<div dir="ltr">Danielle, I just want to say that I can definitely understand the struggle with emotional barriers. I tend to cry (a lot-oops). I don't do it in front of others, but I tend to beat myself up in private with my emotions and let them get the best of me. Mainly because I struggle too much with caring of what others think or feel about me. In addition, I feel the need to be more updated on technical skills like you stated. Being a fresh, new teacher makes me feel a little inferior since I am not up to par with school and test report data. I am eager to learn new information and hopefully get more technical training. I really enjoy these assignments. It truly helps with seeing many point of views and valid points to take in consideration. I think it is very important to be well rounded in views. I appreciate your honesty in how you define your strengths and weaknesses. It is not always easy to be able to specifically state these and be reflective of our own traits. I know you mentioned staying in comfort zones, and I can relate to this. However, I hope you will find other areas to be able to branch out in. For me personally, it is hard for me to make friends and go out with people. My comfort zone is very limited to family, my husband and children. I often envy people who are so flexible in branching out. On the opposite side, I am very comfortable in jumping out of other comfort zones that other people may have. For instance, sky diving is scary to some people, but it is something I did. We all have comfort zones in some ways although they may differ from person to person. Hopefully we can all learn to branch out as educators. As it will certainly be vital to be a successful leader. Original Post: Danielle Ramage Personality, motivational, and skill based leadership traits are needed to be an effective leader. Some specific skills are more necessary than others depending on the level of administration. (Hoy and Miskel) When looking at the different leadership traits there are some that I feel like I already have and others that I need to work on. Some traits that are already exhibited in me are integrity, extroversion, expectations, and interpersonal. I am very honest. I don’t cheat or lie. I am extroverted and can get along well with almost anyone. Even if they are a person I wouldn’t be close friends with I know how to be friendly and communicate with them. I try to be very explicit in my expectations to my students in my classroom. I see this being no different as an administrator. Some traits that I need to continue to work on are self-confidence, emotional maturity, stress tolerance, and some technical skills. I am not always confident in my abilities, especially if it is a task that requires me to step out of my comfort zone. Although I would have described myself as a person who prefers things to be “safe, comfortable, and prepared”, as I age life experiences are teaching me to lighten up and live a little; to take some risks. Another area that is currently under construction in me is my emotions. I am a pretty emotional person. When I am very upset, angry, or feel affronted many times I end up crying. This is something I desperately must work to improve upon before becoming an administrator. I do continue to work on holding myself together and keeping an even tone when I am upset and then letting it all out at a more appropriate time and place. Another area of improvement would be handling stress. I have noticed that I physically get sick to my stomach when I am very tired or worn out. Lastly, I think I need to begin now on having a better understanding of some technical skills such as discerning state test scores and school report card data. I think that through the experiences of this program, to include the internship where I hope to really get an inside look at being a principal, will only help me to work on these (self-defined) deficiencies. I think that everyday in everyway we should work to make improvements. </div>

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