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"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be
prepared to take the helm." ~Henrik Ibsen
This web project is a comprehensive
digital portfolio presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of
the doctor of education degree program of St. John's University, School
of Education and Human Services, Center for Educational
Leadership and Accountability. The various folios present my
understandings about education and change, as well as my personal opinions and experiences that give meaning and form to my life
as a teacher and leader. Thank you for taking the
time to view this project.
Understanding one's self both in terms of personal
mastery and mental models is fundamental to
leadership (Senge, 1990). The St. John's program has enabled
me to apply myself personally and academically to allow
various theoretical rationales and conceptual frameworks to
serve as lenses for viewing schools and communities. I have
been challenged to understand myself as a learner, a teacher and a
leader at the
demanding level of doctoral work.
The most powerful lens through which to view
leadership is the concept of the constructivist leader who
can engages the community in reciprocal exchanges and ongoing
conversation that builds new meaning and distributes leadership
(Lambert, 2002). The constructivist leader is a leader who can tell the stories of shared purpose and
shared meaning helping others to grow and lead. Through the academic and personal leadership
demonstrated in the St. John's program, I have come to a greater understanding of myself as a learner, a teacher, and
a leader who cares for and serves others through purposeful vision, learning together, and community building.
Navigating and understanding this web
site:
The web site is organized according to the requirements of
the doctoral digital portfolio of St. John's University. The viewer may use the
hyperlinks in the upper left to explore the various folios of the
portfolio. Please return to the home page if lost and be
aware that the main folio
hyperlinks will always appear on the left in the main web.
Artifacts of the various folios are in pages below the main page
of the folio and will appear as hyperlinks on the right or
on the folio page.
Course assignments and other learning activities of the
learner folio may be accessed through the
coursework subweb.
The professional folio contains basic
information about my professional life and includes links to
downloadable documents in
Adobe Acrobat Reader format (PDF).
The learner folio
is
the bulk of the coursework and artifacts created in the
learning process which began with coursework in February
2002. The learner folio may also be viewed through the coursework subweb.
The expert folio is application of skills and knowledge
gained through this program of study to my work as an
educator and leader in the public schools and community.
Finally, the scholar folio is the
culminating work of the program that provides the foundation
for continued study, a dissertation proposal in progress,
and synthesis of the overall program as I intend to apply it
to future learning. In effect, skills and information
gathered in the scholar folio become integrated knowledge for continuous
improvement of my mind, my study, and my capacity for service and
leadership.
Return to the top.
Written documents, graphic
representations, multimedia presentations, and collaborative
work with members of Cohort Two are found in
the main folios:
