School Leadership

 

 

Scratch the surface of an excellent school and you are likely to find an excellent principal. Peer into a failing school and you will find weak leadership. In today’s climate of heightened expectations, principals are in the hot seat to improve teaching and learning. They need to be educational visionaries, instructional and curriculum leaders, assessment experts, disciplinarians, community builders, public relations experts, budget analysts, facility managers, special programs administrators, and expert overseers of legal, contractual, and policy mandates and initiatives. They are expected to broker the often-conflicting interests of parents, teachers, students, and district office officials. They need to be sensitive to the widening range of student needs. This job sounds overwhelming, however to be a school leader is not just something a position or a prestige. School principal undergoes a critical role since the success of the school greatly depends on them.

Principals play a vital role in setting the direction for successful school. However, the knowledge on the best ways to prepare and develop highly qualified school leaders are rarely to be found.  That is why we can only pinpoint principals that are really effective. School leaders need to have effective leadership. If they don’t have this, for sure minimal learning will take place. School leaders, beginning with the principal or head teacher must provide strong leadership that sets a tone for the daily operations of the school community. In the absence of such leadership, discipline breaks down and academics falter. School leadership is not just about walking the halls and telling students to “tuck in their shirts.” Rather, it is about dynamic modeling that encourages and promotes excellence in every aspect of the school community.

In the school where I am teaching, there is indeed an evident of effective school leadership. And that is because we have an effective school leader. The characteristics of being an effective leader can be mirrored to our principal. She knows how to deal with all the people in the school community, make good decisions, handle her teachers professionally and make plans constructively. She knows how to deal problems of students, teachers and even parents. She is a visible principal. You can always see her in her office, corridors, classrooms, and faculty room. She is also a dynamic school leader. She enters the classroom not to find problems but to offer solutions, share recommendations, and encourage and affirm good performance. She encourages excellence while promoting a community spirit of collaboration. She is able to identify emerging issues and problems and swiftly deal with them in a positive way. She is indeed a good and effective leader.

That is why, if given a chance to be a school leader in the near future, I would likely to be the same with our principal. A principal with vision, character and commitment for the success of the school program and fulfillment of the school’s mission, vision and objectives. All for the greater glory of God.

The Leadership Inside Me

            Good leaders are hard to find. Not everybody has given by God with innate ability to lead. Lucky are those who have in-born traits of good leadership since it just comes naturally in them. As I look at myself way back ten years ago, I could say that I really don’t have that ability to lead people. It’s difficult for me to convince my classmates to follow my plans for a certain activity or project because I don’t know how to convince them. I don’t know how to communicate with them that they will believe in me. When I was a high school student, I used to be chosen as a leader in a group maybe because I usually excel in academic subjects. However, in handling the group, I find it difficult to organize, to plan, and to manage my members. I don’t know what should be done. I usually do our group project by myself, which is not good. I realized that I am not an effective leader because I did not give them the opportunity to learn. I did not push them to think and discover things. Although I can say that there are also some characteristics in me that are good in being a leader like I do have the vision and I am also trustworthy, but I know it is not enough to become an effective and efficient leader.

When I step up college, that’s the time where I slowly develop my skills and abilities to lead. I was elected as treasurer for two consecutive years in the College of Education at Capitol University. I believe that not only those who have innate abilities to lead become good leaders, but also those who are given opportunities to lead. Through experiences we develop our leadership skills. Aside from that, leadership seminars and workshops also help us to become effective leaders. However, although I have attended different seminars and workshops in team building and leadership training, I know that my experiences is still not enough to regard myself as a good leader. When I try to look at the characteristics of a good leader, I realized that there are still so many traits that I need to develop. Now that I am already a teacher, there is really a need to improve my leadership skills since our principal and administrators strongly believe in our capabilities to handle different organizations, programs and affairs in school. It’s quite difficult to handle such things, but with the help of my principal and co-teachers I slowly learn how to deal with it. I am actually learning a lot from our principal. She taught me how to build confidence in me and believe in my capabilities. She pushes me to become a good leader because she believes that I do have the qualities to become one.

