It is important to grow a culture of emerging leaders. Whether one is encouraging a staff member or a faculty member to take on a leadership role this is essential for long-term adaptability. Every day I want my staff to reach for their highest potential. I am committed to encourage teachers to try new teaching methods and ideas. To collaborate and share successes in their new processes. I encourage my teachers to continually strive for reaching farther and not being satisfied with remaining stagnant. I encourage them to take risks and develop engaging lessons and collaborate and share their results. I will ask a new teacher to present something he or she has brought to their team. This encourages my new staff to grow in leadership and develop a culture of adaptability in an ever changing system.
Building teams of leaders is essential for deciding, assessing then revising for continuous improvement. An excellent diagnostic tool to use is found in Wagner et al. (2006) Change Leadership as a “4 C’s model which includes Context, Culture, Conditions and Competencies” (pp. 107-110). This is a tool that leaders can use to be able to initiate change and grow a culture of trust. Wagner further states in using the 4-C’s model that “Leaders began to promote and model a strong normative culture of respect, trust and accountability for learning”. All teachers need to be surrounded by a culture of leadership opportunities in the quest for excellence in the accountability of learning.
I further encourage my staff to develop leadership skills and strive to grow in improvement. When I evaluate my staff, during their mid-year review, I ask them what area they wish to grow in or improve upon and set this as a goal. I encourage them to develop a sense of pride about their learning and growth opportunities. It is important to ask them to share their experience amongst their peers during staff meetings. I model each and every day on striving to better the learning environment, whether through personal or professional growth. If I see an article or other source of support, such as a professional learning opportunity, I send it to my staff in hopes of encouraging them to reach their goals. These strategies for growing leaders moves my school into the creation of a culture of excellence and consistently generates higher performance in all who participate.
If an administrator encourages staff and teachers to grow as leaders, they in turn will encourage their students to take on leadership roles. The entire school will strive to grow leadership opportunities. Parents are amazed when their students begin to model this leadership culture. I often hear a parent share how much their child has grown out of being encouraged to participate in a leadership role. They constantly praise the amazing differences they see in their student’s attitude and engagement in excelling in learning, presenting and competing opportunities. The consistent development of encouraging students, staff and teachers to lead will build a community of trust and growth that will become a culture of excellence.
Final Evaluation of a Leader: An emerging leader strives for excellence and often receives highly effective scores within most categories of the evaluation process. The attached artifact is an example of a leader's final evaluation score. I have redacted the teacher's name due to not having permission for printing of his material. This evaluation was reinforced by the State VAM scores in which the teacher's students made exceptional gains on the FCAT test and 100% passing rate of the Algebra I End of Course (EOC) assessment.
Recommendation for History Teacher of the Year: I wrote two recommendations for history teacher of the year and one of the candidates won the honor. Both of the recommended teachers have outstanding classroom teaching and management skills. These teachers show outstanding leadership qualities. One of the teachers is interested in going into administration and has begun to take classes in educational leadership in pursuit of applying for the assistant principal pool. It is important to recommend teachers for honors such as the below samples. These small recognitions mean the world to teachers and they will continue to strive for ever greater achievements.
Thank You n=Note From a Teacher: I feel it is my job to grow teachers as leaders. This reinforces their skills in leading classes in excellent. I choose different members of my grade level team to present to the group on ideas for change and on cooperative projects that can move cross-curriculum and reinforce Math and Reading skills. I have attached a thank you note from a teacher leader that I have been supporting while she is working on her educational leadership masters.
Retirement Email: I placed this email as an example of what a special message can do to bring a faculty together. I have permission to use the name of the retired teacher, for she was instrumental in bringing together a broken staff. There was a situation in which teachers decided they would only work to the contract. They were angry due to a cut back in pay and felt they were not appreciated. When this teacher retired, she was so loved and respected amongst the staff that everyone came together to celebrate her retirement. She was a quiet leader and an amazing teacher. I have included this email to represent the fact that humble leaders can have as strong of a influence as those that are charismatic and vivacious. I wrote this attached email on Coach C's last teaching day, to let staff know she was retiring.
Letter of Recommendation: This is an example of a letter of recommendation for a teacher going into a masters program. This teacher has amazing talents and a natural, calm leadership style. It is important to support and grow quality leaders. I have been recommending this teacher to give staff presentations and to provide support to growing student leaders as well. Great teacher leaders encourage student to lead. It is my hope that this teacher continues her leadership path and becomes a successful school based administrator.