Stars by Maria Moreno and Raquel Pelayo.

LEADERSHIP STYLES

Maria and me (Raquel) have been the stars this week, and we had to present the different styles of leadership and we decided to make us the role of each leadership and the follower the other member of our groups. Personally, we think that the best way to explain something or to have a better understanding is by this form, in the sense that we catch the attention of everybody and people, by themselves, can see the advantages and disadvantages in an indirect way.  Without explaining anything they can see what is normal and what is strange.

Continuing, we are going to explain a little bit about this topic.

 We have to start working on something that we already know its meaning, so, what is a leadership? A leadership is a leader’s style of providing directions, implementing plans and motivating people. There are 6 different types of leadership; each one is defined by some characteristics that make it different from the other ones.

The first one is the Democratic Leadership, where the leader shares his opinions and decisions with his or her workers, creating a social equality and a good creative environment. Each member takes a specific role, so they can solve complex problems without difficulty, thinking in better ideas and more creative solutions.

This is an effective and productive system that requires guidance and control by the specific leader, but it not only requires huge time consumption but also, when rules are unclear, it can lead to communication failures.

The second type is the Authoritarian Leadership in which the leader has the power decision, so the decisions are made quickly, producing a stable and safe work environment. But this type of leadership also has bad things, because the leader impose his domains without any discussion and he punish the contrary behaviours producing repression at the workers, so that there is not a personal relationship between the leader and his workers.

The third type of leadership is the Paternalistic Leadership in which the leader acts as a father. In this kind of leadership, workers are able to go to each other without any problem in order to help between them, so that they have better organization skills. But they are totally committed to what the leader believes; they will not strive off and work independently. Another bad thing is that the leader could play favourites in decisions, including the workers more apt to follow and excluding the ones who are less loyal. For that reason, when co-workers begin to believe that their jobs are not ensure, they start to look for bigger and better job opportunities, what puts the workers and leaders at risk for a bad situation.

The fourth leadership is the Laissez-faire Leadership. Its name translates to "leave do" in French. Laissez-faire leadership, also known as delegative leadership, is a type of leadership style in which leaders are hands-off and allow group members to make the decisions. They think that employees know their jobs best, so they must leave them alone to do their jobs.

Employees can set their own schedules, without needing to consult the leader for every decision made, and are free to toss around ideas in a team-work environment.

Such a leader provides basic but minimal information and resources to his employees

Researchers have found that this is generally the leadership style that leads to the lowest productivity among group members.

a)      Advantages

It can be one of the best types of leadership and it can be so efficient in the cases where group members are knowledgeable and experienced.

a)      Disadvantages

If the group members are not qualified enough and they need a constant supervision it can only lead to chaos and inefficiency. It’s not a good type of leadership for the people that are not good at setting their own deadlines, managing their own projects or solving problems on their own.

+Summary of main characteristics:

• Very little guidance from leaders
• Complete freedom for followers to make decisions and set schedules
• Leaders provide the tools and resources needed
• Group members are expected to solve problems on their own

For example, our class mate Feli, had to represent this type of leadership. She just said us that we must to create a school and we began to think how will be our ideal school. Personally, I think that it was a little unreal, but with the information that we had, we thought the best things for our school and we worked well.

The fifth type is the Transactional Leadership. This type of leadership says to their followers what they have to do, and they have the freedom to take decisions and think some ideas. Then the leadership will supervise their work and if it is good they will be rewarded, however, if they do not do the work well or they do not do it, the leader will punish them.

a)      Advantages

- It can be very effective for motivating subordinates and eliciting productivity.

- Transactional leadership assumes that people are motivated by rewards, they will cede authority to their chosen leaders and fulfill goals and objectives set by their leaders.

-Motivates followers by appealing to their own self-interest.

-Management-by-exception maintains the status quo.

b)     Disadvantages

-       It assumes that people are only motivated because of money and not because of the reason why they actually want to do it.

