Leadership

1. Serve as effective coaches, mentors, and critical friends to colleagues.

2. Work with colleagues to build and sustain adult learning communities focused on improving teaching and learning.

3. Share work with colleagues and the larger educational community.


Defining Teacher Leadership

From the very beginning of my journey through the HTH GSE program, I knew pursuing a Masters in teacher leadership was a perfect fit for me. In this essay, I discuss the many different qualities and aspects of a teacher leader.  Not only does a leader help to lead their colleagues and peers, but they also instill leadership qualities within their students. As a teacher leader, I am continuously growing as an educator.

defining_teacher_leadership.doc
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School Reform Project

My friend and colleague Wendie Ward and I created this proposal for a "mock school board" that suggests ways to make the school that I am currently teaching at, Keiller Leadership Academy, into a stronger learning community.  The reason for this proposal is to bind teachers, students, administration, and community members together to recreate the magic of Keiller Leadership Academy. I look forward to sharing our proposed ideas with the current leadership team and board members of KLA.

schoolreformproject.doc
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Participating in Japanese Lesson Study

Through a year of intense professional development with USD's Teacher Leadership Department, I became very familiar with the Japanese Lesson Study model. Lesson Study is a fairly new practice here in America, but continues to become more and more popular. This process begins with a group of teachers planning a lesson together. As one of us teaches the lesson, the others observe and collect student data. We then reconvene to revisit the lesson, share our findings, and then finally make necessary changes and adjustments to the lesson for future use. This practice allows for rich dialogue and feedback and is a great way to learn from other teachers. It is my duty to not only gain experience and become a better teacher, but to help share my knowledge and ideas with others in the field. We all are united and share the common goal of educating every child. Here is one of the many lessons our math department created in preparation for lesson study. I taught the lesson while a group of fifteen educators, including various Japanese teachers and principals observed. I have also included here a summary from our feedback session following the lesson, written by Dr. Joi Spencer. It was fascinating to receive feedback from various Japanese educators. They posed some very interesting questions that made me deeply reflect upon the "American" model of education and why we teach the way we do.

lesson_study-fraction_flip_book.doc
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public_lesson_study_feedback.doc
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Conversing with Colleagues

In this narrative, I walk through several conversations with colleagues that shed light on the pressures experienced in many public schools due to "high stakes" testing.

conversing_with_my_colleagues.doc
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