teacher leadership - module 1

Running Head: LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR SCHOOL 1

Leadership Opportunities in Your School

Emily Mawer

American College of Education

LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR SCHOOL 2

Leadership Opportunities in Your School

This year is my second year as a teacher. I am still working on my leadership skills, but I

can see them improving as compared to last year. I believe I have always had the ability to lead,

which is probably why I chose a career in teaching. I am now working to learn more about

leadership as an educator and increase my leadership skills in a school setting.

Part 1

Self Evaluation: Teacher Leadership Competencies

Competencies 5Very Strong

4Strong

3Average

2Below Average

1Weak

As a Teacher:

Experience X

Talent X

Being respected

X

Responsibility X

Creativity X

Flexibility X

Sensitivity X

Work ethic X

As a Leader:

Trustworthiness

X

Supportiveness

X

Communication

X

Listening X


Handling conflict

X

Group processing

X

Prioritizing X

Seeing the Big Picture

X

My most valuable assets as a potential teacher leader are my trustworthiness skills,

supportiveness skills, and listening skills. I see myself as a member of the group in my

department. I try to avoid conflict when possible. I listen when others are speaking and work

with their ideas. We all teach the same class so when one person has an idea, we all try to work

with it. We take turns being on committees and being part of different organizations to represent

the technology department. Our department works very well together and as I gain more

experience, I am able to contribute more.

I realize that my experience is what holds me back. I am still learning some of the

educational policies for the county as well as policies for my individual school. Last year, being

my first year of teaching, I did not want to join too many committees or take on too many extras

because I wanted to concentrate on teaching. This year, I am joining committees and taking on

clubs and being more involved with the School Improvement Plan. The other area I need to

improve is adding my ideas during department meetings. I know the curriculum now, so this

year I can think of better ways to improve it.

Part 2


Self Evaluation: Teacher Leadership Questionnaire

At my school, if I wanted to take on more responsibilities, I could become the department

chair. At this point, I am not comfortable with that responsibility because I do not know enough

of the school policies to lead the other teachers. I have the least amount of experience in my

department. I am already asking them for information so it would not make sense for me to lead

our department when I know the least. I am part of the School Improvement Team. We work

with the School Improvement Plan to do tasks such as increase the amount of students who take

the SATs or ACTs and also increase the amount of students who take an honors or AP course.

Currently, I am focusing on ways for my students to understand the course content.

Everyday we have an objective, and I am trying to make sure the students leave my classroom

knowing the concepts to answer what the course objective is. My area of expertise is in

technology education, because my Bachelor’s degree is in technology education.

If I have a question about work I go to my department chair. He points me in the right

direction, whether it is to someone in special education, an assistant principal, or someone at the

board of education. Sometimes, if I have a question about the curriculum I go to another teacher

in my department because she can be a lot nicer about it. My department chair sometimes gets

tired of all my questions or feels like I should have asked the question earlier so I would have

been more prepared.

I think the greatest untapped resource at my school is other teachers. So many of the

concepts taught in my curriculum can cross over to math or science and I do not feel like I go to

the other departments to ask them questions. Our principal is trying to get teachers to observe

other teachers and I have not taken advantage of this opportunity. I think if teachers from


different subject areas worked together we could show students how different subjects work

together.

Three years from now I would like to look back on my work and see that my leadership

helped to differentiate our curriculum so that the special education students did better in the

class. I would have worksheets and projects set up to help the students who are not able to do

the normal curriculum. According to Wu (2013) “All this points to the need to have a flexible

classroom that allows students to take in information, make sense of it, and express learning in

different ways” (p. 131). There is another teacher in my department who has a background in

special education so I think we can work together to accomplish this.

Part 3

Teacher Interviews

I interviewed my department chair, Mike, who has been working for eight years as a

teacher. He worked three years at another school within my county and then moved to the

school we are at now. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Technology Education and a Masters

degree in Educational Leadership. He has always taught technology education. The classes he

teaches are Foundations of Technology and CAD. He used to teach Architecture. He is also the

assistant coach for the wrestling team as of this year.

Mike’s leadership responsibilities include being the department chair. He orders

supplies, runs department meetings, stays up on school policies, and leads us on the curriculum.

His professional focus and areas of expertise include technology education in general, plus the

two classes he teaches which are Foundations of Technology and CAD. He also has a Master’s

in Educational Leadership. If Mike has a question or issue at work he goes to the assistant

principal who is in charge of our department. He believes the greatest untapped resource at our


school is technology. We have access to Smart Boards, Sentios, document cameras, etc. and he

does not think we use them to their fullest. According to Açikalin (2014), “There is a need to

increase teachers’ knowledge and skills about how to use those instructional technologies and

help them develop positive attitudes toward information and communication technologies” (p.

199). In terms of teacher leadership, the area of greatest need at my school is teachers stepping

up to share their knowledge. Too many teachers do not speak up at meetings to share with others

what they know. They just follow what everyone else decides. Three years from now, Mike

would like to grow the technology education department. He would like to see more teachers

hired and more electives offered.

The other teacher I interviewed is Leigh. She originally became a special education

teacher. Five years ago she was put in a position where she had to teach technology education

and she fell in love with it. Leigh went back and took the state exam to teach technology

education and has been doing so ever since. She has been teaching for a total of 15 years. Leigh

teaches Foundations of Technology and Communications. She has a leadership position of being

on the AVID committee.

Leigh could take on the leadership position of being department chair or be on other

committees. She could also be involved with clubs or sports. Leigh does coach, but not for our

school. Her professional focus and areas of expertise include special education and technology

education. If Leigh has questions she goes to the department chair, Mike, or to an assistant

principal. Leigh also believes the most untapped resource is the use of technology in our

classrooms. Within our school, the area with the greatest need for teacher leadership is better

communication within our department. Leigh thinks not enough people speak up. She also

thinks the department chairs should have more power over teachers in their department. Even


though the department chair leads us, they do not have any power to actually enforce anything.

Three years from now, Leigh would like to look back and say her leadership helped to give more

accommodations to special education students. Since she has a background in special education,

Leigh thinks she can help our department make our curriculum serve the needs of students with

special needs.


References

Açikalin, F. S. (2014). Use of instructional technologies in science classrooms: Teachers'

perspectives. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 13(2), 197-201.

Wu, E. H. (2013). The path leading to differentiation: An interview with Carol Tomlinson.

Journal of Advanced Academics, 24(2), 125-133. doi:10.1177/1932202X13483472

teacher leadership - module 1

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