March Leadership Session

1. March Leadership Session MTL Meeting Pandora Bedford March, 2010 Astrid Fossum Laura Maly Cynthia Rodriguez The Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership (MMP) is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant 0314898.

2. Learning Intentions: • To understand how leading in a culture of change requires continuous work on fusing Fullan’s five capacities while simultaneously recognizing a deep sense of internal commitment. • To learn to become authentic listeners in order to be a more effective leader.

3. A Framework for Leadership Michael Fullan, Leading in a Culture of Change, 2004

4. Learning the Leadership The lessons for developing leaders in a culture of change are more tortoise-like than hare-like because they involve slow learning in context over time. This chapter presents three powerful lessons about leadership that have implications for developing more of it. Fortunately, they are interrelated: the vital and paradoxical need for slow knowing, the importance of learning in context, and the need to have leaders at all levels of the organization in order to achieve widespread internal commitment. (Fullan, p.185)

5. Jigsaw Activity • Read the assigned key points individually: • Slow Knowing: pp. 188 & 189 • Learning in Context: p. 199 • Leadership for Many and a Time to Disturb: pp. 202 & 203 • Discuss as table group and write one “catch phrase” that exemplifies the big idea from what you read on a sentence strip.

6. Individual initiative is required because we can’t wait for the system to get its act together. System action is necessary because it creates new contexts, expectations, and support for individuals to change their ways. Sustainability includes transforming the system in a way that the conditions and capacity for continuous improvement become built in within and across the levels of reform. (Fullan, p. 202)

7. Coaching Skills • Do we want something about the resources…that this a blend? • And/or… • March, April, May Preview: Listening, Paraphrasing, Questioning. • Comic? SMOOOOOOOOTH TRANSITION

8. Turn and Talk • What are some obstacles when you are not being an attentive listener?

9. Listening • Ten minutes of our complete and focused attention is worth much more, in terms of maintaining a relationship and supporting learning, than thirty minutes with distractions. (Lipton & Wellman, p. 35)

10. Strategies for nonverbal communication: • Facing people when you speak with them. • Making eye contact. • Avoid distracting gestures. • Nodding your head in an encouraging way. • Finding an appropriate place for communication. • Paying attention to how close we sit with others. • Choosing an appropriate tone of voice for the message we want to communicate. • Touching or not touching others appropriately depending on the situation. (Knight, p. 74)

11. Nonverbals in Action • Watch the video clip and jot down what type of nonverbal communication you observe between the characters.

12. Blocks to Understanding • ‘I’ Listening • Personal Referencing: we consider what is being said with reference to own experiences and then judge worth. • Personal Curiosity: we want more information for ourselves. • Personal Certainty: we are sure we know the solution to the problem.

13. Listening in Action • Watch the video clip and jot down what type of Blocks to Understanding you observe between the characters.

14. Listening Strategies • Developing inner silence. • Listening for what contradicts our assumptions. • Clarifying. • Communicating our understanding. • Practicing every day. • Practicing with terrible listeners. (Knight, p. 64)

15. Listening as it connects to our work: • Chose a partner. Determine who will be the listener and who will be the speaker. • As one person shares their “Professional Practice” from the February meeting, the partner practices authentic listening. • Roles are reversed.

16. Listener Listen quietly and attentively Focus attention on the speaker to ensure listening blocks are not being used Write down what you think the big ideas are that the speaker is sharing Speaker Share at a deep level Continue to talk about your experience and how it relates to Fullan’s components Listener: Shares the big ideas they heard from the speaker. Speaker: Responds to the listener’s ideas.

17. In triads, One person is the speaker, sharing homework from last month One person is the listener, when do your listening blocks come up One person is the recorder, writing the big ideas that the speaker is sharing

18. Reflection: • As the listener and as the speaker: What was this experience like? Quietly jot down your thoughts in your notebook and be ready to share with your partner and the group.

19. Ultimately, your leadership in a culture of change will be judged as effective or ineffective not by who you are as a leader but by what leadership you produce in others. (Fullan, p. 203)

20. Learning Intentions: • To understand how leading in a culture of change requires continuous work on fusing Fullan’s five capacities while simultaneously recognizing a deep sense of internal commitment. • To learn to become authentic listeners in order to be a more effective leader.

21. Feedback Question: • How are you planning to work on your listening skills as they relate to your leadership goal within the upcoming month?