-       The leadership model will create a stressful work environment.

And finally, the last style of leadership is the Transformational Leadership. This type of leadership say to his/her followers what they must do and they do not receive any kind of rewards because work is for the  good of the group and improve like a group, all together.

a)      Advantages:

-Employees achieve objectives through higher ideals and moral values.

-Motivates followers by encouraging them to put group interests first.

-Individualized consideration: Each behavior is directed to each individual to express consideration and support.

 
-Intellectual stimulation: Promote creative and innovative ideas to solve problems.

-It will develop future leaders form lot of followers.

-People will work for the leader, even if the monetary and other benefits offered are lesser, as they will be inspired by his vision.

b)     Disadvantages:

-Transformational leaders achieve change by motivating followers to set aside individual or short-term interests to work together toward a group goal.

- And the leader does not lead to their follower take decisions and make the things like he/she wants, so they have not enough freedom to express their ideas.

Finally, we conclude on that a good leader must have different characteristics of every type on leadership. A leader should motivate his workers, creating a social equality and giving different roles in order to create a proper working, creative and stable work environment. He has to have the power decision but giving to his workers the opportunity to participate and decide about the main idea.

Designing a School & Being peforming what is like to be a passive star by Feli.

Every week we face different strategies in order to acquire all the skills that we will need ad future teachers.

So, last Monday, as Linda entered in our classroom, we were asked who was the star of that week, and once we told her who was the star and we were together, she asked us to follow her to the corridor. Well we all were a bit surprised; we did not know what to expect of this new season. What new challenge would be awaiting us….

Suddenly she started talking and proposed us a new activity. We had to be disguised in three different roles. The first would be the democratic role, followed by a dominant role and ending up to a passive role. That was a performance!!

The activity consisted on creating alongside our group our ideal school, (system, board of direction, number of lines….). So we, as stars, had to explain them how to elaborate the activity.

Linda assigned the roles and when my time came she told me to act in a passive way. Well I was shocked, because I am not a passive person whatsoever. Even though I knew that I would not be supportive with my team, I realised that it was my duty to comply with my task. Therefore I though that my plan was going to be, getting into the class, and give to my classmates general information, trying not to go deep on it, and I also though that I would not help them to find a consensus, nor being participative.

When I went to my group, I just did exactly that!!! Nothing.

When I gave the explanation, that was scarce, they kept on asking me to specify more, and I acted as if I did not care. They suddenly realised that something was going on, because they are used to my way of participating and they know that I always try to give my opinion, feedback in every single activity.

I have to say that I really HATED THE ROLE, AND I FELT AWFUL, because I felt really responsible for not giving them a clear guide, and ignoring them every time they asked me to translate something, my personal opinion…

Well, but my group in general is always working quite well, so they started by creating a brainstorming plan, where everybody would participate giving diverse ideas. The only bad thing, is that when they were creating our ideal school, they did not focused in just one point, all they did is to add every single idea, creating a school with plenty of different features that not only were not clear, but also there was not reason added to each implementation.The result was a school with the following Characteristics:

·       Private school.

·       Mixt.

·       In Murcia.

·       Bilingual with for lines of languages (English, French, German, and Spanish)

·       It has an open classroom.

·       Flexible classrooms.

·       High speed internet (Wi-Fi)

·       Tablet and laptops will be provided to every single student.

·       Every teacher has their its own website.

·       Virtual learning environment.

·       Sport facilities.

·       Parking, and dining room.

·       Extracurricular activities.

·      The school board composed by, a tutor per course, specialized teachers (English, Music, French, German, P.E, and Religion), the AMPA, a pedagogues, a psychologist, a speech therapist, the directorial team (two chiefs of studies, the principal and the secretary).

At the end of the class every star presented their own school, and afterwards Linda asked everybody how was the experience, and HERE WE ARE.

