Teacher leadership
is a quality and characteristic of an educator that causes them to go above and
beyond their normal duties. Teacher leaders instill pride, enthusiasm, and
courage to do something new and different in their peers. Teacher leaders do
what they can to enhance student learning, school culture, and overall school
improvements.
·
Examples
of teacher leadership that I have observed or experienced:
I was part of a
team that went to Austin, Texas to be trained to collaborate with other
teachers. During this experience, we learned how to make student-centered
projects and lessons. Now, we have a Freshmen Academy, where students have one
class with a science and math teacher and another class with a history and English
teacher. In these classes, they do projects that incorporate real-world
situations, while using technology, to produce products or solutions to a
problem.
·
Leadership
for meaningful technology integration is different from other kinds of
leadership:
There
are many different kinds of leadership roles that an individual can acquire.
However, the meaningful technology integration is different than a leadership
role including a data coach or a mentor. Technology integration is a difficult
subject to push for in schools. Most schools don’t have the budget to upgrade
any of their computers, let alone, invest in some Ipads. Therefore, if a
teacher leader were to try to improve technology integration, they would have
to wear many hats. They would have to encourage and entice their peers for the
change, write a grant to supply the money for the upgrade, get
parent-involvement, and find community support. Not to mention, that individual
or another teacher leader would have to set-up professional development/stipend
courses that would allow their peers to see exactly how to use the technology
within their classroom and why it will make it better/more efficient.
·
The
benefits and challenges of teacher leadership for technology (for teachers, for
students, for schools, for the profession):
Benefits:
1.
Some technology grades student work for you, as
well as monitoring student progress.
2.
Some technology, such as ALEKS, creates an
individualized learning program for each student (based on answers to a
pre-assessment).
3.
Some students
learn better with the technology that they are familiar with rather than paper
and pencil bookwork. Some students will never have access to these
technological tools, which may be a necessity for them in the job market.
4.
Students
can use technology to save paper and e-mail assignments in, as well as, finish
projects timely while collaborating through social mediums. It improves the
culture of the school.
5.
Parents and students will want to send their
child to a school that teaches more relevant issues.
6.
Having this kind of technology at the high
school level will allow students a better edge in the job market. Not to
mention, it will hopefully help student be aware of the benefits and harms of
certain media outlets. The goal is to get students to become better consumers
and producers in the world.
Challenges:
1.
It takes a lot of time to plan
technology-integrated lessons.
2.
It takes resources, which means money in most
cases.
3.
It takes collaboration with people that may or
may not work well with others.
4.
Students
have a difficult time working in groups with people they are unfamiliar with or
don’t like.
5.
Students who are used to getting “A’s” will
resist group work, because they don’t want to rely on others to get a grade.
6.
Getting parents and the community on board is
very difficult, unless they know the step-by-step procedure and have the data
to back up the need for improvement.
7.
Uniting the entire school behind the change or
technological advancement is a major hurtle. Most of the older teachers will
not like the change, and may rebel in some scenarios.
8.
Changing the pre-conceived notion of what
education should look like will be a challenge.
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