The Final Leadership Day Has Flown By

Today was spent working with the St. Jude leadership team, and focused on new learning in several areas. We began the day with a discussion of the coming week of training we will be providing to teachers - providing a brief overview and the text that will be used to support the work.

After that conversation, we broke into small groups to provide instruction about the three basic styles of leadership and a self-assessment tool designed to help teachers reflect on the quality of their communication skills.

The big portion of the day was spent setting up the virtual environment through which we will continue to support the leadership team after we leave for America. We registered all school leaders, learned how to engage in threaded discussions, post and retrieve files, and participate in real-time chats about specific leadership topics. While each person's computer skills varied, all teachers were persistent and incredibly patient in learning the process, and all were successful in the end.

At the end of our session (the last formal leadership session), Mr. Ben made a formal statement of thanks to us for the work and the time, and expressed the group's feelings that the week had been a great success and that they had each learned more than they expected they could about leadership and team work. In reflecting on the day, I also received several individual emails from the teachers stating how much they had enjoyed the week, and the hope that we will continue to support them in their leadership roles. All I can say is that it would be a real pleasure to continue to work with a group of people who are so open to new ideas and anxious for new learning.