Instructions
Standard 4: Demonstrate the capacity to promote the current and future success and well-being of each student and adult by applying the knowledge, skills, and commitments necessary to evaluate, develop, and implement coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, data systems, supports, and assessment.
Standard 5: Demonstrate the capacity to promote the current and future success and well-being of each student and adult by applying the knowledge, skills, and commitments necessary to engage families, community, and school personnel in order to strengthen student learning, support school improvement, and advocate for the needs of their school and community.
Session Three Resources
Watch
Session 3 Video Overview (1:13)
Required reading and referencing:
Principal Communication Tips
Seven Norms of Collaboration(NOC)
“The Art of School Leadership” Hoerr, 2005-
“Promoting Collegiality” pg 20-34
“Diversity in Schools” pg 140-142
“Personal Commitment to Diversity” pg 150-158
Read: (Select at least two to reference in your work)
What is a Professional Learning Community
Effective Communication
The Power of the One-Page Strategic Plan
Collaboration Success Criteria and Checklist Collaboration Communication
Submission requirements
4 pages in length – if it’s any more than this, please revise
Citations do not count in the page length
12 point Arial
One-inch margins
Single-spaced
Insert Header that includes
Header must include last name, first name, role, assignment title as stated
Collaborative Decision
Supporting and Growing Teacher Leaders
Standard 7: Demonstrate the capacity to promote the current and future success and well-being of each student and adult by applying the knowledge, skills, and commitments necessary to build the school’s professional capacity, engage staff in the development of a collaborative professional culture, and improve systems of staff supervision, evaluation, support, and professional learning.
Session Three Resources
Watch
Session 3 Video Overview (1:13)
Read:
What is a Professional Learning Community
Five Steps to Developing Teacher Leaders
Effective Communication
Principal Communication Tips
Seven Norms of Collaboration(NOC)
The Power of the One-Page Strategic Plan
“The Art of School Leadership” Hoerr, 2005-
“Promoting Collegiality” pg 20-34
“Supervision” pg 43-46
“Evaluating Teacher Growth” pg 87-102
“Diversity in Schools” pg 140-142
“Personal Commitment to Diversity” pg 150-158
Creating and utilizing teacher leaders is one way to achieve all of the above standards. Teacher leaders can support your work, take on some of the load for you, and position them into possibly exploring other avenues of leadership.
Scenario:
You are the principal of a 1200 student middle school in a large suburban school district. Due to the size of your school, you are realizing that things are slipping through the cracks and that you are struggling to attend to all the needs of the building. One thing you notice is that both of your assistant principals are burdened with teacher evaluations and student discipline.
On top of all of your other responsibilities, you are charged with instructional leadership in your school. Knowing that the task is overwhelming, you would like to invite some of your staff members to take a bigger role in leading initiatives that can be handed off to staff.
To create a collaborative community and to alleviate some of the issues you plan to approach staff members about taking the lead on some of the curricular initiatives from a “grassroots” level.
However, you notice that each of the selected are quite apprehensive regarding taking on leadership responsibilities. One teacher confides that while they really enjoy their job, they would never want to be in a position of leadership where peers felt they had to “listen” to their advice/guidance. Another shares that she is not interested in this opportunity because she likes to be told what to do and does the best she can, but she also does not want to be in a position where she has to focus on telling others what to do. Yet another teacher is excited and interested to help, but is young and nervous about being labeled by her colleagues as a “know-it-all” or some sort of “kiss-up”. To top it all off, a day after you approach these individuals, the union president (who is also a teacher in your building) comes into your office and wants to chat about the new evaluation legislation. He wants you to know that neither he nor the union, would support any sort of teacher input or interference in the process. This includes staff members who are labeled “teacher leaders or coaches” who may provide opinions on how a teacher is progressing instructionally. Additionally, he would expect any teachers who work outside the scope of teaching students would get paid additional stipends, and those need to be negotiated and offered by seniority rank.
In light of these described issues you face, you know you need to create a shared leadership environment. However, you also see that this is not as simple as having someone do it. There are many stakeholders involved, as well as circumstances such as personality traits and qualities, age, and experience that affect a teacher’s ability to effectively lead.
Fixing the issues
Your task:
Identify a detailed plan of action for helping this school succeed through assisted leadership.
Copy the outline and paste it into the discussion field. Type in your responses.
Identify strategies that you might incorporate to help you approach, develop, and encourage teacher leaders.
What individual traits, characteristics, and/or experiences/expertise might you consider as you plan your approach to building a team of teacher leaders?
In what way/s will you respond to the teacher union in this case? Remember, the teacher union is an integral part of much of our school processes.
Describe some effective practices of delegating that you can adopt.
Include your thoughts on how your power bases and leadership style contribute to the way in which you handled this scenario.
Include quotes from the materials and resources throughout your response.
Cite sources.
