Thanks to Dr. Olga

Dr. Olga Alonsabe

     Becoming a leader is a great task but there is a leader whom I appreciated the most,that's our beloved Dr. Olga Alonsabe, our leadership instructor. 

   She taught us a lot about leadership skills, models and principles. Its really hard for us to learn the leadership theories and principles of being a leader because most of us were not yet on the position but our beloved instructor successfully taught us how to become one. She delivers the lessons by heart because she is living and practicing it. No wonder why she is on top position right now,coz she has the heart to deal with people, to help and nurture them and with pure heart. She is a great leader, no complaints, no saying "No",always saying yes and she delivers well. She is simple but sharp minded. You can see her on the corner when there is social gatherings but she prevails. She is so professional and very humble,which I loved the most. I thank you for being a good instructor and you proved to us that Woman is powerful. Hope we can see you at C.U anytime...On behalf of our batch, we extend our gratitude and we love you.You will not be forgotten and will stay in our hearts.

 We loved you doc..

Curriculum Leadership

   
  Curriculum refers to —basically what students are expected to learn in the classroom and how the lessons are taught.It refers to all educational experiences students go through in school. It considers existing community values and expectations; based on socially accepted educational philosophy.  

 The area of leadership will not just be around the stakeholders itself, but one must consider the content of the teachers are using,and thats what we called the curriculum of which the success of the teachers guided by it, would be a productive students.Teaching is a complex, multifaceted activity, often requiring to juggle multiple tasks and goals simultaneously and flexibly and because of this,thorough guidance is needed.The leader could help enrich the curriculum and make it sure that it is well followed by the implementing teachers to be more effective and more efficient. Becoming a leader is becoming a good curriculum enhancer and enricher. He must be checking how this curriculum would help to achieve and maximize the quality of students' learning every now and then. He must evaluate the teachers daily on how they taught their lessons according to what is expected.Teachers use curricula when trying to see what to teach to students and when, as well as what the rubrics should be, what kind of worksheets and teacher worksheets they should make, among other things. Leaders/School heads will making it sure that the approved curriculum is understood, appreciated and followed by the school’s teaching force.The School Head uses the curriculum as guide in achieving the school’s over-all goal : to deliver quality education.

     To be a school head is a challenge. I taught it would be a lot easier when your in the top position because most of the existing teachers wanted to be promoted because they taught that their current teaching job is so stressful rather than being a school head. But if we are to take it in a big picture, your position really compliments how big would be your responsibilities are. It is not just having a position and climbing at the next steps of the lather but it is being a dedicated servant to the educational sectors. This curriculum leadership should be mastered by a head so that the quality of the education that is the main focus of Department of Education would be realized.

Models of Educational Leadership

      In many researches, it has been found out that Effective Leadership is fundamental to successful schools and educational system. It is said that schools are achievers and progressive when their leaders are effective. In this sense,our educational system need more leaders who can manage and lead the schools well to achieve quality education. There are models of educational leadership that were discussed which can be used as approaches to variety of problems encountered in schools by leaders. The models should be mastered by our leaders in order to solved some problems in a different ways whichever is suited.I would like to further explained, three among the models suggested which for me are the top and most needed to be mastered by leaders.

        Moral Leadership 

This model assumes that the critical focus of leadership ought to be on the values, beliefs and ethics of leaders themselves. Authority and influence are to be derived from defensible conceptions on what is right or good. This type of leader leads through his good deeds and doing things according to what is good and acceptable to all of his followers as well as mankind. In return, followers will follow based on what their leaders are practicing. If you are God fearing individual and leader , all your decision making will always be asked guidance from God and that you can explain and justify decisions in moral terms. I loved this type of leadership because if you are following on what is morally right and God loving leader then all your plans and actions are possible and with God's grace, the followers will do their tasks fervently. A morally confident leader will understand more patiently what is happening on the organization especially if there will be chaos among the members of it. The vision will be more achievable when God is the center of all the dreams of the organization and that every morally confident members will commit themselves to the organization as they commit themselves to God. Cooperation and Teamwork will often be practiced by the leader and followers.

