Service Learner

A Servant Leader Must First Be a Service Learner Servant leadership is both a leadership philosophy and set of leadership practices. The servant leader shares power, puts the needs of others first, helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. They are not concerned with self but concerned with better good of the organization. Before I can be a successful servant leader, I have to be a servant. I have been taught from a young child to give back to community service. That is the nature of a servant leader; to give back. A servant leader must be a good listener, empathic, problem-solver, aware, persuasive, visionary, proactive, and a steward. The good listener also has good communication skills and is aware of unspoken concerns of those who follow. Learn to listen to what is said but pay closer attention to the words not spoken but implied. A good servant leader can empathize with others in a respectful, appreciative manner. Problem solving is a duty of all managers and supervisors; however, servant leaders tend to resolve conflict in a manner of encouragement and support to build personal development. They are constantly striving to uplift others around them. They are not concerned with someone else learning as much or more than them. Insecurity is not a part of their characteristics. How awesome would the workplace be if the outcome of conflict resolution was to build up the involved parties? Productivity would flourish as well as a culture of safety and success! Because the servant leader is aware of the needs of the environment, he can lead with a holistic approach. This should definitely lead to a more ethical and value centered leader. This high level of ethics will snowball into the leader being able to persuade subordinates into compliance without the use of power and status to do so. A proactive approach to addressing the vision of the organization leads to the service and stewardship of others. I want to become more of a servant leader. I want to commit to the growth of people. Isn’t that the premise of education? I believe that is part of my leadership pattern now; however, I want to become better at it. How can I lead if I don’t first serve? The service learner project will be an integral step in me becoming the leader I desire to be. Providing a service to someone with the intent of a finished product for them and an immeasurable experience for me is awesome. I can’t expect an action from someone that I am not willing to do myself. Great leaders model their expectations for those they lead. When thinking of my service learner project I was in volunteer mode with the intent of gaining information to make a decision for my long term career goals. Though my intent has not shifted, my desire for the type of service project has. The shift is due to a greater understanding of what a service learning project truly is. It should be a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Service learners are much more than volunteers. Volunteers are not solving real life problems associated with a curriculum. Service learners enhance the community through the service provided. According to Eyler and Giles (1999), the service learner model promotes an experience which enhances understanding; understanding leads to more effective action. It reminds me of the philosophy “I do better because I know better”. The scholars further describe what service learning is NOT: • An episodic volunteer program • An add-on to an existing school or college curriculum • Logging a set number of community service hours in order to graduate • Compensatory service assigned as a form of punishment by the courts or by school administrators • Only for high schools students • One-sided: benefiting only the student or only the community My previous community service involvement has included tutorials, voter registration drives, political campaign volunteer, Blue Santa volunteer, health fair volunteer, and mentorship. I enjoy speaking to others and providing self-improvement workshops (to mostly girls/young ladies). A self-improvement workshop can encompass beauty tips and proper attire, etiquette, study skills, and tutorials. Anything which will elevate your sense of self and motivate others to seek greater knowledge was my focus. I have also held rap sessions with young ladies concerning a variety of topics from religious to relationships. Because most of my sessions are with youth, I must make them interactive to keep their attention and engaged. I have done that type of community service over and over again. I want to venture out into the corporate sector or nonprofit sector of human resource and/or public relations. So what would that look like? I would like to work with the Red Cross, FEMA or another non-profit organization. I foresee myself working on an upcoming event, new promotion advertisement, new strategies and implementation of a new sector of the organization. I also foresee this venture as a long term experience. I would like to pursue the interaction and assistance after the semester ends. I have not secured a location to implement this plan of action. Hopefully my professor will have a contact at one of the stated sites or a comparable site. I have also thought about returning back to the Star of Hope. The only problem is there is now a volunteer training class which I am sure in during my work works during the week. I will make a concerted effort this week to secure a site so my work can begin. The Bible teachers us that it is more blessed to give than to receive. It is a great feeling to know that you are able to help someone without expecting them to return the favor. Their gratitude is enough. And for those who are not grateful, understand that you are serving for a higher calling and not the approval of man.

