My future endeavor & communication as a school administrator

When I was young my mother would always tell me, “Patric, you are a people person”. You will find a job somewhere, somehow working with people, and you will do fine. I am now 54 years old, and I have discovered that Abraham Lincoln, like me was influenced by his mother more than anyone else.

Lincoln used humor to persuade people to his point of view. He was a word miser and poet. He thought out every word before he spoke publicly. He realized who his audience was and made it his goal to connect with every person. I do not have Lincoln’s incredible gifting. His communication skills represent a life investment of verbally reading and telling stories aloud. In my role as a future administrator I must dedicate myself to study people, and the stories that motivate and persuade them.

He had ingenuity that required initiative. Lincoln started at the bottom as a young lawyer traveling a circuit. In his travels to protect the rights of individuals he became an advocate of the system that protected them. When I am a principal I will manage by walking around. As I talk to people I can tell them directly how their contribution fits into our school system.

Innovation requires risk. Paula Evans, an administrator that we studied in this class, took on risk, but she was not willing to broaden the vision to include all stakeholders. Lincoln did this by going back to the fundamentals of how the country was formed i.e. The Declaration of Independence. I need to research and discover the history of my school and the foundation of its values. I need to be able to ignore elements of our history, like slavery, that must be changed, and persuade people to values that will prepare our students to enter a global market place of uncertainly and change.

Lincoln used technology like the latest types of repeating rifles to introduce change to his generals. I am currently introducing new strategies to formatively assess student’s learning by introducing the concepts through RSS feeds that can be plugged into Moodle courses. (Our learning platform) This is a project that I am collaborating with my principal and several other teachers. This new technology helps teachers to embrace change because they can see the benefit of gaining new tools to make their work more efficient. In the exchange the strategies of formative assessments are also transmitted.

Lincoln used to lock men in a room until they reached consensus. I can tell you a story about a personality conflict that I had with a teacher. We were assigned to travel together to perform PSSA achievement testing 4 ½ hours away from our school. By the end of that trip we would either be friends, or only one of us might return. We became good friends.  Assigning people to work together, in tight quarters, is a great way to unify a team.

Abraham Lincoln and I have something in common. Our father’s died at a young age, and we inherited a great sense of responsibility from our mothers. This responsibility extended beyond his family to his country. Through the skills I have learned in this class and others at Cal. State I have become committed to thinking like a principal. As I continue to learn, I will include my stakeholders in the process of discovering a vision which will prepare us for new endeavors.