With support from their administrations, a group of National Board Certified Teachers will mentor their colleagues through the board certification process in 6 schools in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the south Bronx. With a focus on content knowledge and differentiation in instruction, this group of diverse elementary, middle, and high school teachers will collectively improve their practice in order to improve student ...more »
I would like to set up a formalized teacher advisory board that includes teacher representatives from across the state who provide regular feedback and and counsel about how to solve the state's biggest educational challenges.
I'd like to pilot hybrid positions for teacher leaders in NC schools for teachers who could teach for part of the day and mentor other teachers for part of the day.
The stewardship of the teaching profession should reside with teachers, yet so much of professional development is done "to" teachers rather than "with" them. Of course we need strong back-bone organizations that can help teachers see themselves as facilitators of their own life-long learning. Districts, non-profits and professional organizations, for example, can help teachers emerge as the leaders we need. We also ...more »
TeacherLedProfessionalLearning.org TeacherLedProfessionalLearning.org is a new website aiming to ensure that all teachers have the chance to learn on the job and that great teachers can lead on the job. The website starts with a simple premise: Schools already have their greatest professional development resource on hand: great teachers who are ready to take on leadership roles, who could lead professional development ...more »
I have had the unique opportunity of splitting my time between teaching at my school and serving as a Teacher-Leader in Residence at the Connecticut State Department of Education. In this hybrid role, I have been able to work alongside policy leaders making decisions that impact public education while reflecting on my classroom practice and representing teachers and students at the state level. As a Teacher-Leader in ...more »
I'm collaborating with amazing teachers and teacher leaders in developing the program I wish I had to prepare me for teacher leadership! One that includes the skills for the changing role of a teacher, that helps teachers prepare for new roles, implement ideas that impact students, and/or lead from the classroom. This program will be wrapped around the Teacher Leader Model Standards and will be a blended-learning program, ...more »
Teachers have so many frustrations with a variety of aspects of education. Teachers should take more control of their own profession. This requires us to be more knowledgable about policy at federal, state, and district levels and to learn how we can give input on policy and work to influence it. I am doing a fellowship at US ED this year and would love to bring teachers in on a regular basis to see what ED does and ...more »
As an NBCT, one of our roles is being an advocate for quality instruction and the needs of students to a variety of stakeholders. I often hear from colleagues is what does advocacy look like? At times I have seen it take on an “us against them” situation as evidenced by the comments I heard from teacher leaders that ranged from administrators trusting us as professionals to telling administration to back this is the ...more »
An opportunity for teacher leadership growth exists between pre-service teachers (PSTs) and current teacher leaders (TLs). What I envision is a partnership between a college of education and a local K-12 school. Relationships between these institutions exist for observation and student teaching experiences, but not as frequently for experiences outside the classroom– or at least, not with a focus on teacher leadership. ...more »
I am developing a powerful Teacher Induction Program. Though based on Iowa's approved program: Journey to Excellence, I have created a "new and improved" program to better meet the needs of our beginning educators, mentors, administration and ultimately, the student! The program's intent: to create a qualified teacher who meets the Iowa Teaching Standards (ITS) through a variety of learning projects. An additional ...more »
Research shows that professional development that is explicitly tailored to the needs of teachers will help them to develop and grow more as practitioners . It will also enable schools to better meet the unique needs of their students when the professional development plan is developed from the school based goals as opposed to a district mandated goal. I have implemented teacher meet up groups that address the school ...more »