      Instructional Leadership

This model focuses on the direction of influence rather than its nature and source. It focuses on teaching and learning and on the behaviour of teachers in working with students. Leader's influence is targeted at student learning via teachers. — This leader will facilitates direction and support for school instructional program. She/he will ensures that the curriculum goals are achieved and maximizing student learning by providing quality in the content of learning. This type of instructional leader leads to curriculum implementation and enrichment.
    Interpersonal Leadership
The interpersonal intelligence is the vital medium of this type of leadership. Interpersonal leader stresses the collaboration and interpersonal relationships among members. This type of leader somehow is approachable of which the members can directly and easily approach the leader when rough times come in doing his/her tasks. The members can work together with full support of their leader. This will facilitates effective engagement with the members of the organization since the leader leads using his/her interpersonal skills. What is given importance here is the individual members of the organization towards relating one another in achieving same vision.
 Being a leader is a difficult task if we really take this seriously.There are many things to consider; many people/followers/members to handle, many relationships to nurture,many heads to teach and learn, many hands to inspire, many hearts to aspire  and many visions to acquire. With this lots of tasks ahead, one thing I can be sure of, If we handle this leadership by hearts and with God, everything will run smoothly and achieving goals are much easier.

Management vs. Leadership

      Management and Leadership seems to be the same as understood by the most people but there's a lot of difference on this two. This difference is seen in the way it brings people.By definition, managers have subordinates in which case the title is a misnomer and their power over others is other than formal authority. Leaders do not have subordinates - at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity.

     The old proverb says that leadership is doing the right thing; management is doing things right. The difference between the two is not as sharp as the saying would suggest, and both are required for effective corporate growth: leadership risk creates opportunities while management strictness turns them into tangible results. Management focuses on the objectives and stability while leadership focuses on vision and change. Managers often work just to stabilized what is the usual things to be done by a good manager and oftentimes they are maintaining that routinary activities while leaders leads by heart and focuses on changing the people from bad habits to good ones of which it creates inspirations to each of his followers and leads largely to change to reach the vision of the organization.Managers says work is to be done because his subordinates are paid and thats what it compliments to their works,but leaders doesn't need to do things like that because through his skills, the followers do it in their own ways due to change in their perceptions and achieve great passion towards working their tasks and that they have all the excitement to do it. Management is somehow autocratic in nature while Leadership is democratic. Subordinates are forced to do their jobs because they are ought to and follow their managers since it is based on the hiearchy of authority and that managers are on their top while the followers are free to do in their own ways as long as it will lead to the vision that they wanted to achieve.

Do you want to be a leader or a manager? You need to make a choice as there is a huge difference. The world is full of managers and short of leaders – real leaders.  Effective leadership is doing right things and putting first things first. Effective management is doing things right, discipline, and carrying it out. When managing, you are performing such activities as planning, directing, organizing, measuring, and controlling. When leading, you are involved with visioning, inspiring, coaching, energizing, and empowering. Management is much broader in scope than leading and focuses on nonbehavioral as well as behavioral issues. Leading emphasizes mainly behavioral issues.

To maximize your long-term success you should strive to be both a manager and a leader and to synergize their functions. Merely possessing management skills is no longer sufficient for success as an executive in today's business world. You need to understand the differences between managing and leading and know how to integrate the two roles to achieve organizational success. As a manager, you must make sure that a job gets done, and as a leader, you must care about and focus on the people who do the job. To integrate management and leadership, therefore, demands a delicate balance between a calculated and logical focus on organizational processes (management) and visioning, energizing employees, and a genuine concern for them as people (leadership). 
     In the discussion, I realized that it really takes a lot of efforts and talents to be a great manager and a leader. We have to master the good qualities of both since it is needed to be succesful in leading and managing people in an organization.