Suddenly like a light of brightening, many people started complaining, Fernando among them, answering to the teacher that they did not received good information on my behalf.

After listening all the explanations, everybody realised that we were playing different roles and that there were three kinds of leaders.

·      The ones who were democratic and helped their classmates, giving them all the tips they needed to create a consolidated school.

·       The passive ones like the role I have to face, trying to avoid responsibilities, not being involved with the team….

·     And the dominant leaders, the ones that did not want to listen to the rest of the members, trying to impose their rules without having in mind that it is always great to have a wide variety of fresh ideas that can help to reach a good end.

The conclusion is that Linda showed us through this practice, making a real example with real facts, that there are different ways to lead a group and that it is better that we went ourselves through the experience to feel exactly what is like to be on these diverse ways or organizing strategies shoes. Overall, that it is not easy being a leader, nor being the workers.

Anyway I really think that we were able to exceed our own expectations again, and that proves that we are going to the right direction.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Journalist by Raquel Pelayo.

This week I have been the journalist. This week our stars, Rosana and Cristian, during Easter they had to learn the questions for the quiz that all the stars of each group had to participate. The quiz consisted in a play which consisted in a board of snakes and stairs, with the stairs you must go up and with the snakes you must go down. The first group which arrive to the end the first win. So the teacher asked them the questions that we made and they must answer. Our stars asked them very well!!

Here you have an example of the board:

The winner was our classmates T8T in the first position and the second position was for “Step by Step”. Congratulations for both groups, good job!!

Then Linda, our teacher of this subject, said us which were the other prizes for the conceptual maps and for the best questions. We have the second position in the best questions for the quiz with our classmates the group of Hide and Seek.

So, we have just finished this subject, now we must to study very hard for our next exam.

It has been a pleasure for me work with you guys, thank you for all. 

Here we have our two stars Rosana and Cristian, and at the background Maria, Fernando and me (Raquel). This picture was made before starting the quiz.

            This picture was during the quiz, Linda asking the questions and each star asking them.

The analyst by María Moreno

This week the stars have played the game, and firstly I want to congratulate all of them because they did it their best. Cristian and Rosana were our stars and although they answered properly all the questions we did not win, but it is not our fault.

I think that this game is not the perfect way to decide if we know the answers or not, because only two people can participate on it, while the rest of the group is only clapping and looking at them. Also, if you know all the answers but when you roll the die, only small numbers appear, you will not win. I think that this game is enjoyable, but not a fair play.

This is my last time as the analyst, so I want to say that with this subject I have learnt a lot of knew things and I have discovered that without any printed book, papers or teachers help, we can learn things better, because we have to investigate by ourselves, reading different pieces of information and summarizing what we consider the most important.

What´s more, I think that taking the different roles is a very good idea, because we can work in a different way each week and also we can help to our colleagues when they have to do a role that we did before, so we collaborate helping us and doing it our best.

So, CONGRATULATION to Brainstorming and remember this two words: WE CAN!!!

Work as Stars by Rosana Yepes and Cristian Paco

"The fortune roulette", "The price is right" or "Drop a million” which one would you choose for being a competitor?  I would say better play Bingo.

Well, this week we have felt like contestant in a popular TV program at dinner time in channel 4.  We have played "The snake and leather game", students were the contestant, Linda the conductor and the price was set up as a wild card with high mark for each member of the group to be changed by one question (of the two questions) in the oral final exam. It's mean that the students who win the game will take advantage of the card and will almost have pass 50% of the final oral exam.

The game is about drooping the dices, answering the questions and running as faster as the luck let you in order to reach the first position, if you fail the questions there is no lucky at all but due to the difficulty of the questions and few things else, almost everybody was able to answer the questions easily. 

Watching into this activity we now perfectly that the purpose of the game is not only get the price as it is set up just to motivate the students, we have to recognize that we have learn quite a lot about LOMCE by doing nothing, impressive!! And also we are almost ready to the final exam, nice!!

