A few months ago, I thought of my mom who was a passionate teacher. She has taught me not only to be excellent in every thing I do, but also to be passionate about what I do. I teach my children that they should be passionate in completing their tasks in their jobs and in schools. It occurred to me at that time, any one who is purpose driven in their life or in their jobs should be passionate, persevering, persisting, positive and so on.
Once I came up with the list of my P qualities of a techmentor, I sent a request to the TechMentors of Central Virginia Consortium (Transforming Teaching and Learning with Technology Tools) asking them to name some P qualities that they should possess to be effective leaders in working with the teachers in classrooms.
Here is a list of qualities with more than 5 tallies:
Passionate
Patient
Persevering
Persisting
Positive
Powerful (empowered with knowledge and expertise)
Persuasive
Perspicacious
Partnering for collaboration.
Techleaders and teachers need to collaborate together in changing instructional practices to make a difference in all students.
Give me your feedback on this posting. Or you can cite an example how a particular quality of your helped you succeed in what you do.
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46 comments:
Patience is one of the most essential qualities that I found necessary. Working with colleagues who continually need assistance because they forget or lose the insructions for implementing certain tasks or lesson ideas was one of my greatest challenges. I had to be patient as I realized that their lack of organization or the increased demands of their position often created temporary memory loss in the area of technology. I would sit patiently with them as they relearned or re-implemented a procedure or lesson idea. Like a parent, who is there to encourage a child in an endeavor, though not there to do the task for him or her, my willingness to "be there" provided the necessary motivation and knowledge that they could accomplish the task on their own.
Perservering. That's a good one. Not only do we perservere to help more skittish teachers integrate technology, but we keep learning new stuff! I love the challeng of this job. No sooner do I become comfortable with the technology we have, it changes!
Today's teachers must possess many of these qualities, but patience and passion to teach are essential qualities.
No longer are teachers isolated in their classrooms all day with their students. Technology has opened doors for teachers to reach out to other professionals in their buildings or in other schools. Teachers must be patient and allow themselves time to learn from others.... new ways students can learn in school, using more technology. They must be passionate about teaching and learning, because using technology takes continuous trainings. Teachers must implement the technology skills they will learn in their classrooms with their students. Our classrooms look very different these days and our teachers must have a positive attitude about sparing their classrooms and students with other professionals and working collaboratively to build a learning community in their classrooms.
Perserverance, patience, and a postive attitude have been essential to me as a mother, wife, educator, leader, and friend.
I learned these P's through my son's battle with cancer, and they have served me well.
If you don't have perserverance, you give up too easily and never reach your goals. Perseverance is the key to accomplishing anything. Without patience, you drive those around you away. You also cannot be an educator or leader for long. This skill is something we all need and appreciate in those around us. Finally, without positivity, you spend your life in a state of misery and force those around you to share in it. A positive attitude helps you to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
These three attributes have been paramount in my life. Through perseverance, I completed college while married and the mother of two. Patience enabled me to teach my students and lead my teachers. Staying positive has made me happy to do what I do and be where I am.
I think being patience, positive, and powerful are at the top of my list. Patience is the best way to ensure the success of all students. Being positive can make all the difference in the world in the life of a child. Think back to your teachers and coaches. I'm willing to bet the positive teachers and coaches made the best impact on us all. Being powerful has many different meanings. Teachers and administrators must always be aware of how powerful we are.
Might I add propitious. I believe that the ability to make a learner feel comfortable and able is important. That, coupled with humor and tenacity has enabled me to experience success with adult learners. Patience is my nemesis, but I'm working on it. In terms of myself, good old fashioned hard headedness has seen me through in mastery of technology. I refuse to let the computer best me.
I agree with my colleagues that passion, patience, perseverance, and positive attitudes are necessary qualities for a teacher to possess. If I may, I would like to emphasize the importance of partnering for collaboration. Education has changed so much since I first began teaching. No longer does the traditional classroom with the one teacher meed the demands of educating children today. No one person is enough! As we are daily bombarded with information, it is unrealistic to believe that one person can be an expert in any one subject. Change is constant and is happening at lightning speed daily. This partnering echoes the theme of learning communities presented to us at the Curriculum Academy. Collaboration needs to exist in every discipline as well as at every level. It is only through working together, partnering, can educators even begin to meet the educational demands of the students' today for their tomorrow.
Add passionate, persevering, and positive for me!! As a leader and in anything one does- passion is important. One must believe in what he/she is doing!! Nothing is perfect. There will always be rough spots in working with people, computers, or in any task that is worthwhile. To persevere is imperative to make that difference. I continually reevaluate each day to see how I can make it more productive and beneficial to those that I work with and for myself. Most people want to be around positive people in work and in daily life. Students and families need to see that you are positive in believing in them. I agree and could speak to all of the P qualities! These are just my top three.