Manager vs. Leader

• The manager administers; the leader innovates
• The manager is a copy; the leader is an original
• The manager maintains; the leader develops
• The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people
• The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust
• The manager has a short-range view; the leader has long-range perspective
• The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why
• The manager has his eyes always on the bottom line; the leader has his eyes on the horizon
• The manager imitates; the leader originates
• The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it
• The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his own person
• The manager uses his mind; the leader thinks with his heart
• The manager deals money most; the leader deals with people most
• The manager lives with the environment; the leaders with the society
• The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing

School Leadership

                                                  My Principal and her Family

School leadership is the process of enlisting and guiding the talents and energies of teachers, pupils, and parents toward achieving common educational aims . For me, being a school leader is a difficult task to take. It means bringing up a lot of people  and you are given a responsibility to cater their needs even to some personal problems. You are the one  guiding them to be focused and reach the vision and mission of the school.   Indeed, one character that a school leader must possess  is the ability to carry out the vision and mission of the school , visualized and lead the people on how to achieved it. A school leader like the principal must be visionary, always keep on moving towards the goals for the good of the school. No matter how hard the roads towards achieving the aims, still a principal must be firm to  face it and would not return her/his back. Constraints and any discrepancies will be at the sides of the roads and they will challenge the principal to be crumpled and fallen apart so it is very important to not forget to hit the target. 

Another attitude that a principal must possess is the ability to communicate effectively. Communication is a process ,meaning is defined and shared between living organisms. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the sender.Many skill are very important on dealing with people,but one skill is essential; the ability to communicate. Whether you are discussing in a meeting, talking over the phone, sending memos, checking people tru facebook or blogspot, what we are doing is communicating. These exchanges are the backbone and the life blood of every organization and every relationship. If a principal has a vision to be achieved but he/she don't have the ability to relay them to his/her subordinates who are the main players then it may be a failure on his/her task. What is important in communication is one must learn to understand the receiver and he/she should adjust in order the message will be relayed effectively because there are barriers in communicating for instance,personal problems of the teachers that could distract their ability to listen and carry out the tasks. As a principal, he/she should create and develop higher productivity from him/herself and for every one to follow. There are many ways to increase productivity, performance and output as a principal as follows;

• Work harder at what you do. When you work, work all the time you work. Don't waste time. Don't look at the workplace as a place to socialize with your friends.
• Work faster. Develop a sense of urgency. Get on with the job.
• Work on higher-value activities. Remember that the number of hours you work is not nearly as important as the value of the tasks you complete, the quality and quantity of results you achieve. The more time you spend on higher-value tasks, the greater results you will obtain from every hour you put in.
• Do things you are better at. When you work on tasks at which you are especially skilled and experienced, you can accomplish much more in a shorter period of time than could an inexperienced person. In addition, work at getting better at the most important things you do. Nothing will increase the quality and quantity of your output faster than becoming excellent at performing the most important tasks that are expected of you.
• Bunch your tasks. Do several similar activities all at the same time. By writing all your letters, filling out all your expense reports, or preparing all your proposals at the same time, you get better and faster with each task.
• Simplify your work so that it is easier to do. Consolidate several parts of the job into a single task so that there are fewer steps. Eliminate lower-value activities altogether.

• Work longer hours. Notwithstanding my points elsewhere regarding time off from work, it is true that if you start a little earlier and stay a little later, you will be more productive. By starting your day earlier than the average person, you beat the traffic into work. By staying a little later, you leave after the traffic. By doing both, you can add two or three hours to your productive working day without really affecting your lifestyle. 

                 I thought before, if you are a principal,you have a lesser job than an ordinary teacher but now,I realized that its a great task ahead. Many things and people to handle and many skills to be develop and utilized to be effective and efficient. That's why, now I do really admired my High School Principal. She's one of a kind.

Me,as a Leader...