Taking Stock: Year 3 of Teacher Leadership

At Linn-Mar we are about to embark on our third year of implementation of Teacher Leadership.  The process of  has been never ending.  Each week, focusing on training coaches, each month reviewing what works well, or what needs tweaking.  Also, meeting quarterly with our larger stakeholder’s group and gathering input and various opinions, views, and ideas.  We’ve conducted surveys, we’ve asked the people in the roles, how to make things better.  We’ve studied the successful pieces of implementation, and learned from the bumps in the road.  We’ve increased positions such as model teachers, PLC facilitators, and PBIS, and MTSS leaders to meet the needs of our growing district and expanding programs.

Thanks to our study, reflection, and refinement we are off and running in an organized, thoughtful, and impactful direction.  It’s hard to believe we are finally standing here at the gates of year three. 

As we look back at how far we have come and how fast we had to rise to the challenge, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  I’m in awe of all the school districts that shared and collaborated with us.  I’m in awe of the support staff that the state of Iowa provided us to help us work on our grant application.  Without our AEA staff, Department of Education webinars, and state sponsored meetings, we might not have survived the grant writing process.  I am in awe of the teachers who willingly applied for jobs they had no idea what they might look like yet.  I’m in awe of the staff members who said they would coach and work with us first. 

It is a credit to the coaches, classroom teacher leaders, teaching staff, and administrators for work with us and along side of us to build the structure of teacher leadership from the ground up.  We are always looking back at the grant application, ever mindful of adhering to the goals, training, learning, implementation, and assessments that we said we would do. And We. Have.

Linn-Mar’s TLC Goals:

1.  We will attract and retain new teachers by providing ongoing professional development, classroom support and a comprehensive mentoring program for first and second year teachers.

2.  We will provide increased opportunities for collaboration between teachers.

3.  We will increase professional development and leadership opportunities for staff.

4.  We will measure the impact of student achievement and the effectiveness of the TLC plan by using district and state assessment data, stakeholder surveys, PBIS data, and feedback from parents, teachers, and administrators.

      

      

       After two years, we can breath without oxygen tanks, and we can sleep a full night. The plane is built, it is fully fueled and we no longer worry about losing an engine.  Might there still be storms ahead?  Of course, but we are better equipped as a teacher leadership team to confront stormy weather. 

   

       At Linn-Mar we have taken a bold step into the coaching realm year three of TLC.  We are requiring all teachers to complete one full coaching cycle with a coach, and to visit a one of our thirty-four model teachers.  Erin Watts, one of Linn-Mar's program coordinators, has created a Model Teacher Website for staff to access information about model teacher visits. With over 200 model teacher visits last year, we are extremely pumped for the 500+ visits we'll have this year and the impact it will have on teaching practice and teacher collaboration.  

      Check back in to see our updates and progress on 500+ coaching cycles and model teacher visits.  We can’t wait to share how it is going.