Module Three (Heather Summers)

• Where do the ISTE, NBPTS, and WVPTS "speak" to or promote teacher leadership, particularly leadership for technology integration?
• All these organizations promote teacher leadership, particularly leadership for technology integration, in the WV teaching standards. Standard 4—Professional Responsibilities for Self-Renewal—discusses the skills and knowledge teachers/leaders need to be able to demonstrate within their classroom.
• There is a focus on teacher leadership in the West Virginia Professional Teaching Standard 3: Teaching. Under this standard, teachers must show the ability to communicate with students in a variety of ways, engage and motivate students in a way to promote a deep understanding of content, and adjust instruction based on the needs of the students and in response to “teachable moments”. Teachable moments are the times when students ask clarifying questions or bring up unique perspectives on the topic being taught or discussed. The teacher then can use that scenario to dive deeper into the topic and expound. Moreover, Standard 5: Professional Responsibilities for School and Community is all about bettering the school and educational system through teacher leadership. These standards show the responsibility of the teacher to his/her community and school, which are the abilities of a teacher leader. It takes teaching above and beyond the classroom, and this philosophy is the essence of teacher leadership.
• The focus on technology in the West Virginia Professional Teaching Standards can be found under Standard 1: Curriculum and Planning. This standard promotes teachers in designing instruction that engages students in meaningful instructional activities that support the WV CSOs and results in intentional student learning. Moreover, this standard states that teachers should use a balanced approach to ensure assessment of learning and assessment for learning to provide feedback for teachers and students in order to improve future learning.

 

• There are typically three pathways to teacher leadership for practicing teachers: a pathway for teachers who leave their classrooms to move into formal administrative positions as school leaders, a pathway for teachers who remain in their classrooms to develop and share a deeper knowledge base about teaching with their students and colleagues, and a pathway that  bridges the two previously mentioned paths, that is for teachers who spend part of their time in a classroom and part of their time taking on additional administrative and professional development responsibilities. If you were designing a program or professional development intended to prepare teacher leaders to take advantage of these multiple pathways, what would it look like? What learning experiences would you include?
• I would use a mentoring program that allows potential teacher leaders to shadow people in particular pathways. The candidate would be shadowing under a person for so many weeks and then will go to the next pathway. At the end the teacher leader should be able to determine what would fit them the best. This way the teacher can experience first-hand the pros and cons to each pathway and how to do the job efficiently and effectively. I believe that after he/she decides what pathway they are willing to do, an administrator/the mentor should check on them regularly the first few months to see how well they’ve transitioned to their “new job”.

 

• In her interview, Moller discusses the role of the principal in teacher leadership. What have you observed in your experiences? Did you observe principals or other administrators supporting teachers in leadership roles, sharing the responsibility for providing leadership to initiatives in the school with teachers, engaging in what we call "distributed leadership" with teachers or other specialists? Moller also includes a list of three things she thinks need to occur in the future to promote teacher leadership (near the end of the interview transcript). Think about these three things and whether or not you think they would make a difference from your perspective.

o    Based on my experiences, I have observed teacher leaders improving and implementing initiatives, and principals supporting them in it. I’ve seen this more so in the school that I’m at now. However, when it comes to sharing the responsibility for providing leadership to initiatives in the school with teachers, I have yet to see principals insert themselves into the change. Mainly, I have seen principals approve initiatives and then let their teacher leaders take over and work out the details. The principals don’t go to the conferences or training that the teacher leaders go through, which causes major conflicts when implementing the initiative.

o    Three things that Moller thinks need to occur in the future to promote teacher leadership is that (1) teachers must be praised for taking on additional roles and the additional work they are willing to do for the educational system, (2) teachers put forth more effort and time—therefore they should be compensated for their time and effort, and finally, (3) improving the educational environment, in order to promote teacher leadership is crucial to the increasing of leaders in the school system. I have experienced the effect of principals piling on more work for teachers who try to do more for the school. Often, teachers get “volunteered” to do pet-projects, because they wanted to do ONE activity that was not in the normal teacher responsibilities, such as a club/activity. Also, some teachers are praised for the extra activities they do, while others aren’t recognized for the loads of responsibilities they take on within the school.

o    I agree with Moller that those three things need to change for promoting future teacher leaders. If it doesn’t change, then I’m not sure who will want to do anything other than instruct their students during the normal work day. I do believe that those three standards will encourage teachers to step-up and be motivators of change. If nothing else, Gayle’s standards will promote a positive school culture among teachers and administrators.

• How do Professional Development Schools (PDSs) and/or PLCs create opportunities for teachers to become leaders? What examples of teacher leadership do you see in your PDS, or what do you think might emerge if your school were to become a PDS? What examples of PLCs do you see in your school or organization? Have teacher leaders emerged from these PLCs?
• As teacher candidates we called the schools that worked with us PDSs. They were the ones on the forefront of trying to improve teacher candidates to become teachers. The host teachers within the PDSs allowed the candidates to take the reins and become the teacher that they wanted to be with supervision and advice. It was a grooming and fine-tuning stage in the learning process.
• PLCs are supposed to be a collaboration of professional teachers on how to locate and improve student learning. Now-a-days we use them as time allotted to have a staff meeting. The meeting involves talking about improving WESTTEST scores and jotting the necessary paperwork to show that we discussed the goals for obtaining this. The rest of the time we talk about what’s going on in the school, what we need to be prepared for, and upcoming events for the math department.
• North Marion is a PDS for West Virginia University and Fairmont State teacher candidates. I often see the teacher candidates getting involve in school functions, whether it is a pep rally or volunteering to help with students after school. They are encouraged to participate as if they were a paid teacher in the school already.
• Our PLCs at North Marion are just department meetings. There is no enhancement or sharing of ideas unless it’s how to improve students’ test scores for the WESTTEST. On occasion we will talk about Math Field Day or Mu Alpha Theta, but that is more an update on how those entities are doing or what needs to be done.
• There has been no teacher leaders who have emerged from these PLCs because I don’t believe we do them right. My department chair leads the meeting and then we sometimes go back to our rooms to work. There is no collaboration and sharing to have teacher leaders emerge.

 

• Share at least one strategy you will use/are using to assess the technology needs of your context (how will you document needs, what kind of data will you use, etc.).

o    Based on the Marion County’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and West Virginia Board of Education Policy 2460, I have learned that the educator stands in the place of a parent or guardian during school hours, and thus, is responsible for all acceptable/appropriate uses of online resources, technologies and the Internet. Students are responsible for proper and ethical behavior when using technology, and must adhere to school policy.

o    According to the Marion County Public Schools Technology Plan (2012-2014), the District has established a recommended minimum level for the 21^st Century Classroom. Some minimum levels for the high schools are:

§   Access to video and voice conferencing

§  Access to school wireless network

o    As well as, Wide Area Network (WAN) between schools with access to the World Wide Web. Content filtering is provided by the District to all schools and departments.

o    I will use this information to show the need for my technology integration plan. However, I am unsure how I can find data (i.e. numbers to prove that there is a need)