At Legacy Online School we realized that our students and parents required flexibility and a curriculum tailored to their needs. This insight prompted us to make adjustments, in our approach to better serve them. Understanding the significance of education we equipped our teachers with the tools, training and mindset to tackle this challenge. We emphasized the importance of scheduling flexibility. Adapting the curriculum to meet each students needs. We implemented training programs aimed at enhancing teachers abilities in creating learning plans. These plans included lesson materials, personalized feedback and adaptive teaching methods. Teachers learned how to connect with students by recognizing their learning preferences and adjusting their techniques accordingly. To support this transition we introduced feedback sessions where teachers could discuss their experiences and obstacles. This collaborative effort not helped fine tune our approaches. Also fostered a sense of community and teamwork among the staff. The outcomes were impressive. Students felt more supported and valued resulting in increased engagement and academic achievements. Parents welcomed the approach knowing that their children were receiving an education tailored to their requirements. Regards Vasilii Kiselev Visit my LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/kiselev3d/
The best example that I can share is when the teachers had to adapt to a complete online mode of teaching during COVID. During this unprecedented time, the leadership styles of educators have undergone significant changes to adapt to the unique challenges posed by the crisis. Those were the times when the leadership style also changed from Authoritative to Affiliative style, where teachers needed more hand-holding, positive and supportive leaders. As school leaders, we had to engage in frequent communication with our teams, soliciting inputs and empowering educators to best serve the students. This helped the team members feel a sense of belongingness, could freely share ideas and feedback, and work together as a team helping each other as they progressed.
I operate a design practice and teach university students how to design architectural and interior projects. I would have traditionally considered myself an introvert and leaned on live sketching to communicate complex ideas. I have adapted my style to be more extroverted, repeating concepts more often and implementing an active leadership style involving frequent one-on-one feedback. I now take on the role of the learners’ Guide, responding to their challenges in real-time, pushing them to think bigger, and encouraging them to have confidence in their ideas.
Throughout my years of teaching, there have been many times where I had to make a quick adjustment in my "plans" for the day. When I first started teaching, and for many of my first years, I always thought that I had to stick to the plan. Every minute was accounted for, and I had to cover the content, provide students with practice, assign homework, and assess within my 42 minutes. But I have realized that we don't need to always stick to the plan. We have to be flexible and use those teachable moments to support our students or staff in whatever way they may need. We may not always be prepared, but we do the best we can and learn and grow from the experience together.
As an At-Risk Continuation High School teacher, who teaches most all subjects with a primarily direct-instructional leadership style - I focus on directly teaching content and skills to students. However, I noticed that many of my students seemed disengaged and were struggling to connect with the material and failing to connect with me. To address this, I decided to incorporate more elements of collaborative leadership approaches. For example I experimented with the following and achieve higher levels of engagement and connection: 1) Encouraged more student-led discussions and group work which fostered collaboration and critical thinking. 2) Incorporated more creative projects that allowed students to demonstrate their understanding in diverse ways beyond just essays and tests. 3) Provided more individualized feedback and mentoring to help students set and work towards personal learning goals. By giving up some of my control I was able to get some buy-in from my students while also learning more about them, creating better relationships and thereby getting more productive work. Students became more motivated and invested in their learning, leading to improved participation, higher quality work, and better overall school attendance.
At one point in my training and career I was in charge of providing supplementary mathematics assistance to a group of about 25 students in college. The professor would assign specific sections from the text and homework to review and told me essentially to do what boiled down to a guided reading session with the students. After trying it a few times, it became obvious it just was not going to work. Interest plummeted, attendance dropped, students who came just pulled out their phones, it was miserable for everyone. I thought about one of my favorite math professors and how he used to encourage class engagement, and decided to implement his strategy, despite knowing it would make me and the students uncomfortable at first. You see, this professor would go down the rows after explaining a concept and have every student take a turn with solving a problem on the board in front of the class. As a student this terrified me at first, but as the class went on we came together as a class in this shared challenge, supported one another and it led to a much more enjoyable class with deeper insights into the material. When implementing this with my class it was awkward at first, but with clear expectations set at the beginning, knowing that everyone would struggle through something on the board at one point in time, no one would be made fun of and the class would actually support the person at the board through encouragement, helpful tips, etc. We took away the illusion that each person there was the only one struggling with the material, we provided a way for everyone to see how each person participating was getting a better grasp of the material week by week. It was something that really worked wonders for these students, the overwhelming majority of them going on to pass the main class (some even got into the A and B range for their overall grade), something that all of them were in jeopardy of not doing initially. In later years when I taught a class of my own, I even had a couple past students (college seniors by that time) take my class as an extra elective credit (yes, extra math classes), as they shared how our supplemental instruction class changed the trajectory of their college career.