My moral purpose has been deeply ingrained in me since I was a small child. When I was 21/2 I became a big sister to my brother John. One thing that I didn’t know about John until I was a little older was that he had Down syndrome. My whole life, I have grown up as an advocate for people with disabilities. John is my brother, I didn’t know any different from any other brother. He helped me learn that people with disabilities are people just like me and you, they have feelings, enjoy life, and, most importantly, should have access to everything anyone else does. When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher inspired me to become a teacher myself one day. Fast forward to high school, I realized that my passion for people with disabilities and my passion for teaching children overlapped and I could do both. Here I am today, dual certified as a special education teacher and elementary education teacher.
In my current teaching position, I have had the honor of working with 3 students for the past 3 years who qualify for “intensive funding,” this means that they get individualized support throughout the day to support their inclusion in the general education classroom. My moral purpose has contributed to my leadership with these students by advocating for them and supporting them to gain access to what all children receive in the school system. At times, it was (and still is) really hard, but I know all students deserve the opportunity to participate in and access the general education classroom. Fullan (2001) describes leadership that has a strong moral purpose must have an explicit “making-a-difference” sense of purpose, use strategies to get people to tackle tough problems, have measurable indicators of success, and awaken people’s intrinsic commitment (p. 20). I know my moral purpose and I think it is an important one, I am far from being perfect leader, but I am trying! An example of a woman who is a great leader with a very strong moral purpose is Linda Cliatt-Wayman. She became a principal at a very low poverty school. She shared that on her first day a student said, “Why do you keep calling this a school? This is not a school.” This motivated her to make the school a welcoming learning environment. She shared that her 3 slogans are:
Her moral purpose helped improve this school not only in academics and attendance, but made it an overall welcoming place for the students. Palmer (2007) talks about how teaching goes beyond technique by saying, “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher” (p. 10). This reflects what Fullan says about moral purpose. Our moral purpose is our identity and integrity, it is required in leaders like Cliatt-Wayman. All students are deserving of an education. They all deserve access to peers and teachers who will shape them to be great people. If we take this access away from any child, we take away their right to pursue happiness (Kushner 2004). My moral purpose, all children can learn and deserve equal opportunity, has shaped me as a teacher and how I lead with those around me for the benefit of each student. References Cliatt-Wayman, L. (2015, May). Retrieved March 10, 2017, from https://www.ted.com/talks/linda_cliatt_wayman_how_to_fix_a_broken_school_lead_fear lessly_love_hard/transcript?language=en Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a Culture of Change. John Wiley & Sons. Kushner, T. (2004, November 10). The Power of One: A Teacher Can Make Every Child Feel Important. Retrieved March 9, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/power-one Palmer, P. J., Jackson, M., & Tucker, E. (2007). The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. https://biochem.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/labs/attie/publications/Heart_of_a_Teacher.pd f Mentor Project Update
My mentorship project is with the speech language pathologist at our school. There is a student at my school who has very low language and accuracy in body movements. They have tried to use proloquo to go with this student, but she is too young. What they have found is a device called the Dynavox. It is in the form of a tablet and has a communication system on it. There are categories for the student to choose from and then lists of questions, statements, positive comments, and negative comments. The student got this device about a month ago. The speech language pathologist is setting up the Dynavox for the student and I have been helping with the process. I have also been helping her implement the device and had conversations with her to talk about what that will look like in full usage.
We had plans to set up the dynavox for her to communicate happy feelings as an initial lesson. In our first meeting, however, my mentee expressed an immediate need for the student to be able to express her wants and needs. The student often communicates in the form of hitting adults around her. I made low-tech cards to mimic what the student would see on the screen. These have been working in the speech room and she has been using them. Another idea that we came up with was using a peer to model the use of the dynavox. This student is very motivated by her peers, so seeing a peer using it in a positive way that got a message across is one of the first steps in her using it by herself to communicate. Overall, this device has been very difficult for both the speech language pathologist and myself to learn. Being able to ask each other questions and troubleshoot together has been a great resource. The majority of our work together has been talking about how to scaffold the usage of this device for the student and the adults who work with her. This starts with a low-tech communication system that mimics the actual technology and slowly teaching the student how to use it.
2 Comments
3/11/2017 08:14:25 pm
Your story is a great example of how you were motivated to choose a career. It’s great to share this with others. Sometimes we don’t hear “our” story because no one asks, or there is no opportunity to share. I can’t imagine growing up with someone with disabilities. You have a great moral purpose. I began to watch your TED Talk video and one thing that stood out for me was around 5:40. Linda stated she was not going to be one of those principals that stayed in their office. That resonated with me deeply. How many times in my 20+years of teaching did I see the principal in my classroom other than for evaluation? A few times! I don’t want to be negative towards principals because they do have an awesome responsibility of taking charge of a school, but the one thing I would like to see more in my school is a principal that walks around, visits classrooms on a regular basis. Every student should know who the principal is in a school and it is shocking to find out that there is a proportion of students that do not know! This cannot be. Something is wrong. You should be able to stop any student in a hallway and ask who their principal is, and they should confidently tell you, without error, who it is. Linda’s story is amazing. To turn around poverty schools is a daunting task, and I don’t know if I would have that kind of leadership in me to do what she has done. Amazing story.
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Sara Lucas
3/12/2017 11:20:58 pm
I like how you talk about your moral purpose to help all students. I think this is so important. As a teacher it is so hard to meet every student where they are at and you could easily not. You really have to have a high moral purpose in helping all students to go the extra mile.
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