Here’s the unsecrets part. The goal of teachers is to educate students to the best of our ability. That means drawing from any resource you can find, and what resource could be better than other teachers? I feel very strongly about the need for collaboration and teamwork between teachers. There is no knowledge, no idea, no lesson, no worksheet that I would consider a secret. When I talk with other teachers, I get ideas from them, and I find it helps me to generate new ideas myself. It also helps me to stay excited about teaching! Teaching is challenging, to say the least. Teachers need support, encouragement, and teaching resources. I collaborate so that my kids, your kids, and everyone’s kids get the best education they can possibly get.
How I demonstrate leadership in learning communities
There are many opportunities to promote and participate in the creation of collaborative, safe and supportive learning communities through sharing about high quality websites or organizations that encourage professional development. The following workshop outline gives teachers the background information to support their using the website as a resource.
Another important means of contributing to a collaborative, safe and supportive learning community is to give constructive feedback to other teachers in a way that helps them to improve their practice while still feeling confident in their own abilities and in the support of their learning community. Here are some examples of feedback I have given that meets these criteria.
Leadership in learning communities could be further demonstrated by describing the various ways I can facilitate student success through taking leadership roles in the school, and by describing some case studies of ethical issues of teachers in learning communities.