Passionate! I believe that if one is passionate about their pursuits, many of these other "p-words" will naturally manifest as a result. When I feel passionate about something, I want to fully engage and give all to the pursuit. Perseverence, patience, positive attitude and the host of other p-words require passion as fuel. I use passion as my compass. When at a crossroad, I ask myself what I am truly most passionate about and allow this to trump all else. To live otherwise would feel to me like a compromise.
At our school, we teach the Habits of Mind. Persistence is an important trait that all successful people need to possess. As teachers, we should model these successful tools so that our students can learn how to use them everyday. When working with tecnology, having this quality will really help when the computer is NOT working, or you can't connect to a web-site that you had planned to use for your lesson. I also like the idea of having a positive attitude. Not only should we strive for this, but we must recognize when it has slipped away and work to create a more positive atmoshepre. Computers can sometimes hamper this positive attitude especially when report cards are due and your computer is down!!!
Patience, positive and passionate are the 3 p's that I feel are the most essential. However, they are all wonderful qualities. I have found that being a positive person can be contagious especially in a group where negativity exists...sort of like the light in the darkness. Being passionate about what you believe in or what your job is or basically anything will carry you a long way. Many of these other qualities just fall into place as Ernie said. Patience is also an essential quality, particularly in education. We are faced many times with students who have difficulty learning concepts and we keep trying and trying different ways to reach them. Patience is very important and can often make students feel that it is okay to take a risk in our classroom. Patience as a leader is important as we guide others to try new innovative ways to use technology and integrate lesson plans. Sometimes it takes a few times to walk through the steps with a colleague and help them find their way. I love these P qualities! So many of them are essential qualities in just being the best that we can in our every day lives.
Although all of the words are important, I feel that the best word would be Patience. Being a physical education teacher of an elementary school and having to teach every child in the school, one must first need patience. Each child learns at different levels and I must show them that certain skills require patience in order for them to be successful.
For me, perserverence is key. I am in the last year of my 4th decade of life and did not grow up using technology. I have to perservere to learn and implement new technology. I hope that others are patient with me! I do feel proud when I learn and use technologies that are new to me.I am very proud of my students when they use technologies also.
When it comes to new technology in the educational setting I have found many educators to be weary when it comes to adopting technology. Because of this I feel being persuasive is very important. Many new technologies can help people work smarter, but this often comes with a lot of work in the front end. It is this initial set up time that scares many away from new technology. To help people adopt, you have to focus on the long term, and persuade them to stick with the technology until they can see the benefits for themselves.
Positive and passionate are likely two of the reasons we all got into teaching in the first place, and will drive us to continue on to leadership positions. Persevering is what leaders do on a daily basis as they fight for the things their students and stakeholders need to be successful!
Passionate and positive are the most meaningful to me. If you are both passionate and positive, your students can see and feel this. These two qualities are contagious. I have made it through many difficult situations simply by staying positive.
I find it important to remember that these are the same qualities we want to see in administrators. Many of us have seen the best teachers become ineffective leaders when they lose their passion for education. As Sam mentioned in her school using the habits of mind, they are working to develop the whole child not just the math and reading scores for their students. This is a display of passion for educating children. Remember to always hold onto your "P's" as you all become administrators!
The quality that sticks out the most to me is positive. I truly believe in the power of positive thinking. Over the years I have listened to many teacher gripes during lunch. I really try to avoid being negative about the challenges of our jobs and always find a solution rather than a problem. In order to function you must bring a positive outlook to whatever it is you choose to do. People that keep a positive perspective on things usually end up being successful. We have to believe in ourselves and our students to be effective in education.
I am currently working hard to develop professional learning communitites within my science department and to enable other teachers to realize the importance of consistency within courses at the same school. How it has gone so far I can tell that I am going to have to be very passionate about why it should be done, perserving to see that it does get done and positive about the work others are doing. As teachers we always seem to be presented with new ideas and change, but I definitely feel this one is in the best interest of both the students and the teachers.
I also want to say that I completely agree that when many teachers become administrators they do forget the list of p's. I hope as a group we do not. This week I have heard a lot of fellow collegues refer to the administration as "theys" and most of the time, it was followed by "don't understand". I hope as a group we don't become a "they", and that we remember our passion for teaching.