But because we love been naughty we have to compile about to factors totally opposite at the university, "luck & price" as it must be "effort & price". It doesn’t mean this activity didn’t get its purpose but not in the correct way.

Anyway, we’ll keep doing as much as we can as the sun rise and set every day and probably one day we'll be able to scream, BINGO!!!

The analist by Cristian Paco

Probably this is the worst role of this activity as we have to evaluate our class mates and not many people love to be the hangman of somebody, then the person who is executed plus his or her friends are complaining, pointing and gossiping the hangman. BUT

Who is the bad boy of this movie?  the hangman or the king?

In my opinion none of them. Everybody knows that when the police caught you driving and drinking you are crap and the hangman punish you because of the low made by the authorities. so this is so simple, FOLLOW THE RULES.

For that reason I have to say that this week no one of my team have fail the week as every one has done as much he or she is able to do, building the questions, choosing the good one and checking the mistakes in order to get outstanding questions for a good understanding of the educational law so, to me the best part of the week is the way we are understanding the changes in the LOMCE by discovery learning but the best of the best part is that we are learning that we can teach a piece of pure text with no memorization at all, this is the way I want to teach my student in the future.

In my opinion the worst part is the little feedback we are receiving from Linda as we are not sure if our understanding of the law is correct or it can be improved.

About the best or the worst moment in this week I can say that the visit of  Jordi was very rich and also was a prove that Linda is not the only pedagogic that have that  opinion about new technologies and education, the worst part was the rush we have to take to finish the chosen questions and I have to say that we didn't choose it properly as we didn't had all the resources to do it in a right way.

As a group we have to conserve the hard working, the unity, the positive spirit and the smiling in our faces and for the few next week we have to improve in the understanding so everything, I think we have to force our brain to the understanding, after that we'll be able to think clear and understand better.

As my mate Fernandito says in the last annalist’s post it's clear that the good understanding of the LOMCE will be more than useful in the race but the more useful part for the race and for our entire professional life will be de knowledge we are getting looking into the BOE.

We all know that our future job will be very sticky to the government that is way there is an obvious connection between the activity and the social context, in other words, the LOMCE will affect to the social context and the right knowledge about how to trait the LOMCE will make the difference between the good and the bad teaching.

Work as Journalist by Rosana Yepes

Hi bloggers!

Before Easter my role was the journalist. To be honest, the week was a bit different because we have to change classes due to the interesting visits which we received. Even theses visits don’t belong to this subject, I would like to say that them were so productive.

Firstly our function the last week was  to elaborate 4 questions about each Conceptual Map which we did the last week. The questions should pick up the main aspects about the topic, and they were not able to be ansewered with a simple glance. Finally, we had to choose the eight best questions about a topic 6: Administration and Governance at Local and/or Institutional Level II. Moreover, we had to assess all the questions of our partners. It was difficult, because we didn’t have much time and we had to return the questions, so at least, we had to assess them by photos.

What do I think about this activity? I think that it is really difficult and it requires so much responsibility. Even it is hard, with this kind of activities we develop our critical sense, but in reality it is so hard assessing our partners´ work. Anyway, we are going to be teachers and we are going to assess many many, so it is preferable that we start soon.

Regarding my work as journalist, I have made an interview a teacher of primary education to know what is, as teacher, her opinion about the new law of education, LOMCE.

There are many documents comparing both laws: LOE and LOMCE. However, I have been able to see this comparison more clearly in this document, because it appears two colors that distinguish each one.

http://www.stecyl.es/LOMCE/LOE-LOMCE.pdf

 I would like to say see of saying congratulations to Educational Rush Hour for the way that they have done their roles this week. Congratulations!

http://educationalrushhour.blogspot.com.es/

Obviously, I don’t forget my group, CONGRATULATIONS, TOO. We all have done a good work. I am proud of you! J

Here I give you some songs to cheer up and encourage you! J