{"id":29818,"date":"2022-12-08T17:49:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T01:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29818"},"modified":"2022-12-08T17:49:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T01:49:33","slug":"the-teacher-as-a-resilient-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-teacher-as-a-resilient-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"The Teacher as a Resilient Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

A resilient leader is “grounded, teachable, attuned, adaptable, and tenacious.” [1]<\/strong> This is according to Tempered Resilience<\/em> written by Tod Bolsinger. In the book, the author uses the image of blacksmithing to represent the process of becoming a resilient leader. [2]<\/strong> He outlines the process in six steps. I will take a look at these steps from the perspective of a teacher-leader.<\/p>\n

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Working<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this first stage of the process, one must actually engage in the act of leadership. [3]<\/strong> These are skills that are learned by experience. I would compare this to student teaching in my own experience. When I was studying to be a teacher I took a lot of classes. I observed many teachers at work. But it was not until I took over a class for myself that I really engaged in my first experience as a “teacher”. This is the working stage, and is necessarily the beginning step.<\/p>\n

Heating<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heating <\/em>refers to the failures and challenges that we face and how we allow them to temper us as leaders (or don’t allow them to, as sometimes may be the case). [4]<\/strong> This heating causes periods of self-reflection or self-evaluation for the purpose of becoming better leaders. [5]<\/strong> As teachers, we too face challenges and failures time and again that move us into periods of self-reflection and evaluation. We have the opportunity of using these times to improve ourselves, or letting them defeat us. One thing that has been particularly challenging this year for me has been the suicidal deaths of three of my students. Six others have attempted suicide, one more just last week. It has been very difficult to know how to navigate this issue.<\/p>\n

Holding<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a podcast, the author stated, “The vulnerability of leadership needs the security of many relationships.” [6]<\/strong> Holding<\/em> is about just that, our relationships with other people. [7]<\/strong> As teacher-leaders, we build relationships with our peers that last a lifetime. We have partners that we co-teach with. Often these relationships develop into deep bonds over the years. You learn quickly that no one is an island, and it is difficult to try to be a lone ranger in a school district. We all need people; a support systems to help us.<\/p>\n

Hewing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hewing is the ability to impart hope in ourselves, and also in those we lead. [8]<\/strong> It is the part of leadership that requires vision. [9]<\/strong> As teachers, you have to know where you are headed. You have to have a plan, and the ability to guide students the same direction you are going. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “…as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” [10]<\/strong> Paul is reminding us that with vision, we are looking to things that are unseen. They are eternal. These eternal matters are the ultimate things we want to guide our students towards.<\/p>\n

Tempering<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a balance of work and rest. [11]<\/strong> It is where I struggle the most, to be perfectly honest. Just as steel needs to be heated and allowed to cool down, before heating again, or it will become brittle and break, our bodies must be allowed to “cool down” also. [12]<\/strong> We need rest. I am writing that for my own eyes to read. As I type this, I have double-pneumonia, after having flu and bronchitis, all since Thanksgiving. I cannot seem to get well. I’m not finding that “delicate balance”, so to speak. [13]\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really enjoyed this imagery of blacksmiths and leadership. It was quite easy to apply this principle and his six steps to my own experience as a teacher-leader.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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[1] Bolsinger, Tod E. 2020. Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change<\/i>. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, p. 6.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[2] Ibid., p. 7.<\/div>\n
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[3] Ibid., p. 50.<\/div>\n
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[4] Ibid., p. 96.<\/div>\n
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[5] Ibid., p. 96.<\/div>\n
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[6] Markus Watson, “Disorientation and Spiritual Leadership”, October 12, 2020, December 2022,\u00a0 Link<\/a><\/div>\n
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[7] Bolsinger, Tod E. 2020. Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change<\/i>. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, p. 109.<\/div>\n
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[8] Ibid., p. 170.<\/div>\n
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[9] Ibid., p. 170.<\/div>\n
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[10] Crossway Bibles, ed. 2007. ESV: Study Bible: English Standard Version<\/i>. ESV text ed. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles, p. 1962.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[11] Bolsinger, Tod E. 2020. Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change<\/i>. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, p. 194.<\/div>\n
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[12] Ibid., p. 194.<\/div>\n
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[13] Ibid., p. 194.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A resilient leader is “grounded, teachable, attuned, adaptable, and tenacious.” [1] This is according to Tempered Resilience written by Tod Bolsinger. In the book, the author uses the image of blacksmithing to represent the process of becoming a resilient leader. [2] He outlines the process in six steps. I will take a look at these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[2480,2481,2388,2389],"class_list":["post-29818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","tag-blacksmithing","tag-teacher-leader","tag-tempered-resilience","tag-tod-bolsinger","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29818"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29821,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818\/revisions\/29821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}