Teacher Leadership Final Essay
Upon graduating, with a bachelor’s degree in education and completing the other necessary prerequisites to become a teacher, new graduates acquire teaching positions and are expected to lead their new classrooms filled with students. Despite the expectation that a teacher will be a leader there is not a class or a medicine that one can take to become a leader. There unfortunately is not a magic switch that can be flipped within someone to make them an effective leader. However, everyone has within them the potential to be a great leader. Leadership is something that comes from within. Some people display their leadership qualities naturally and other people need their leadership skills to be nurtured. A teacher’s job demands that they lead within the classroom and teachers are evaluated to ensure that they do. Despite the observations and evaluations that teachers have leadership is not something that can be completely observed because, people lead in different ways.
Some people lead from the top of mountains and shout to anyone that can hear them their concerns for what the topic at hand may be. Other people take silent action by writing letters, changing their own environment, or by quietly acquiring answers and change for themselves and their students. I believe there are effective leaders and ineffective leaders. I am always suspicious of the “Shouting from the Mountain” folks because, anyone shouting is doing so for one of two reasons. They are either wanting to be heard due to the passion they have about what they are saying and they want everyone to know what they are passionate about; or, they are shouting to be heard for the acclaim and care more about being seen for what they are “trying” to do to actually make any “true” impact. It is not enough to say, “I am a leader”- a leader must show that they are a leader through their actions. For example: I can show my running shoes, cute workout clothes, arm-holster for my iphone, and the running app on my phone and people would think that I am a runner. Others could see that I possessed all of the things runners have just like people can “Shout from the Mountain”. Eventually though the “jig would be up” and someone would realize that they have never seen me run and that I can “talk the talk but not run the run”. The same goes for leadership and leaders, and the truth will eventually come out. With these things in mind a teacher leader must maintain integrity at all times, emitting so much integrity that there isn’t a dust particle of doubt about the leader’s character.
In the words of Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter, “The time will come when we must choose between what is right and what is easy”. I, like Dumbledore, believe that we will all come to face the crossroads of morality and ethics that requires us to look at ourselves in the mirror and “see” the person looking at us for who they truly are. I think that as a teacher leader one must be willing to choose to do the right thing even when you know that choosing the right thing can have negative consequences. I always tell my students to tell the truth even if it comes at a great cost to them and that greatness comes from making a great choice every time there is a choice to be made. I think that teacher leaders must be willing to stand for what is right even if that means that they will be standing alone. Standing against or for something alone is not an easy thing to do; an action of grave proportions such as this not only requires a leader to be willing to “lead the pack” but, have the extreme courage to do so even when they know the potential repercussions of their actions.
A teacher leader must be approachable, this is a pivotal quality tied directly to trustworthiness. Students, parents, and all stake-holders must be able to feel comfortable enough to approach you and trust that you will contain what they are sharing with you. Teacher leaders, and all leaders, must be willing to listen to what others are saying. The context of an environment that lacks an approachable teacher leader is sad, at best, and dangerous, at worst. Students should be able to share things about their lives that relate to lessons which will help foster a love for learning in students. Students should also be able to share with you if a child brings a knife or something else to school that they shouldn’t have. If students can’t approach their teacher to share that is sad but, not approaching about weapons and such is dangerous.
I believe that teacher leaders must possess these qualities: Integrity, courage, approachability, and trustworthiness. The definition of teacher leadership I would create is: Teacher leadership consists of a person with high integrity that is trustworthy and approachable to the point that they have the courage to hold themselves to higher character standards. Teachers can lead in many ways from being vocal in the front to silent in the back or any place on the continuum in between, as long as the leadership qualities are maintained. There is a great song by a group called Casting Crowns that says, “It’s a slow fade…When black and white turn to gray.” Leadership is an internal quality and is something that needs to grow. Teacher Leadership can evolve and happen over time. The flower in the corner didn’t die from one day without water, it was a slow fade. Teacher leadership can be a slow fade too in a negative or positive way. I would encourage every teacher to think of themselves as an acorn. Every acorn has the potential to be a great and mighty oak tree; just as, every teacher has the potential to be a great and mighty teacher leader.
