Final Week at Higher Achievement

For the last week at Higher Achievement, we took all the Richmond centers 7th graders on a three day, two night overnight trip to Virginia Tech. Although we ended up having a good trip, this trip just further showed how unorganized the Richmond office is. When we received our itineraries Monday morning, there was not one event or activity planned for us, whereas the DC centers had their entire days planned, which meant it was up to the teachers to plan things to do to keep our kids safe and occupied. Then when we arrived at Virginia Tech, we found out that no one had told them that we wanted the boys and girls to be on separate floors, so they had to redo all the room assignments, which was one big mess. Three of my girls never got new rooms, and so I made the decision to just put them in a room next to me using the master key. Because the trip was poorly organized, we ended up doing everything by center, and because I was the only female teacher that went from our center, I was solely responsible for all the girls on the trip. I was the one staying up all night making sure they didn’t leave their rooms, and the one waking them up in the morning, taking them to meals and tours and anything else we had to do. Although it all ended up being fine, that was a ton of responsibility and not at all what I had signed up for. That being said, I think one of the reasons the trip ended up being a success in the end was because of the dynamic of our center’s team. Because we have a very informal and friendly power structure, where everyone is comfortable with everyone, it made it easy when it came time to make decisions. Our center director trusted us to make decisions on what to do when the need arose, and no one felt uncomfortable speaking up. He trusted me to step up and be the one responsible for the girls, even though that was not originally the plan. I think having that more relaxed, relationship oriented dynamic is extremely important in many settings because it allows all people within the company to voice their opinions, rather than just the leader telling everyone else what to do.

Overall this summer, I learned a ton about leadership, both in a school setting as well as an organization setting. Just like we learned in my Theories and Models class, leadership is 100% contingent on the situation, and there is no one sized fits all model of leadership, and this is definitely something I witnessed. Different types of people excel in different types of leadership roles, and different skills are needed. For example, a more extroverted person will do well leading a group of kids in a classroom setting, whereas a very conscientious person will excel as the leader of all of Richmond programs.