What is a School Leadership Mastermind?
Overview
School leaders and district leaders ensure their teachers get access to excellent PD but then they often receive the least amount of professional development. Jenn David-Lang works to reverse that trend by leading professional learning experiences for school leaders and principals. With over 20 year of experience working with leaders, Jenn decided to create biweekly Mastermind groups to provide school and district leaders with professional learning, strategy sharing, problem solving, coaching, feedback, and support.
Components of the Mastermind For School Leaders
#1. Collective Learning
Every session has a topic, a short reading, and an activity designed to build the skills of participating school leaders and principals. Sessions are highly interactive and generative, and leaders leave with several research-based ideas and strategies that they can take back to their schools and school districts. See samples of the topics covered from the previous year.
#2. Group Problem Solving
On a rotating basis, leaders take turns being in the “Think Tank” which allows them to share a current problem of practice in order to benefit from the wisdom of the group. This is an opportunity for leaders to get un-stuck, to brainstorm with a trusted group of peers with various perspectives, and to receive ideas and resources that are particular to the challenges they face. This is the time where our motto really comes to life: “Mastermind: where the smartest person in the room, IS the room.”
#3. Support
We know that leadership can be challenging and lonely – most especially during current times – and that leaders often receive the least amount of support and development in a school. Our groups become real professional learning communities where successes are celebrated, challenges are met head on, and personal and professional milestones are honored. Great comfort is found in connecting with familiar faces regularly every other week, and through the knowledge that a resource or thought partner is just an email or phone call away!
