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Bob Logan
State: Wisconsin

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Vision & LeadershipBackground & Experience

Professional Roles/Areas
Active Professional Roles/Areas:
Instructional Technology
Curriculum and Instruction
Technology Support

Aspiring Professional Roles/Areas:
Instructional Technology
Curriculum and Instruction
Principal — Elementary

Vision and Leadership
Core beliefs that I bring to my professional practice:
I believe that people, not programs make the difference in any endeavor. This is specifically true in education. There is not a program in existence that can survive without good people to implement it, but there are many bad programs that produce results if the right people get put in positions to make a difference.

A corollary to this is exemplified by George Patton's statement to, "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." I believe that as an educational leader, it is my job to paint a vision of where to go, inspire others to want to go, remove obstacles preventing them from going, and provide resources to assist them in going there faster. It is not to micromanage, mandate a step-by-step approach, or to suck the creativity out of the art of teaching.

By building a team of people with a diverse skill set, and carefully leading them in appropriate directions, excellence is attainable. I believe that improvement happens faster when you focus on strengths, not weaknesses. This makes collaboration all the more important as others' strengths will fill in the gaps of your own short comings. Excellence is achieved not by plugging holes made by one’s weaknesses, but by building and developing strengths beyond what was previously thought possible. Major time should therefore be placed on improving one’s strengths, not on fixing one’s shortcomings. If you are a '3' in some area, through hard work and effort, you might one day be a 5. However, if you are an '8' in another area, the same effort can make you a '10'...the best in that particular skill or venture! The areas where you are a 10 will make huge differences and lead those around you. The areas where you are a 5 qualify you as a supporting role, but do little to bring transformative change to what you wish to accomplish. Strive, always, to build out your "10s".

It is a mistake to spend major time on minor skills unless those skills are causing major problems. Following directly from this belief is that professional development (and as a direct result, systemic change) in any area of education is best achieved by focusing on the teachers who ‘get it’ and ‘want it’ and most importantly 'DO IT'. Help them to soar to new levels, and even those who cannot see the vision will be pulled along in the wake of the champions or run a ground and forced out of the race. Either way, the students' win.

The idea of 'not watering the rocks', or 'not preaching to the dead' may sound callous or apathetic, but truthfully, the mediocre will always strive to remain mediocre. Upton Sinclair once said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." Those who wish to stand in the way or hold back progress will be run over by those who do 'get it'. We must praise and exalt excellence when it happens. We must do everything in our power to provide opportunities for everyone to move to the next level, but it is a drain on scarce resources to invest disproportionately in those who will make the least impact on the organization if they are unwilling to make the effort to improve.

I believe that a 'one best system' approach to education is the primary reason why public education fails such a high percentage of its students. One best system is a great approach to manufacturing because we start with the same raw materials, and strive to produce copies of the same thing. Conversely, a 'one best system' is rarely an environment that fosters creativity, promotes innovation, encourages finding 'best practices', or leads to excellence. This is further compounded by the fact that we are working under conditions where no two students start at the same point, no two students have equal skill sets, and no two students show the same aptitude for every subject.

In summary, an individual education plan (IEP) is essential to reach maximum potential for every student. This cannot be done in a 'one best system' approach to learning which takes the responsibility for learning away from the student and places it in the lap of the teacher.

If it is true for the students, it is also true for the teachers. A 'one best system' approach to professional development is founded on the fallacious premise that all teachers have the same background information, all teachers need to know how to do the same things, and all teachers are equally capable. Only by supporting good teachers to become better problem solvers, critical thinkers, communicators, and collaborative learners can all students be reached.

I believe that the best way to lead is to serve. Ronald Reagan said, 'You can accomplish anything if you don't care who gets credit for it.' My job is to make other people look good. I believe that leaders should model what they wish to see, using words only when necessary. I believe that lasting learning occurs only when you are actively engaged in answering a question, solving a problem, or creating a project that holds your interest. Engagement of the learner is essential! I believe that all aspects of education should center around developing skills in problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. These skills encompass all that is necessary to become independent and lifelong learners in virtually any field of endeavor.


Example(s) of daily work that reflect one or more of my core beliefs:
My approach to technology integration is to train teachers in the way that I believe that they should be teaching their students. Rather than providing training in skills and concepts that 'might' be used (just in case training model) I find it is much more effective to provide the training in a 'just in time' manner. Research bears this out, as do the results of our technology integration efforts.

By getting into the classroom with the teachers and students and modeling solid integration strategies embedded in project based learning, problem based learning, and inquiry based learning models, teachers see first hand how to allow students to 'struggle' with the problem solving, critical thinking, collaborative, and communication skills that they are exploring. They also experience the same struggle as they move from being the person who has all of the answers, to a fellow learner in pursuit of a common goal.


Part(s) of any work I've ever done, including current work, that I've enjoyed doing and have done well:
I am very good at taking seemingly disparate pieces of technology or concepts, and marrying them together to achieve a goal or solve a problem.  Often this is the end result of trying to solve a problem that I had personally, and extending it to be used in the classroom.


I've taken on the role of mentor to a teacher (or someone in my professional area) who is new to the profession. My main goal(s) in working with this person and a rationale for each would include:
My main goal in working with the new teacher would be to help them to understand that students need to construct knowledge based on past experience for that knowledge to become meaningful and therefore valuable to them.  Everyone comes to the table with different experiences, skills, and interests.  It is important to build a culture in the classroom that fosters differentiation to reach the corporate goals of the course.

This can be best achieved through the use of PPI (projects, problems, and inquiries).  This requires a departure of 'business as usual' as it is no longer possible to 'cover' all of the material that has traditionally been covered.  However, that is not a bad thing.  In an age where information is readily available in seconds, we must refocus our efforts on the essential skills of communication, collaboration, problem solving, and critical thinking.  Everything else should be taught within the context of building and furthering these skills.


Students in my school or classroom must be prepared to …

Students in my class must work collaboratively to solve problems, complete projects, or answer questions that do not have a single path to 'arrive at an answer'.  They must be able to communicate their ideas clearly not only to present a final product, but also to complete the process. 

They must develop problem solving skills.... 

They must be able to critically evaluate...

They must be able to work collaboratively...

They must be able to communicate effectively...

They must be able to think creatively and innovatively...




My greatest responsibility to students is …
My greatest responsibility to students is to empower them to identify what is working in their education, and what is not, and give them the courage and tools to demand and acquire the opportunities and skills that are necessary to grow in every area of their lives.

This means fostering a sense of self-responsibility, self-reliance, self-awareness, and honesty.  As Mark Twain said, "I never let my schooling interfere with my learning."  This attitude is all that is needed to successfully transverse what may often be perceived to be a broken system.


My greatest responsibility to colleagues is …
My greatest responsibility to colleagues is to give them a sense of what is possible, a desire to reach for what they might have thought was unreachable, and the "guilt" to realize that they are not where they eventually can be in their development.

I must provide a vision of where I believe we should move as an organization and remove obstacles for them to empower them to get there.

I will invest the long hours and difficult work in any colleague who has enough self-pride to invest in themselves and strive to be better.

 


My greatest responsibility to myself and my profession is …
My greatest responsibility to myself and my profession is to realize that I will never be where I want to be.  If I think I am there, it means that I am no longer growing, and I need to consider a career change.

Through continual self-evaluation and reflection on my core beliefs, I am able to improve my practice, refine my beliefs, and hone my skills to become better today than I was yesterday.  In the process, I will bring as many people along with me as possible.


My hopes for education in the next 3-5 years include:
My hopes for education in the next 3-5 years is that we realize that the system is broken.  When everything is working exactly as it was intended to work, we are failing a huge percentage of our kids who fall through cracks, coast through their learning, or develop an attitude of indifference - or worse, animosity - toward learning.

Until we recognize that it is broken beyond repair, we cannot move to redesign it from the ground up.  We need a bulldozer, not a handyman.