One of my favorite leadership experience activities was shadoweding my principal for the day.  From this experience, I  learned being a principal is a twenty-four hour job because the school is constantly in your thoughts.  As the leader, you are responsible for faculty, staff, and most importantly, the students.  I think many people do not realize what a principal does every day.  I have been with my principal many times to know that not everything she wants to accomplish in the day gets done. There are numerous interruptions throughout the day.  Not only does she deal with the staff and their many personalities, she often deals with situations that could be dealt with by someone else. I have spoken to my principal about trying to delegate things to other people.  She has gotten better but still likes to have her hands in many different things.

Since I am a dean, I do not have the opportunity to be a classroom teacher.  I love my job but miss the daily interactions of teaching students. Another leadership experience which I truly enjoyed was conducting informal observations of teachers.  Rather than conducting a formal observation, I did several walk-throughs. I found walk-throughs to be most effective when their purpose and frequency are established collaboratively between the teacher and myself. I felt that the teachers feel the benefit of frequent and regular presence in their classrooms.  Conversations about their classroom practice moved more quickly because I already was aware of the context. I enjoyed watching the teachers interact with their students.  The teachers I observed had their students engaging in different activities and most of the students were on task.

Although the first two projects of this program were very difficult for me I have learned many different things from completing each of the projects.  Working on both the Vision Project and Elements of a School Vision taught me how important the school’s climate and culture is for a leader.  A positive and diverse culture and climate needs to be established in school in order to foster a successful learning environment.  A leader who builds on climate and culture is also going to find that all stakeholders who are involved in the school system will function with much more direction and focus.  Also, the Vision Project forced me to work with a group, which was something I wasn't too comfortable doing.