Standard 1: Teacher Leadership
Teacher leaders assume the roles and responsibilities of collaborative leaders in schools and communities. Teachers demonstrate leadership in their classrooms, schools and professional organizations; they advocate for students and effective educational practices and policies; and they are role models for ethical leadership. Indicators are:
- Demonstrate effective ongoing communication, collaboration, and team-building among colleagues.
- Facilitate mentoring and coaching with novice teachers.
- Set goals and establish priorities while promoting educational initiatives that positively affect student learning.
- Participate in professional learning communities.
Socratic Seminar Staff Development
Context
In order to fulfill one of Dr. Moorman's assignments for Reading and Writing Instruction for Intermediate and Advanced Learners (RE 5730), I created a staff development session for my elementary school. I chose to develop a staff development session to teach my fellow teachers how to implement a Socratic Seminar discussion into their classrooms. Due to the upcoming Common Core curriculum, the teachers at my school are in need of instructional practices that foster deep reading and discussion.
Rational
As a teacher leader, it is necessary to facilitate coaching such as the implementation of this Socratic Seminar staff development which is an initiative that will have a positive impact on student learning when teachers implement seminar in their classrooms. Socratic seminar Seminar is a research based method for helping students develop higher order thinking skills. Socratic seminar teaches students how to think, read, and speak critically about various texts.
5100 Exams- Beginning, Emergent and Self-Reliant Readers
Context
Dr. Gill's assignments for Teaching Beginning Readers and Writers (RE 5100) required me to reflect on how to define, assess and develop a lesson plan for beginning, emergent and self-reliant readers. These are the readers I will come across during the course of my teaching career.
Rational
These exams show the knowledge necessary for demonstrating leadership in my classroom. Implementing effective educational practices which enable all of the students in my sixth grade classroom to grow as readers is vital for student growth. It is necessary for teachers to identify the stage of reading in which the children they are teaching are at in the development of their reading skill because the reading lesson plan varies for each level. In order to find the child's reading level, effective administration of assessments such as the Informal Reading Inventory is vital. This information enables teachers to meet the needs of their students.