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Coming Attractions


Ever since my initial headlong dive into blogging in 2007, experience has taught me that I need to pace myself in order to avoid running out of things to write about.  Maintaining a twice monthly posting schedule, as I have done (more or less) since 2009 or so, has helped me to survive those dry spells by writing, stockpiling, and auto-scheduling blog posts for the future while the iron is hot.

Not that I’ve run out of things to say, but unfortunately my time for writing and reflection has been overcome by an unusually heavy run of both personal and academic obligations lately – even now, I’m dashing this post off on a break from writing a research paper on educational funding in the state of New York.  I’m even writing this post as much for myself as for my readers, so I can publicly bookmark some ideas that I wanted to write about as we head into the summer months.  This is what I’ll be thinking about as we approach the home stretch of the school year:

  • You Can’t Say You Can’t Play, by Vivian Gussin Paley, a kindergarten teacher who noticed some of her students habitually excluding others.  She writes about her new classroom policy and its short- and long-term impacts.  Haven’t read it yet, but heard about it on a This American Life rerun a week or two ago, and it’s going to be one of my first downloads for my Father’s Day/birthday present, the Kindle Paperwhite.
  • Acronyms in Special Education – Anyone who moves in special education circles, personally and/or professionally, knows that the field is awash in alphabet soup.  Jim Gerl asks us to think about the ethical ramifications of this jargon.
  • Edcamp Leadership 2013 is coming back to the Garden State this summer after a successful inaugural run last July.  I’ll be attending as an organizer, aspiring school leader, and possibly a presenter, so I’ll surely be writing about my day from all three perspectives.
  • I’m not only a proud member, but also a part-time employee, of the New Jersey Education Association, and I’ll be attending their Summer Leadership Conference in August and hopefully writing about my takeaways from that.
  • Summer provides an excellent opportunity for professional reflection, and I’ll look to do that as I get back to my on-again, off-again Habits of Mind series.
  • This has been a hell of a year as far as grad school is concerned, and this summer I’ll be looking to wrap up most of my internship hours, polish up the first three chapters of my doctoral dissertation, and prepare to take my research proposal to committee by mid-fall.  As long as I’m not all written out by then, expect an update on that as well.  I will be done with my coursework by February, and I’m (perhaps naively optimistically) targeting an August 2014 graduation date.

Lots to think about, but unfortunately very little time to write about any of it at present.  Here’s to the last two to five weeks of the school year, depending on where you are!  Stay tuned…

Posted 19 May 2013 † damian § Doctoral Studies § Ed Leadership § Reflection ‡ Comments (0) °

Announcing Edcamp Leadership 2013!


This post is cross-posted from the official Edcamp Leadership blog, and originally appeared on April 6, 2013.

We are pleased to announce that Edcamp Leadership 2013 is officially on!

Join us on Monday, August 12th for a day of organic, participant-driven discussion about K-12 school leadership.  While formal leaders such as principals and superintendents will certainly be in attendance, self-identified leaders of all backgrounds are welcome: teachers and other non-administrative school staff, parents, community members, and anyone else who has an interest in contributing to the day’s sharing of knowledge, ideas, and action.

As with all Edcamps, the attendees determine the topics of conversation for the day, thereby ensuring that everyone gets what they need from the event.  And as always, the “Rule of Two Feet” applies: participants are encouraged to leave sessions that aren’t meeting their needs and find another one that does.

Please join us at the gorgeous New Jersey Center for Science, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) at Kean University (get directions here).  As always, admission is FREE but you must register to reserve your spot as space is limited.  Click here to get your ticket!

See you in August!

Posted 01 May 2013 † damian § Ed Leadership § Professional Development ‡ Comments (0) °

Introducing My Dissertation


Recently I was asked to write a blurb about my plans for my doctoral dissertation – what it is and why I’m interested in it.  Here’s what I had to say:

***

My research will focus on analyzing and evaluating how a suburban K-12 school district in NJ has implemented distributed leadership practices.  As I stated in the first chapter of my dissertation, my goals are:

  • to provide a thick, rich description of distributed leadership practices at a mid-size suburban New Jersey school district, particularly teacher leadership
  • to explore, per Spillane, et al. (2004), the hows and whys behind effective district-wide and level-specific distributed leadership practices
  • to quantify teacher attitudes and perceptions relative to distributed leadership practices in their district.

There is a gap in the research base on context-specific (e.g., high school, elementary school) distributed leadership practices, and I aim to contribute to that emerging body of literature with this study.

I’ve been interested in the idea of distributed leadership, and teacher leadership in general, since before I even applied to this program.  I have worked in environments where leadership was distributed to some degree, as well as in very traditional “top-down” districts, and I know which one I preferred: the one where I felt I had a voice or some stake in what was happening.  I felt trusted and respected as a professional in the more distributed environment; not so much otherwise.

In addition to the stated goals, I’m thinking/hoping that my research will help me understand the reasoning process behind why the district makes some of the decisions it does with regard to distributed leadership.  In doing so, I hope to gain a greater understanding of the decision-making process behind implementing DL so that I can do so effectively when I’m in an official leadership position (e.g., principal, director, etc.).  While a school leader certainly can’t make all the employees happy all the time, I think there’s a lot to be said for having employees who feel valued and respected, even if they don’t always agree with you, and how that impacts on their ability to do their job and serve children.  In short, I’m thinking this dissertation field research is the next best thing to on-the-job training for me when I get my own shop to run.

***

Disclaimer: This represents where I stand on my dissertation as of the date of this post.  Much can happen between now and the end of 2014, when I plan to finish, so things may change.  Also, this research will all be dependent on securing the necessary permissions, which I have not yet done.

Posted 15 April 2013 † damian § Damian's Favorites § Doctoral Studies § Ed Leadership ‡ Comments (0) °