For three years of teaching, I could say that I was able to improve my leadership skills through the experiences I had. I’ve been into different programs in school where I stand as a leader and I can say that most of the programs I handled are successfully done. However, I still keep on learning how to really become an effective leader because I know I still have so many things to learn. And for sure with the help of the people that surrounds me, I know I would become a great leader someday like the leader I admired most.

The Leader I Want To Be

In every phase of our life, we encounter different leaders of different personalities and characteristics. When we are born in this world, we have regarded our parents us our ultimate leaders for they are the ones who lead and guide our life. When we are send by our parents to school, our teachers became our next leaders. They are the ones who direct our goals and visions in life. Some of our classmates became our leaders too, especially when we are group by our teacher to work us one for a specific task to be done. These people that I have mentioned are just few of the persons whom we considered leaders. These people have different characteristics and personalities. Some leaders whom we encountered have good characteristics which we regarded as good leaders while some have poor characteristics as a leader.

Since I was a child, I have encountered leaders of different personalities. I can say that some leaders have an in-born ability to lead while some are just trying to be a good leader. For 24 years of existing in this world, I have found a woman whom I regarded as my mentor, my mother, and my leader. She is the person who has all the characteristics of a good leader. The woman whom I am referring to is Madam Palaran C. Algar. We call her Madam Lucky. From her name itself, she is really a lucky woman and the school where she works is also very lucky to have her. She is the Academic Chairman for Grade School and High School department of Sacred Heart of Jesus Montessori School, the school where I am teaching. I have known Ms. Lucky since the year 2008. That is the year when I was employed as a grade school teacher. 

 Madam Lucky has been the Academic Chairman in SHJMS for nine years. In her previous employment, she is also the principal in OLES, a private school in Manolo Fortitch, Bukidnon for more than ten years. If we are to look at the number of years she has served as a principal, we can really say that she grows to be a good leader through her experiences.

For three years of serving as a grade school teacher in SHJMS, I can really say that I have grown professionally and even personally. And this is because of the leadership of our dear Academic Chairman. I can really say that Madam Lucky is the leader that I want to be because she has almost all the good characteristics to become a good leader. First, she has the vision. She is able to think, considering the future and giving it equal importance as the present. She also convinces us, the teachers, and makes us understand the need for change, which will ultimately result in the achievement of our common goals. Second, she is passionate about her work. She is our motivator. If Madam Lucky doesn’t have the passion for her work, it would be difficult for her to motivate us to do the same. She leads us by example and willing to do dirty work. She comes to school early and stays late to finish all the paper works. She also do some works which is not already in line with her work. Like watering the plants in the morning even if we have janitors to do it. She also sometimes visits our faculty office and clean. She is really a perfect leader for me. Third, she is also a good communicator. She was able to put across what needs to be done and how. At the same time, she is also willing to accept relevant suggestions from her subordinates who are the teachers. This is true every time we have our departmental meeting.

Fourth, she is knowledgeable. She is knowledgeable about her field of work. She is able to think analytically keeping the end result in mind. As Ricky Lim said, "Good leaders need to keep in mind the big picture while at the same time, breaks it down into actionable steps for others to follow or perform". He also added that a good leader needs to be able to gauge the progress being made. As of now, our school is undergoing an accreditation from PAASCU and it is Madam Lucky who is the over-all head of this thing. She plans everything with the help of her subordinates. 

Ms. Palaran "Lucky" C. Algar

Fifth, she is versatile. She doesn’t only focus her mind with paper works but she also performs. She dances on stage even if sometimes she doesn’t know the steps. She is also an extrovert type of a leader because she loves to go to far places. She always brings us to places that would make us all happy and amaze. In fact, every summer we always have our Lakbay Aral. We went to places which are new to us. Another thing that I admired most from our academic chairman is her sincerity and concern to each of us. She is not only an Academic Chairman but also a mother to us. There was one time, when I had a big problem, she talked to me and advised me what to do. I really appreciated it because even though she was busy, she still finds time to talk to me regarding my problem.

The characteristics I have mentioned are just few of the good qualities that she acquired. And because of these characteristics, I could really say and attest that she is really a great leader, the leader I want to be…