Week+One

Thank you Kellee for getting us organized as **Facilitator** and posting our team discussion topics. I will serve as **Coach** this week to offer my encouragement :) I have spent lots of time reading and re-reading the course assignments for the week so I thought we could use this wiki to help us keep calm and focused. Ray is going to be our **Reporter** this week, so we want to give him lots of substantive posts to compile and REPRESENT us well in our first week. Sandra is set to be our **Resource Manager** and provide us any additional resources that would add to our understanding, organization, and reflection this week.

So... let's get started!

Helpful Reminders:
 * Get your Introduction post posted early (we have all met one another face-to-face so it serves as a nice review)
 * Finish your reading early in the week so that you can have enough time to reflect and post your group discussion activities
 * Post your group and team discussion items by Friday evening to get full credit and to have time to read and respond throughout the weekend
 * Make sure you spend time reading through the Effective Leadership Assessment so that you can be connecting your new learning to the final product of the course
 * CELEBRATE!!!! We've gotten enrolled, found our team online in a virtual space, and we're off and running :)

Team KH2 have each had the privilege of being leaders in our respective districts minus the status and power of being an administrator. But as Gardner (Nature, 18) clearly defined, it is the actions and perhaps force of our personalities that have made us building leaders among our colleagues. In __**developing into stronger leaders,**__ understanding the Standards, including both those outlined by ISLLC (ISLLC 2008: Educational) and NETS*A as well as the JHU Core Beliefs as introduced in the Internship project. Using these guiding principles, each of us has reflected on the administration we work with in our respective districts and recognized both strengths in the force of personality and clarity of purpose and the weak and meek leaders that are unable to clearly communicate their vision, do not connect with the staff, and fail to set an example they envision for the district personnel. A __**frustration**__ we have each faced is the teacher who will not move forward with good ideas because he or she does not believe himself to be empowered or are in a culture where the leader so wants to “be in control of the school” (Hammond). But leadership is a vision that leads to action, by becoming the living example, and by making the “move toward the danger” (Fullan). But grasping leadership opportunities and allowing ourselves to grow into leaders through hard work, conscientious effort and a bit of risk-taking, allows us to do our own “walking to beat the path” (Fullan). And even as we __**reach toward these leadership ideals**__, we see in the ISLLC standards, clear emphasis on best practice and staying up with professional reading, policy trends, and involvement in the organizations that communicate these. We find ourselves, even as we enter this program, part of the shared leadership of our school (Kelley and Peterson). Working out how to have a shared vision among dispersed leadership is a challenge all new leaders face as they become prepared for being a 21st Century leader. And we are part of this work.
 * Summary of discussion**

We made it through Week #1 as a partnership! (hold hands in air and celebrate) Although not a smooth start to teaming activities (due to missing a few team members), we did accomplish our goals of completing our tasks and meeting our deadlines. We have received our first participation grades and acclimated to our online platform for learning :)
 * Congratulations!!!!**