Teacher Leadership:

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Teacher Leadership
Every Local Schools Secret Weapon

• Dr. Michael Moody
• Piedmont College

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Mark Wilson

• Everything we do is for that moment between
  Teacher and Student.
• Get good people and let them work.

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• We live in an era of changing conditions and
  rising expectations.
• A. Wilbanks

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Wanted

• A miracle worker who can do more with less
  pacify rival groups endure chronic second
  guessing tolerate low levels of support process
  large volumes of paper and work double shifts. He
  or she will have carte blanche to innovate but
  cannot spend much money replace any personnel
  or upset any constituency.
• R. Evans
• Education Week

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Traditional View of Leadership

• Special People who
• Set the direction
• Make key decisions
• Energize the troops
• Heroes rising to the fore in times of crisis
• Captain of the Calvary leading the charge
• Peter Senge

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Traditional View

• Built on
• Assumptions of peoples powerlessness
• Assumptions that People lack personal vision
• Assumptions that People have an inability to
  master the forces of change
• A Belief that only a few great leaders can help
  them
• Peter Senge

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Based on the Traditional View

• Only a Select Few are Ever Invited

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However

• Modern Times and Problems have made it clear that
  one Super Hero cannot make a school a success
• Our experiences have shown us that the truly
  great leaders are leaders of other leaders
• The schools that are the success stories are the
  ones that have recognized the value of the
  teacher leaders within the schoolhouse
• ..and all schools have them

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Lets Consider

• What do Teacher Leaders bring to the Table
• What is the Value Added of a Teacher Leader

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• Education
• Minimum 4 year degree
• Best prepared Educators ever produced
• Latest in Skills
• Technology
• Instructional Practice
• Curriculum Understanding and Development
• Assessment
• For Learning
• Connect Test Scores and Student Improvement
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Lead Standards Based Curriculum
• Plan Standards Based lessons
• Develop Standards Based Classrooms

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• Data Analysis
• No Fear of Data Analysis
• See the Data as useful information
• Know how to make decisions using Data
• Relationship Builders
• Classroom
• School
• Community
• Influence
• Operational Procedures
• Their classrooms run smoothly
• Know how to organize
• Good at the details

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• Understand Processes
• Map core processes
• Improve processes
• Create processes
• Change Agents
• Understand that change happens
• Look for improvement
• Risk taker
• Accept change
• Lead change
• Experience
• Not just years
• Learning as they go
• Everything teaches

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• Understand Student Achievement
• Plan
• Organize
• Measure
• Monitor
• Manage
• Grow Personally and Professionally
• Everything Teaches
• Set Goals
• Sharpen the Saw
• Judgment
• Thousands of decisions made each year
• Very few mistakes
• Others ask for advice

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• Understand the Moral Purpose
• Work at a Consciously Competent/Skilled Level at
  all times

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In every other aspect of our societywhat would
we call a person with the qualities just
described

• Expert

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• How many of these people do you have in your
  schools
• How many of you can name several (visible and not
  visible)

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Facilitators

• Trust
• Support
• Education
• Information
• Context
• Recognition

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Barriers

• Lack of
• Trust
• Support
• Education
• Information
• Context
• Recognition

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This means then that

• Teacher Leaders
• Are not powerless
• Do not lack personal vision
• Do not have an inability to master the forces of
  change
• Do not need a few or any great leaders to help
  them

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A New Perspective is Needed

• This presentation has identified the following
  assertions
• Teacher Leaders navigate the structures of
  schools
• Teacher Leaders nurture relationships
• Teacher Leaders model professional growth
• Teacher Leaders help others with change and
• Teacher Leaders challenge the status quo by
  raising childrens voices.
• These assertions suggest the need for rethinking
  organizational structures that inhibit as well as
  facilitate Teacher Leadership from within the
  classroom.

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• School Leadership that must be managed by the
  Principal constitutes only a fraction of the
  leadership available.
• R. Barth

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• The best person must be put on the biggest job.
• A. Stanley
• schools are full of the best people and have big
  opportunities.

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• Perhaps then Marilyn Katzenmeyer is correct
• In all of our schools is a sleeping giant just
  waiting to be awakened.
• or
• Perhaps there is a Secret Weapon that can change
  education as we know it.