Being passionate and having patience are two extraordinarly important qualities for anyone who works in the field of education. Having passion for what you do each day is so important. Not only does it keep you excited about what you're doing, but it is catching. A teacher who is passionate about their work will engage students. Students can always tell if their teacher truly loves to learn and if this is the case, students are so much more excited about learning themselves.
With passion, patience is important. There have been so many times when my patience has been tested in the classroom and I have found that losing patience results in a loss of effectiveness. Kids, coworkers, family, and friends truly appreciate someone who is patient and it is a quality that stands out among true leaders.
PERSISTENCE!!! This is the basis for my classroom instruction. In my class we study a few of Costa's Habit of the Mind. These are things you need to do when you do not know an answer. Persistence is the first Habit that I teach my students. We never give up!! We refer to it constantly throughout the year and I try to exhibit it throughout my life! It isn't always easy!
I could probably use a good dose of PATIENCE!!
I must admit I'm still developing a "passion" for technology. I'm "old school" & can remember a time when there were no computers in the classroom. The only computer class offered during my undergrad program was one involving the Apple computer-think big, floppy disks! (I graduated in '93.)
The whole online class thing has been a new experience, too. I'm not sure how I feel about never, ever meeting my instructor or interacting w/ fellow students via computer. It's been interesting!
I am definitely staying "positive" & "perservering", though! I'm fortunate to work in a system that provides and promotes the "partnership" of technology integrators. They're a wonderful wealth of information!
Passion and a positive attitude are the two most important "p" qualities for a leader to possess. When a person has passion for what they are trying to achieve, everyone can see it and it can be contagious! Some of the best leaders are those who can convince others to believe in what their doing by sharing their own passion. Furthermore, a positive attitude is essential especially when someone is up against a challenging situation. I experienced this when I was asked to be the lead technolgoy teacher. I had very little know how or experience. However, I kept a positive attitude about learning what I needed to.
Passion and a positive attitude are two of the most important qualities for any leader to possess. Both qualities can be seen by others and are contagious! Some of the best teacher and administrators are those who truley love their job and share that passion with their coworkers and students. Even when a challenge arrises they remain positive and have positive outlook on the situation.
While I could always benefit from more patience, I believe persistence is VERY important. In fact, I can persistently pursue greater patience. Persistence allows greater success!
Patience is definitely a virtue! This is true with your students and with yourself. It seems as though things are forever changing and once you have learned one way to do something-a new and improved way surfaces. And these things are not learned overnight.
Having a positive attitude will also get you through a lot of situations. It is important to encourage your students and other teachers.
I'm not sure excellence in everything I do is a good motto for students. With gifted this is often a problem when they hit on something that is challenging for them and they are expected to excel in all areas. I think Patience is a wonderful virtue and find it is one I need to practice.
I believe being passionate and perservering are the most important. You must LOVE what you are doing in order to be be able to connect with the students. Teacher can be difficult at times (especially if there are a lot of changes going on -- constantly); but we stay because of our passion and perserverance. I know that I am making a difference and I work through the difficult times. I have to admit that staying positive is also important. I believe all of the qualities are interconnected and help build on the others.
I think a good "p word" would be perspective. A lot of time as teachers we can forget to see the world through the eyes of a young person as a student. I think a lot of the fundamental flaws with the American educational system revolve around this fact. New generations have different perspectives on life and learning. Forcing an old system and old views as well as using a corporate approach to teaching and "assessing" acheivment is truly crippling today's youth.
Passionate. I think it's important to show that one is passionate about lessons and infuse that passion to the students. If a teacher can do that for a content area and be excited about using the technology with the content---these students are going to be excited about it, too! I was pretty passionate about expressing my knowledge of American Sign Language when I taught in the classroom and was equally excited about using technology with ASL such as the ASL online dictionaries--that my students were just as passionate about it, too! Some of them have managed to pursue ASL as a career.
We all agree that passion is a must...nobody would wish a hackneyed/morose approach for a student, nor want their practice viewed as such. I would assert that perseverance is an understated P Quality. School's/Faculty's possessing a shared vision own this quality as they do not look at a year in isolation regarding student success, but rather on a continuum of reaching their vision goals. Schools lacking a shared vision, I feel, get caught up in a "grinding" out the year type mentality and struggle with overcoming and working through obstacles because they are doing it alone.
I think that partnering for collaboration is an important characteristic in today's teaching world. So often teachers get stuck in their little boxes and don't think to ask for help. I know that I have collaborated with the technology specialist at one of my previous schools to create a great lesson on Jazz artists that allowed the students to find information over the internet to create presentations. The students really for into it.
