Teacher leaders
will present professional practice for the review of colleagues.
As I reflect on
my time in the Teacher Leadership program, I am reminded of where I began and where
I have ended up. Prior to this program, I was not at all comfortable presenting
information to my peers, especially things related to educational practice. I
felt as though I did not have enough knowledge and experience to deserve the attention
of my peers. As I have progressed through this program, I have grown in my
confidence and knowledge and am now able to present information to peers and not
feel out of my element.
Through classes
like Accomplished Teaching and Survey of Instructional Strategies, we constantly
and consistently researched various teaching practices that would work well in various
classroom settings. In Accomplished Teaching, we looked at various teaching
strategies that culminated in our Synthesizing Elements of Accomplished
Teaching final paper. My focus at that time, as has been
throughout this program, is figuring out how to differentiate well. Looking at
differentiation as a means to open access to my content, math, has been a goal
I have pursued for a while now. This goal is also something that most, if not
all, teachers in my building are working toward as well. This is a pursuit I
can help lead with the tools I have learned in this program.
Some of the
differentiation tools I was introduced to through the Survey of Instructional
Strategies class. The differentiation skills we learned dealt with what Hattie
(2012) dubs, “Multiple Ways of Knowing”
(emphasis in original, p. 113). There are many points of information in this
particular section of the text, but the one that I find myself drawn to time
and again is, “Materials presented in verbal, visual, and multimedia form
provide richer representations than can a single medium” (p. 113). Utilizing
multiple representations is something that I have worked on with my instructional
coaches. During this program, I had the opportunity to work on implementing a
Nonlinguistic Lesson Plan where student utilize a visual
representation of functions that outline what they are and how to figure it
out.
Another element
dealing with differentiation we looked at deals with cooperative learning.
Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, and Stone (2012) state, “cooperative learning provides
opportunities for students to interact in ways that enhance and deepen their
learning” (p. 37). In creating a lesson for cooperative learning, I had to work with fellow math teachers to utilize their knowledge of
groupings. This shift to group learning was not easy for me and is not
something I have done regularly. The utilization of nonlinguistic and
cooperative learning are things that I could bring back to my school and help
to engage teachers in shifting their focus and practice. This shift actually
started in my work with my fellow math teacher on the collaborative inquiry project. We worked on helping our students
to increase their confidence and persistence. Through the differentiation
strategies mentioned above, we were able to begin helping students elevate
their understanding and confidence.
In relation to
helping others to improve their practice, I also had several opportunities to present
information to our peers in class. Sharing our practice and things to look out
for was beneficial for both the individuals presenting and those observing. This
practice of presenting to our classmates was great practice for presenting to
people at my school. It also helped drive home the difference in teaching
students versus teaching adults. I have not had a ton of experience with
teaching adults, so all the practice I have had through various presentations
has been great for understanding that for adult teachers, learning occurs best
when they can work collaboratively. When we worked together with people from
different content specialties or different age levels, we were provided a view
into the professional duties and practices of those we do not often see. As
Zepeda (2013) states, “learning communities must be ready to confront the fragmented
way in which schools are organized (e.g., departments, grade levels, and
specialty groups such as gifted and talented), and they must be committed to working
alongside each other as a collective to provide support” (p. 84). We must all
work toward improving our schools. To do this, my role as a teacher leader must
be to bring teachers together to tackle an issue within our school and to help
others raise their level of practice together. It is always easier to work on a
difficult situation or fix a long-standing issue with the help and support of
our peers.
Dean, C.,
Hubbell, E., Pitler, H., Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that
works: Research-based strategies for incrasing student achievement.
Colorado: McREL.
Hattie, J.
(2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning.
New York: Routledge.
Zepeda, S.J. (2013). Professional development: What works. New York, NY: Routledge.