Ethical Blogs

What is Ethical Decision-Making in Educational Leadership? In order to answer the question, I must start with my views on ethical decision-making in general before applying it to Educational Leadership. I consider ethics to be the moral philosophy or moral principle of human nature. Morality must be exhibited in everyday life. Making the correct choices will lead to prosperity and success; however making incorrect choices can lead down a road of destruction. As a child, I often heard my mother say “Morals and values will never change”. I dismissed her redundant statement and thought she just wanted my sister and me to do as we were told. As I grew older, I better understood why she taught us about moral decency. It is our human nature to take a stance for what is right and just. Your character is built on your moral views and actions. Good moral character can open doors of great possibility in education, the work force and your personal life. Morality and ethics are often used interchangeably but are distinctly different. As previously stated, morality describes your personal character. Ethics is the application of social codes of civility and the law. The issue is that the social codes may be different for different cultures. Thus, ethical decisions should be made contingent on the environmental factors. The decision I make about an issue at home may be completely different from one I make in my classroom. Does that make me a hypocrite? No, it means I have a choice on how my household is run in my cultural setting. I do not have that privilege at work. I must make decisions based on the policy and procedures of the student and staff handbook. My decisions must be for the better good of all students regardless of race, gender, and/or socioeconomic background. Ethical decision-making helps us make difficult choices when faced with a situation in which there is no clear right or wrong answer. The effect of your decision to others will also affect their decisions on you. I was also taught to do unto others that you would want them to do until you. In education, I had to understand there is not a textbook or cookbook approach to a dilemma. An understanding of ideas, values, or concepts has to guide my decision-making and demonstrate what I believe to be the best for students, staff, parents, and all stakeholders. When I first started teaching, I had a list of rules posted in my classroom. There was no deviation from those rules. If you broke one of the rules, you received the level of consequence associated with the offense or infraction. I received complaints from student’s parents. I was teaching a third grade class and they felt the rules were too restrictive for third grade students. My belief has always been “train up a child in the way he should go and we he is old he will not depart from it”. It is biblical. The Bible is correct; however, I was not in my implementation.

I was teaching third grade students in Southwest Houston not Sunday School at my church. My views were changed when I learned of a situation from one of my friends at church. She was very upset because her son who was a 5th grader at the time had received a disciplinary referral for chewing gum. Her son had anxiety attacks and gum calmed him. She taught him to chew it properly. She felt the teacher was being petty and the principal was encouraging the teacher’s pettiness by assigning her son to a week of detention. I was stunned that she had not received a phone call from the teacher expressing that her son was not following a classroom or school rule. The referral clearly stated that this was an ongoing infraction. My advice was to contact the teacher and principal and discuss her son’s condition and that the gum chewing was advised by his physician. I thought back to the complaints of my parents. I made parent calls as a third offense to an infraction. My students did not receive a discipline referral to the principal prior to having lunch detention and after school detention with me first; that justified my process. The next morning as we recited the classroom rules I realized I was expecting 3rd grade students to behave like adolescents or young adults which they clearly were not. I realized there was going to be a change in my classroom and the rules. A definite change was needed. The next day the rules had changed. I also sent a letter to all parents stating the changes in the classroom rules. I placed a personal note of thanks to the parents who voiced their opposition to the rules. My classroom was a different environment. The grades of some kids dramatically increased and I saw talents that were stifled. My ethics training began that year. I had an ethical responsibility to learn the interest and cultures of my students. I had to learn that information in order to plan successful lessons for my students. I could not teach them the way I was taught. I was a different generation with different training. Today, my ethical training exists in a different manner. I am still concerned with how discipline affects the classroom and learning but I am just as concerned of how the consequences of discipline are affecting success. Students are receiving tickets as a consequence. This ticket is permanently on the student’s record and can affect future plans. High school diplomas, job security, and college admission can all be affected by the ticket(s) received as students. It should be the ethical decision of the administration to be concerned with the future of students as well as safe and civil schools. When creating discipline guidelines for students, we must think of the good of the school and all stakeholders. Students need consequences for their actions but we must make ethical decisions that will deter the behavior. We must also ensure the consequence does not cause distrust of the administration or cause a change in the student’s success.