Perserverance, patience, and a positive attitude is what has enabled me to return to school to get my bachelors degree after 23 years and to continue to go to school and work 3 jobs while working to get my masters. I had to be patient enough to wait until my children were finished with high school so that my attention on them did not deteriate because of my determination to finish what I started so long ago.
As an administrator we must find a way to PUSH our colleagues to continue their education and improve upon the their PERFORMANCE with out pushing them into a corner or away from the team of PROFESIONALS that can assist each other in this endeavor.
Being patient, persisting and maintaining a positive attitude are the three qualities necessary for me to achieve my dreams and aspirations. I also returned to school completing my last year of college after my kids graduated from high school. Being patient, keeping a positive attitude allowed me not only to complete my Bachelors Degree but I went on to complete my Masters degree also. Although I am not an educator as a mother I know it takes a positive attitude to guide your children around life’s stumbling blocks when the light goes out and you are the only one with a torch. What I am saying is sometimes children do not see when they are turning in the wrong direction, but it is up to us as parents and the educators to redirect them when they loose their way.
I think that patience and persistence are perhaps the most necessary of the "p"s. Technology will always have glitches and errors when you least expect them (or need them!)causing a great amount of frustration for someone who doesn't know a lot about technology or is not passionate about it. Once the patience and persistng are taking place, the passion will then be able to grow.
Passion and persitence are my two big P's. You have to passionate about what you are teaching or doing and persistent because it is not always going to be easy. Like technology sometimes things are not going to work the first time so you need to be persistent and keep trying.
Patience and persistant and the two qualities I have found a must when dealing with technology and the classroom. I've had to be very patient with other teachers who just haven't had very much experience with technology and how to use it in the classroom. I was persistant in working with that teacher and now he is on his own and doing very well!
All educators and great leaders must possess patience! Imagine if some of the great leaders of our country did exhibit patience - where would we be? I think when dealing with people, students, and expecially technology one must use patience! The entire list of P's could be argued for all educators, but patience is number one on my list.
SCOTT W-Patience and Positive. I think whenever you are working with technology you have to be patient. I have seen many times that educators who are reluctant to use technology are just scared of trying something new. I think leaders in education have to be patient and "push" these educators along...this is where being positive becomes very important. Educational leaders need to be very positive and show how much good something can bring about. One needs to show the positive sides of technolgy like increase in student engagement and how it can help one make better use of their time. With a little patience and some positive talking many of the reluctant educators come right along.
Perspiring is a profoundly positive property of any productive techleader. Without the ability to perspire, a leader could not thermoregulate his or herself. That lack of internal autoregulation of that process would result in a meltdown of the body's hard drive (aka the brain); the resulting cessation of synaptic processes would result in the unfortunate demise of said techleader. What technology advancement could then be promulgated by such a person? Do yourselves a favor, continue to perspire.
Oh, and a passion for integrating technology into the classroom is a key component.
The top "p-words" for me are Passion, Positive thinking/attitutes, Persevering, and Partnerships and they are very important for/to me. I believe we need to be Passionate about everything we do as teachers while maintaining a Positive environment for our students, colleagues and ourselves. However, we not only need to stress and teach Persevering to our students, but follow it ourselves. Technology integration doesn't come easily to me, but I haven't given up and I think my students not only recognize that, but respect the fact that I continue to try. Finally, Partnerships is key for me. Collaboration is essential and truly what makes my classroom successful.
PASSIONATE
If you are not passionate about your job, then it's just that...a job. I also think without passion none of the other P qualities will work out or fall into place. I know when I am struggling with something and need to dig deep and perserve, it is my passion that drives me. When you know and believe that putting in the extra time and energy can change a child's life, then you can't help but be passionate. For all of us who are on our way to be future administrators, ... remember... for every teacher that you impact, you are impacting that many more children (the number of children they interact with every day). How can you not be passionate about that type of work, ya know?
All of these "P" qualities are important. However, when trying to look at this from the administrative or techmentor perspective, the first one to come to mind is PATIENCE. Patience for the first year teacher who is overwhelmed. Patience for the almost ready to retire teacher. Patience for the average teacher who wants to learn but just doesn't get it. Patience for those that need alot of repetition. Patience for those who check email while you are demonstrating a technique and ask questions later.
And last but not least, PERSEVERANCE, to keep you going and not give up when your frustration level is through the roof!
The qualities listed were excellent. Patience is the most important not just a person using technology or even as a teacher, but as a role models for the students because they need to see their teachers being patient when using the internet and technology.
-Shawn Batten
Patience is a key component for me. I think that whenever you work with students you must always take a step back and be patient. Todays student comes to school with so much going on in their young lives and that carries over. Hand in hand with that is the positive attitude and keeping them encouraged.
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