Currently, I’m taking EDL/500 through the University of Phoenix. This is the fifth blog entry that serves as a type of reflection journal for class.

Distributive leadership is a type of decision-sharing management style that bucks the traditional principal-takes-all approach to school governance. To that degree, this philosophy of leadership exists within different leadership teams and departments within Thurmont Middle School.

Primarily, the idea of goal-setting and decision-making falls to teachers within the realm of curricular departments. For example, as a collective the Language Arts Department has a lot of latitude to set the course for the educational program for the year. This entails 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers and their respective students. Recently, our team has decided the following initiatives for the 2012-2013 school year:

• Continue usage of the TMS Word of the Week
• Involve the Math Department with National Punctuation Day
• Take professional development for Global Scholar
• Participate in Staff Book Talks
• Host the 2nd annual TMS Comic Con

It is very evident that we have a lot of autonomy in how we present and execute the educational program at TMS.