

When I teach I have three of these four criteria in mind (I'm still working on figuring out how to deal with a student's self-motivation). If future employment really depends on justifying our skill set everyday then our educational institutions must step up quickly, efficiently and creatively. Since, as we've witnessed for ourselves and as Friedman points out "there is no such thing as an American job."

According to Friedman, “there is no sugar coating the new challenge every young American today would be wise to think of himself or herself as competing against every young Chinese, Indian, and Brazilian.” We’ve already arrived at a point, says Friedman, where we must understand globalization on an individual basis. As I reflect on my work as an educator I realize we are quite behind in helping learners understand how they must personalize thinking globally.

I love the advice Friedman gives when talking about how he’d advise his own children: “Girls when I was growing up, my parents used to say to me ‘Tom finish your dinner, people in China and India are starving.’ My advice to [my] girls [is] finish your homework, people in china and India are starving for your job.”

The World Is Flat? A First Response...

Greetings:

I've been assigned to read Thomas L. Friedman's bookk The Wolrd Is Flat. I'm done. Here's my first (of several) responses...

After finishing Friedman's The World is Flat I’m very intrigued at how a significant amount of his economic study is tied, inextricably, to education. There is more work to be done in education than we’ve been articulating and acting on! His work continues to empress the need for individuals to become life-long learners. What I found most thought provoking about his work is where information on education appears in the text. It is simply everywhere, there’s not like one section where education is covered. Sure, there are concentrations of educational talk, but Friedman manages (out of necessity, I think) to mention educational influences on “the flat world” in areas of the text where the subject at hand isn’t necessarily education only.

Friedman’s assertions about getting more people into community colleges serves as a both great kudos and challenges to institutions like ours. So what are we to do? Well earlier this year I was introduced to the life-long learning approach used by the Koning Willem I College in the Netherlands. Their teaching/learning approach was phenomenal as indicated by their presentation at the Chair Leadership conference, last April. I found their presentation so fascinating and intriguing that break time was an intrusion into what we learning. The college’s mission statement: School for the future devotes itself to a solid future and better world.

Coen Free, the college’s president, has written a brief overview of their approach to life-long learning (24 pages) titled Moving from a Campus Centered Environment to a Learning Village. I think it’s a must read (I’ve got copies for anyone interested in reading it). This community college is considered one of the most innovative in Europe. Currently they have a special project called School for the Future – “a very innovative Center for Teaching and Learning, E-Learning and Creative Thinking” endeavor. I so want to go there and absorb a bit more!

Issue #1 How do you see your role as (a leader) complex?

Well here's a little from me...

I see my role as more complex than I'd imagined. I'm not sure I enjoy the idea of being a leader. Actually the complexity of the role I'm experiencing is the betwixt space of an emergent leader which requires a different lens for viewing this whole COMPLEX ROLE stuff. Let's be honest, of all the complexly rolled leaders out there, a few must be a little like me... waking up in the middle of the day or night panicky wondering how'd I gotten here on the road to leaderdom when just yesterday, it seemed, I was enjoying my work! Ah-ha that's it someone in leader-kingdom saw me enjoying my work, striving to share that enjoyment and called it leadership.

And by golly they are right.

People who enjoy both their work and sharing that joy with others are probably good candidates for leadership roles. Being a candidate for more full-time leadership roles, I think, is the most tenuous space in one's career since adolescence. You remember -- all the adults expecting more intelligent thoughts and actions all of the time and both at the same time! When in reality you could only deliver both those things maybe aout 71.5% of the time.

So I'm rethinking this complex role of a leader as the complex role of an emergent leader. Now that nails the place I'm livin' right now. Here in the emergent leader space on the downside -- I spend time trying to figure out processes, understanding alliances, jumping the gun to see things done and doing more work than necessary to complete tasks. However, on the upside -- I have colleagues who stir me back when I go astray, help me gather my patience, take the time to understand my eclectic personality, and share my need to figure out how things are done (or can be done better).



So for me, the complex role of the emergent leader is a space worth exploring. Hey it's where I live right now! Of course if you're destined to be a leader nothing is going to stop that from happening (not even one's want to live in the shadows) but I still say there's some benefit to accept being a leader means reflecting on the road that leads there.

Yelp, brotha/sista... that's how I see my role as complex.

THE END

Looking Forward to Mentor Phase

Greetings:

We know there is...

So our email blitz has begun. Looking for a time to reconnect before next year is only one of our challenges. The more daunting one… finding mentors. Sure some of us left with high expectations of asking transformative yet elusive leaders on our campuses; some of us more daring a head off into the community, local government, or non-profit sectors; a few of us challenge ourselves not to be so predictable and look in unusual places, or turn to more experienced colleagues, or community entrenched emeritus(es) of something.

At any rate we’ll gather our gem or settle for what we can get and begin our journey into mentee-dom. Armed, we are with clear expectations and tools to dig through the year and reap all potential benefits our mentors’ wisdom promises to reveal.

To work, to work, we go!

The First 2005-06 Academy Blog

Yes, this blog existed first so check it out for lots of information http://faculty.blogspot.com/