I knew that I always wanted to be a
teacher. At a young age, I gathered my stuffed animals, sat them in rows
and used my chalkboard to teach my daily lesson. When my brother, parents or
neighbours wanted to play school with me, I was always so excited to have human
interaction and I remember assigning homework. I was a true teacher from
the start!
I have been
teaching now for 7 years, 2 as a French Immersion kindergarten teacher in
Calgary, 2 as a prep-coverage teacher in Vaughan and the last 3 as a French
Immersion grade 2 teacher in Vaughan. Even though I love being in the
classroom, I know that one day I will want more. So I seized the moment
and in my unmarried, child-less life signed up to complete a Master's
degree as now I have the "time." I have come to the conclusion
that one day I want to be a principal and lead a school and I thought that a
Master's degree is the only way I could get there. I later learnt that
that indeed this is not true but that's okay- I'm invested in this degree and I
am actually enjoying the courses and the learning. I have always said
that teachers are forever learning but I didn't realize how much I missed this
kind of learning! Formal learning!
I am a leader in the making; well I like to think that
I am! I always jump at leadership opportunities
and not to pad my resume but instead to gain experience and knowledge. For the last three years I have been an
active member of my school’s leadership team.
As a team, we provide the professional development to the teachers
during staff meetings, professional activity days and divisional meetings. I love the moments when I get to stand up in
front of adults and share my learning with them. It is for the reason that I
have also been a guest speaker at a few educational conferences…but this story
is for another time.
Being part of my leadership team at school is a form of leadership that can
be referred to as “teacher leaders” (Martin, 2007). Martin continues to explain
that these leaders:
* Influence the school culture.
- In
my role as Positive Climates for Learning (and Teaching) Lead, I have a big
responsibility to maintain and improve school culture. I plan whole- school
initiatives working with our school theme for the year, our school improvement
plan and within an area that we see a need.
* Build and maintain a successful team.
- I
work with a team of teachers on the PC4L committee and many return year after
year as they have had a positive experience and want to contribute to the
school culture in a positive way. As well, I have initiate some staff
appreciation projects to help create a successful team of teachers that work
together towards common goals.
* Equip other potential teacher leaders.
-
Within my PC4L committee, I give other teachers opportunities to show their
leadership either by leading an initiative or project or presenting at a staff
meeting. I always work with a potential teacher leader before a staff meeting to
prepare their presentation just so that they feel comfortable with their
material and presenting to their colleagues, as it is different than talking to
students.
* Enhance or improve student achievement.
- This
quality of a teacher leader is one our leadership team works on as a whole. By
developing our school improvement plan and our challenge of practice, we are
always working towards improving student achievement. We collect data and
monitor their improvement and then determine our areas of need and plan for
them. We collect data throughout the
year to see if growth has occurred.
So as I said earlier, I am a leader in the making. Being a teacher leader has provided me with great growth and I look forward to being a part of the leadership team next year to continue with the initiatives I've started.
Reference:
Martin, B. (2007). Teacher leaders: qualities and roles.The Journal for Quality and Participation. 30 (4).
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