Are you a teacher leader?

Thanks for your informative comments about relationships you have had with cooperating and mentor teachers during student teaching! I was happy to hear about some really positive experiences. I think, as with everything, sometimes the student teaching experience and relationship with other teachers works and is really successful, and other times there is a breakdown in the true purpose of having a student teaching experience which is very unfortunate for those pre-service teachers! I really got along well with my cooperating teacher. I actually worked with a male third grade teacher and at the time I thought everything about the experience was fantastic. When I didn't even get past that district's screening interview and when I interviewed in OR and had no idea how to assess kids in reading because I had literally not seen any literacy assessment taking place--I started to realize that I didn't know as much as I thought!

Perhaps this is what drives me to continue learning about educating and being an effective teacher. Literally every single day (and this is possible because I work part time!) I read something about education. My nose in constantly in a book reading about policy (for class), teaching ELL students, teaching students with special needs, differentiation, implementing effective writing workshops, how to create effective whole language reading environments, multicultural education, how to teach multiculturally within constraints of standards, and how to be a more effective teacher overall. I have been continuously enrolled in education programs  (master's and now doctoral) since I began teaching with the exception of last year when I didn't have any formal courses and I feel like my journey of learning about education will never be over due to the continuously changing nature of the profession. Especially this year, all of the time I would have spent prepping if I had gotten a position teaching a general education classroom, I spent trying to become a better teacher instead. 


One of the books I have been reading this week is called Teaching As Leadership [The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap] written by Steven Farr of Teach for America.There are TONS of education books out there and I know that there does not exist any solitary "guide" that can provide all the necessary information to magically create exceptional teachers. I do try to find books that really pertain to areas I want to improve, but I don't discriminate all that much. I am not looking for a quick fix or "how to" guide, I am just craving information. Sometimes it's important to read something that doesn't capture the topic correctly because that is a great exercise in truly developing my own convictions and understandings of what kind of teacher I want to be. Of course I love to read those classic "Dangerous Minds" type stories where low achieving students are absolutely transformed based on the devotion and commitment of a single bright eyed and motivated teacher, yet I still read those with my own personal realities in mind.

Teaching As Leadership offers 6 general principles that that "distinguish the actions of highly effective teachers from those who are merely solid or struggling." According to this book, effective teachers:

1. Set big goals that are ambitious, measurable, and meaningful for students
2. Invest students and their families through a variety of strategies to work hard to reach those ambitious goals
3. Plan purposefully by focusing on where students are headed, how success will be defined, and what path to students' growth is most efficient
4. Execute effectively by monitoring progress and adjusting course to ensure that every action contributes to student learning
5. Continuously increase effectiveness by reflecting crtically on their progress, identifying root causes of problems, and implementing solutions
6. Work relentlessly in light of their conviction that they have the power to work past obstacles for student learning

So far I have read the chapters addressing 1-4 and I am finding the book to be easy to digest and interesting. Not every book is life changing, but being able to get one important idea to take away is enough for me!

Do you consider yourself a leader among other teachers at your school?

Do you agree with these 6 principles of effective teaching?