With the potential to be a great leader within us all I am grateful to have had the opportunity to take the Teacher’s as Leaders class at North Carolina State University during my graduate program. One of the class requirements was to keep a leadership log during the semester. Throughout my personal leadership log and musings journal I have noticed several common threads that are interwoven between my entries. The commonalities include: courage, change, outrage, and uncomfortableness.
As the weeks passed on and on I began to realize that there were two significant trends going on with my entries. One of the trends had to do with courage and change. The other trend had to do with outrage and uncomfortableness. In order for change to occur I had to have the courage to talk with my administrators or grade level concerning issues. I noted that the more I talked with my colleagues the easier it became to speak with them. I spoke with my assistant principals about our half-day schedules and not being able to have any break at all while the enhancement teachers (Music, art, P.E, etc.) had the entire day off. I expressed my concern in a professional and polite manner and gave them a schedule that I had sketched that would give every teacher a 15 minute break. The assistant principals were very nice and encouraging but, they did not use the schedule I created that day. The next early dismissal day that my school had was preceded with an email that gave half of the teachers 30 minutes of release time and the other half of the teachers received the 30 minutes on the next early dismissal day. I was really surprised that although my schedule was not used they did listen to what I said and I did make a positive impact on my school. Over the course of the semester I went to administrators over a handful of things that I thought needed to be addressed and every issue I have had has been addressed. I do realize that I am fortunate enough to work at a school that has supportive administration. They were glad that I let them know about a part of the playground structure rotting because it is a safety issue. They were also happy to allow me to host an ice cream social and open-mic night at school for students and parents. By going to administration at my school with these issues I have realized that I must have the courage to address something for change to occur. I have further come to the realization that as long as you intend to do good nothing horrible will happen (If it does-The Lord will look out for His people). When I first asked about the schedule I felt like my hand was going to be chopped off but, now I know that if I am asking or trying to do something to help my students then it is worth the risk.
The other common threads that were stitched through my journal concerned outrage and uncomfortable. There were several things that I felt I had no control over and that placed me into a state of uncomfortableness. It outraged me to think I was so helpless and could do nothing about decisions that were made that I had no influence at all over. I have realized that I could have handles some things better and I now know that I can change things in the future. Yesterday is the past and can only be learned from but no longer can it be changed. We can only impact and change the present and future. Worrying over the past won’t change or help anyone but, learning from our history and making better, more informed choices in the future will help.
In the future I plan to become a better teacher leader. I want to take on a larger instructional role within my grade level concerning social studies staff development. I have earned my master’s degree and have a wealth of information about great instructional practices and technology integration that I could share. I never feel that I am as good or good enough to share but, I am the most qualified person in terms of teaching social studies. I can only hope that I develop the courage to share my knowledge when there are some who act as though they know way more about history than I do but, they make statements that are false concerning historical fact. I have to work on seeing myself as an authority so others will too. I also plan to increase my scheduling role. I would like to schedule and plan our field trips and other things to maximize student’s opportunities. I try to think about schedules from the student’s point of view and create fair/equal schedules for everyone. I would also like to expand my H.O.P. (Help Our Playground) program to include beautification of the entire school. Students love knowing that they are responsible for making the playground look great and making a noticeable difference. I think it would be great to expand this program in next year. I would like to try to increase my teacher leadership tremendously without taking on “official” titles like grade chair. I think that many times roles like grade chair amount to the folks “Shouting from the Mountain” in a fictitious way. You can say, “I am a runner I have running shoes or I am a Leader I have the title of grade chair” but, until you have the actions behind those claims to back up what you are claiming you do I don’t believe it. I don’t need or want acclaim I just want to do what is best for the students. There are plenty of people in the world that make a difference without a formal title and I hope to be one of them, the behind the scenes accomplisher.
