About Me:
I have worked in education for the past 7 years. I started out as a Recovery Room para and soon moved to be a special education para. My first teaching position was working with special education students with moderate to severe needs in a functional curriculum classroom for three years. I have spent the last two years teaching high school special education at Lincoln Southeast High School in Lincoln. My leadership journey has been exciting and extremely fulfilling. Everyday I gain new perspective and add to my leadership disposition. |
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Part of the “Foundation of Educational Leadership” course was devoted to learning about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). We learned how to identify our personal strengths based on four different categories. I found the process to be very enlightening and useful. I not only learned about my own personality but I also learned how to better understand others based on the different types of personalities that are possible. From this process I have grown as a life-long leaner, teacher/leader, and person. I am much more aware of both my own personality as well as the personalities of those around me in my professional and personal life.
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Strengthfinder
The individual strengths that we possess help explain why we tend to think, act, and react the way we do to situations in our lives. It is important to know what our strengths are so that we can work to get more acquainted with them. The more we know about them the more we learn about ourselves. The stronger we become at using our strengths the easier it will be to relate our natural tendencies, actions, and motivations to situations and others involved in those situations. Leaders have to know what they are good at and what they need to improve on. Knowledge about what they are good at gives them insight and understanding about how they naturally approach situations or other people. I plan to continue to learn more about strengths, which in turn will make me a better leader and person.
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The Johari Window
The Johari Window is used to help explain how we balance existing information and the new information that we gain from experiencing our environments. Understanding the Johari Window is important to my development in all domains of leadership. As a leader I want consistently demonstrate a philosophy of leadership and education that values personal and professional reflection and growth. As a leader I want my mission, philosophy’s, and vision to be seen by others in my “Open Area” quadrant of my Johari Window. This is where we practice transparency in leadership.
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Living Above the Line
Understanding how “The 8 Keys of Excellence” and “Living Above the Line” fit together is important to my development of Strategic Leadership. As educational leaders it is imperative that we recognize that our actions are models that others can use to learn from. Everyday we have many different sets of eyes watching and learning from us. These eyes belong to students, teachers, administrators, and parents. Following the chart of “The 8 Keys of Excellence” and “Living Above the Line” is a way to make sure that we are doing our part to create and sustain ethical and safe actions within our educational environments by always living above the line.
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