When listening to Eric Sheninger's interview (Wallis, 2016) on leadership, I noted that he referred to the importance of leaders maintaining flexibility and allowing for teacher autonomy. By doing so, teachers and administrators can reflect, learn, grow, and improve. I believe that these aspects can support effective problem solving and lead to results. By providing teachers with a level of autonomy and a voice in changes at their school, they might be more likely to engage in discussions around the change. Since teachers themselves are responsible for implementing these changes, it is crucial to hear their perspectives in solving any issues regarding the innovation. At the same time, a certain level of flexibility is also required by leaders to be able to listen to the feedback from teachers and possibly make any potential adjustments.
For me, as an Educational Technology Coach, I have wondered how to achieve consistency in our 1:1 ipad program. My support structure has had to be flexible (e.g. lead, co-teach, support as seen in the image below) when working with almost 25 different teachers who have various teaching styles, interests, comfort levels with tech, and at a variety of stages of integration. While this flexibility is extremely supportive of individual teacher needs, I am not 100% confident that we are achieving consistency.
