Guided Response:   Read your classmates’ posts and respond to at least three of them. Add to their reflections by making connections or suggestions. Share specific examples from your own personal and professional experiences.  

• Option B: According to Lieberman and Miller (as cited in Phelps, 2008), what are the three main roles of teacher/educational-leader? For each role, describe your own leadership capacity. Which role fits you the best and why? Which role is most foreign to you and why?

According to Lieberman and Miller (as cited in Phelps, 2008) emphasize three roles: advocates, innovators, and stewards.  To me, it is hard to separate these three into individual aspects.  I feel someone who advocates for their students, and others is also a steward of them.  Advocates voice their support of others and show support, while stewards are looking after others and showing support.  When looking at innovation, it is part and parcel of being part of a telecommunications industry.  We are always looking for innovative ways to pass training to others, improve our abilities, and provide better customer experience to those we serve.  While I cannot point to one that seems more foreign to me, I can say that I do feel I can always improve advocacy for those that I am training.  While I am a firm believer in voicing support and showcasing successes of those I teach, it is still something that can be improved upon — building those up that may be down on themselves because of a mistake or misunderstanding.  Looking for those opportunities that present themselves to show those under me how much they are appreciated for their hard work in a public setting is a great way to improve their self-confidence.

-David

Reference:

Phelps, P. H. (2008). Helping teachers become leaders. The Clearing House, 81(3), 119-122. DOI:10.3200/TCHS.81.3.119-122

• Option A: According to Danielson’s framework (as cited in Phelps, 2008), what are the three areas of teacher-leaders’ influence? For each area, describe your leadership capacity. Which area do you see as your strength and why? Which area is your weakest and why?

According to Danielson’s framework the three areas of teacher-leader influence are school wide policies and programs, teaching and learning, and communications and community relations. For my role in leadership in the area of school wide policies and programs I sit on the policy council. Our Head Start policy council reviews the policies at the end of the year and revises the policies for the up and coming school year. For my role in leadership in the area of teaching and learning I help to coordinate our PLC. I took this role on last year because I wanted to enhance my leadership skills and help new teachers in the process. In the area of learning I assist new teachers in teaching strategies, creating their lateral entry binder or any other area they may need. I also love to learn new strategies as well because new ideas are coming out daily and I like to try to learn about new technology or a new way of doing things. For my role in leadership in the area of communication and community relations I try to attend events that Head Start has out in the community so that our program has a presence in our area. I also help with recruitment. The teachers go out into the community and help the family advocates get applications for new enrollees. My area of strength is recruitment and communication and community relations because I have been at Head Start for 16 years so the community knows me. I grew up in this community and my mother was a Head Start teacher as well, so It helps. My area of weakness school wide policies and programs because the board only meets once a year and I could do more to try to help change or update policies.

Responding to option B:

 According to Lieberman and Miller, the three roles teacher-leaders can fulfill are advocates, innovators, and stewards (2004). Innovators are creative in what they do, they go beyond just thoughts by taking action. Advocates are those who do exactly that, they advocate for their students by giving them the voice they may not have. Lastly, stewards, those are the individuals in teaching who aim to shape the profession and give it the position positivity it needs by the outward public, and perhaps even more so, by those within it. 

 From my own perspective, I can attest to being all three of these, and not to sound cocky, but because I waited a long time (too long for me) to become a teacher and I take great pride in my job. In the way of innovation, I like to put things into motion and try them, maybe they work, maybe they take time, maybe they fail, but I wouldn’t know if I did not try. An example of this would be a classroom money reward system I envisioned called “Partee-Bucks” this was something I decided to do when I was told I could not use snacks or treats, it was a slow run to get these in place but now my students love them and I would not have the same classroom environment without them. As for advocacy, I had a situation just today, a class of mine that has nine exceptionalities, I wanted to see about having a para-professional (student aide) made available for my kids on the occasions we do written finals; the district advisor to this shot it down via email. I pushed back, route on the behalf of the betterment of my students, and wouldn’t you know it, I had a para in my classroom today! For the sake of being a steward, I think this just goes with being positive to other teachers -not spreading gossip, enjoying my job, and always praising my role as an educator to others, which I do. If I had to pick the most foreign, it’d be steward, and only because of my short time in the profession but I aim to change that continually over time.