Last week, I started classes towards an administrative certificate with a cohort of teachers from my district. The program is offered through Samford University, a small Christian school in Homewood. There are seven of us altogether.
A couple of years ago, I wouldn't have envisioned moving in this direction professionally. I love the library and I love technology, neither of which requires this sort of experience. And I've still got that dissertation thing hanging out there, after all, with no foreseeable end in sight (if you know a good freelance statistician willing to take on an interesting project....you know where to find me)
But in the ed tech world, I started seeing some amazing young administrators who were leading who faculties in these really creative ways using technologies. Two standouts are Chris Lehmann from the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, who I met at the Google Teacher Academy, and Kipp Rogers, a middle school principal who uses cell phones in all sorts of transformational ways. I began to see a potential for a realm of influence far larger than my current one in the library. And some really bright women emphasized the gender imbalance in secondary administration, appealing to my feminist bent.
An additional factor is the impending retirement of my exceptional administrators, Tommy Ledbetter and Sarah Fanning, from Buckhorn High School. I'm hoping we will have them on campus for another two years, but I may overestimate. I realize a lot of my role as the school librarian is really at the liberty of the administrators, and I have been shown a considerable amount of support. The main impetus for me in taking the educational leadership classes is in maximizing my opportunities in the advent their successors don't support the library in the same palpable way.
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