Summary of Growth

Robin Reisdorf
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It was a short fourteen years ago when I walked into my first classroom. I was

surrounded by three year old children who wanted to know if baby squirrels have teeth, where
butterflies go when it rains, and what the pink dots were on my face. I was sixteen years old and
was not yet aware that my after school job was going to give me the direction and focus for my
professional career. I quickly discovered that early childhood education is the most effective and
most enjoyable way to change the world; and I wanted to be a part of it!
Over the next six years I graduated high school and college, transitioned to a four year
old classroom, and began learning everything I could from workshops, conferences, and
experienced teachers. Over the next eight years I morphed into an experienced teacher myself.
New teachers were being sent into my classroom for observation and training time. I felt honored
to be an experienced teacher and welcomed the opportunity to share my classroom with other
professionals entering the field.
It was also during this time when I became a mentor teacher which meant it was my
responsibility to help support new teachers and assimilate them into our school community. I was
finding it challenging to mentor new teachers and keep up with the daily responsibilities that
come with teaching full-time. I found myself becoming impatient with others and began to notice
they were less than thrilled with my mentoring skills. I wanted to be a strong mentor teacher, but
I didnt have the skills to effectively lead others. Although I was told that I was a leader, I didnt
feel like a leader. I struggled to maintain followers and it was almost impossible to get others to

buy-in to my ideas. Understanding my own weaknesses and having the desire to become a better
leader was part of the force that lead me to the Leadership Credential.
It was early in the credential when I learned that being in a leadership role does not make
you a leader. Aha! This simple statement immediately helped me realize that I wasnt a leader. I
was put into a leadership role without any of the knowledge and skills it requires to be an
effective leader. This statement grabbed my attention and I became committed to learning how to
be an effective leader. It is through the instruction of Pam Boulton, reading leadership literature,
participating in discussions with my fellow classmates, and my on-going self-reflection practices
that have provided me with an understanding of what leadership is, how I can lead outside of my
program, and a vision of where I will go from here.
One of the most valuable lessons of the Leadership Credential for me has been learning
about emotional intelligence. Understanding my own emotional intelligence has allowed me to
get reacquainted with myself, my own emotions, and what causes some of my emotions. The
self-reflection required in the first course of this credential has become imbedded in my personal
life. Often times I would reflect professionally on a particular lesson or my classroom
environment, but I would rarely bring it back to myself on a personal level. The addition of this
practice for me personally has allowed me to become increasingly more self-aware, which
naturally challenges me to practice my self-management, social awareness, and ultimately
relationship management, which has been a goal area of mine throughout this credential. The
growth in my own emotional intelligence has allowed me to manage emotions in a positive way,
empathize with others, and defuse conflict. In turn, I have already seen evidence of growth in my
relationships with my co-workers.

Another valuable skill I have learned is that we cannot lead others if we do not know
where we are going ourselves. Although this sounds simple, it was an incredible learning
opportunity for me to realize that I was expecting others to follow me and learn from me, but I
did not have a clear understanding of that process. I realized that I was task-oriented since I
wanted new teachers to develop specific skills and perform them successfully. What I was
lacking was a vision for this process. Creating a personal vision statement has provided me with
intentional goals that are supported by my values. My personal vision statement is now able to
guide me while working with my co-workers. Since I have begun reviewing it regularly, I have
also noticed that it has enhanced my self-management and relationship management skills as
well. The Leadership Credential has not only taught me how to be an effective leader and
strengthen my relationships with others, but it has also taught me how I can lead outside of my
program.
The development of my program vision statement has provided me with the opportunity
to actively include others in my leadership journey. I shared my program vision statement with
my co-teacher and she immediately welcomed it and wanted to be a part of it. When we have
found ourselves in conflict situations, behavior challenges with students, or weekly lesson
planning, we have often referred back to this program vision statement as a way to guide us
toward a mutually satisfying outcome. We have also talked about it with teachers in other
classrooms and have been involved in discussions of them writing their own program vision
statement for their classroom.
After learning so much about leadership skills and styles, I now understand what it means
to use intentional leadership with a purpose. One of the biggest tools that helps me operate with

intention is the ability to pause and reflect. My ability to pause, especially during times of highstress, has freed me from reacting and allows me to make meaningful decisions that consider the
feelings and investments of everyone involved. Since I work in a co-teaching environment,
pausing is especially important and has improved our collaboration and communication as well.
One of the most inspiring pieces I am taking away from this Leadership Credential is that
change should be happening from the field, instead of to the field. This makes me feel so
empowered as a classroom teacher that I can create positive change for the entire field of early
childhood education. Beginning with my Leadership Effectiveness Plan and expanding into my
capstone project, I am confident that the work I have completed in this course will resonate
within me and spread throughout my work at Kids Safari Learning Center, as it has already
started.
After this credential I plan to continue learning and connecting with other professionals
in the field. I am eager to share my capstone project with my administrators and work toward
implementing a mentoring and coaching program at Kids Safari Learning Center. It is my vision
that we can serve as a pilot center for this program and we can share our success with other early
childhood centers, so that they will also be able to incorporate a mentoring and coaching
program that provides a supportive learning environment for their staff. Ideally, a Mentoring and
Coaching Credential would be created to help educate, train, and support this program.
I believe in professional development and staying up-to-date with current research in the
field. I understand the demands of teaching full-time and the lack of time it provides us to
connect with each other. I am talking with my administrators about ways to include concepts
from the Leadership Credential into our conversations with each other at Kids Safari Learning

Center. I am not exactly sure what this will look like yet, but I want to find a productive way to
reach out and inspire others to continue their own personal and professional development and
understand the impact it has within the field.
Above all, I am consistently reminded of the video Extraordinary Visions by Dewitt
Jones. In this video he talked about moving from imagination to imaginaction. This is what I
have been challenged to do in this credential: imagine change, be inspired by a vision, and create
action. Although this credential is coming to an end, the application of the knowledge and skills
is only just beginning for me!