Standard 9: Leadership and Collaboration

The teacher is a leader who engages collaboratively with learners, families, colleagues, and community members to build a shared vision and supportive professional culture focused on student growth and success. 

From my studies in sociology, psychology, and criminology, I conclude that the status of our society is a result of the social nature of humans. The internal motivations and external pressure of society form communities with specific norms and expectations. The community within a school is a micro version of the larger society we live in. Collaboration and leadership are two concepts that I highly value. In a micro community within a society such as a classroom, grade level team, and faculty of a school, it is important to solve problems and create unity. Common goals can only be reached if solid collaboration is in place through policy, mission statements, accountability and oversight. Likewise, progression of a community is the result of leadership through collaborative efforts. I’m a proponent for pragmatic approaches to problems solving.  Problems or hurdles will always occur; such is the nature of communities. Taking a step back to look for the cause of why problems occur and how they can be solved through solidarity is a method I prefer to use. Additionally, I believe that the progress of a classroom and school is benefited from multiple perspectives. I value different perspectives because I feel that the greater the depth and breadth a team has to contribute in thought, the more impactful that team can be through their creativity.

I believe that in order to collaborate, identifying the needs and behavior of a group is important. Not all people are leaders and collaboration doesn’t occur without leadership. Leaders have been important in my teaching experience. I too have led during my student teaching and over the course of my graduate program. I have listened to mentor teachers, mentor supervisors, and professors who I consider to be leaders. Additionally, I have listened to leaders such as a principal of a school and a guest lecturer on how educators can benefit their students by learning new methods of language arts instruction. Professional development of an educator and reaching state goals requires listening to a leader and collaborating.

I participated in a school wide staff-training seminar on Power Writing. The school I was student teaching at was in transformation, and because of this, teachers were given specific language arts goals and writing training. I found the training to be extremely helpful and will likely use the information I was given in my future practice. As a student teacher I found that collaboration was an important component of my success. I believe success is comprised of happiness, helpful products, positive relationships, and long-term goals that are achievable. Collaboration during my teaching was necessary to build relationships, produce well-planned lessons, and to provide an example of what I expected of my students. The results of my collaboration were structured plans that enabled student knowledge to grow based on team decisions.

I collaborated with my grade level team and other faculty members often. I found that unfamiliar places such as a new school required calculated positive interactions. The two most valuable relationships that I found myself collaborating in regularly were with my mentor teacher and the technology specialist. The school wide goals were based on an English Language Arts program that had specific guidelines. The program, however, was not accompanied with many texts. Therefore, the teachers had to work together and pool their resources, including ideas, to reach curriculum guidelines established by the school and the district.

 As a leader, I organized student group assignments and led discussions on given topics. I’m naturally a leader and because of this I must continually be aware of the opinions of others and self reflect often. I conscientiously worked with the undergraduate and graduate students in my classroom to create unity. A former professor commended my effort in collaboration and leadership due to the rarity of such efforts. Highly collaborative partnerships in my methods courses included unpacking Utah State Core Math Standards for 4th grade, creating a 3rd grade language arts bibio text set on plants, a presentation on how to handle controversial issues in the classroom, and a brief overview of Constructivist Learning Theory. Although my prior methods courses and field placements required both peer and mentor teacher collaboration, my professional and personal growth blossomed due to a conscious effort in collaborating during my student teaching experience.