Visionary Leaders Reaction

Are we adequately preparing our students for the 21^st Century? Are they leaving our doors and graduating from our schools equipped with the skills necessary for success in the digital age? Do we, as future administrators even know what these skills are? These are some of the questions that have been running through my head as a result of reading “Leadership in the 21^st Century: The New Visionary Administrator”.

Visionary leaders share many characteristics that set them apart from their peers.

Most importantly, these leaders understand the significance of technology and its place in the school system. They are willing to face myriad challenges to bring about change in their buildings in order to better prepare their students for the future.

The article really hit home with me. This year, I am teaching inclusion classes for the first time in my fourteen year career. Honestly, my level of apprehension at the beginning of the school year was higher than I have felt in a long time. How was I going to reach these kids? How was I going to meet the needs of an extremely diverse group of learners? How was I going to handle cooperative teaching? It turns out that travelling down this new road has inspired my teaching. Never has my technique needed to be sharper, my delivery more concise and understandable. I have had to take a close look at how I teach and what methods I use. My desire to become a “visionary teacher” has never been higher.

The profile in the reading concerning Jeff Billings inspired me to reach those heights. Billings has been working with iTunes U, Apple’s online program designed for use by educators. Imagine a world where I could upload a PowerPoint presentation or flipchart to iTunes? Students could then have access to it whenever they needed. A special education student could access today’s lecture in resource class to review what he missed. Another could download the same lecture to her iPod and listen to it while on the school bus.

Billings went on to discuss the use of Google Docs for teacher collaboration. This could be an effective way for teachers of the same subjects within a school to achieve commonality and best practices.

One final area where I would like to see improvement is parent outreach. Again, the use of technology could facilitate this goal. Many studies show that increasing parent involvement brings about positive results. Shouldn’t the visionary leader consider this as well?

If we are going to meet the needs of today’s learners then we need to face the challenges and benefits of technology head on. We cannot afford to rely on the tried and true methods from the past. We, as future administrators, need to join the visionaries already out there and lead our schools into digital 21^st Century.