Insasc Reflection Report

The term “teacher leader” is commonly heard within educational circles today, but arriving at a clear definition

A teachers primary role is to deliver information. The 2003 workload agreement (Woodward and Peart, 2013) not only defined the levels of work a teacher could reasonably expect but also defined the roles which would provide a framework of support to the specifics of the teaching role. Though this applies to secondary education the principles can inform teacher roles in the lifelong learning sector. A teacher must develop an awareness, understanding and professional respect of all the roles which support them in their efficacy. In the Institute of Learning's Code of Professional Conduct is states

Teachers should be continually learning and assessing their teaching practices through reflection and collaboration with other teachers. It is the role of the teacher to use these teaching practices to develop in students the abilities and skills that will remain with them throughout life. Teachers should be role models for their students, to provide encouragement and praise, reassuring their students that they can achieve their dreams and reach their goals. Teaching should not only focus on academics but it should also focus on character education. Students need to be prepared to enter into their community and have the ability to interact with people from different backgrounds, cultures, religious backgrounds, social status, and values. It is important that teachers work with students to help them learn the skills of cooperation, patience, communication, empathy, understanding and teamwork, these skills are extremely important for the successful integration into further education, the workforce, family life and other social interactions. Teachers can achieve this through focusing on and encouraging group work, peer tutoring as well as games and activities that focus on social behaviors.

The importance of effective leadership and its impact on improving student achievement are evident in today’s schools (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom, 2004). While the school principal is traditionally thought to be the school leader, Glickman (1989) proposes that “the principal of successful schools is not the instructional leader but the educational leader who mobilizes the expertise, talent, and care of others” (p. 8). Lumpkin, Claxton, and Wilson (2014) contend that helping “each school fulfill its mission and energize and expand the professionalism and professional contributions of teachers, the expertise of all teachers, especially teacher leaders, is needed” (p. 59). Teachers directly impact student learning, and

I will walk around the classroom taking notes about each students’ progress, while they work independently and during guided practice. On students desk there will also be colored cards to explain where each student believes they are. A green card will explain that the student understands it, a yellow card means they understand some of it, and red means they do not understand how to complete the work. Data will be kept on a chart with every students’ name. This assessment will show me where additional accommodations may need to be made; therefore, meeting the needs of students with exceptionalities. If I notice a student not being able to understand how to solve the problems, accommodations can be set to help students understand what they are working

During this semester I was lucky to be placed at Mink Shoals in a fifth grade class. I taught a total of five lessons. For my assessment chart I choose to show the progress that my students made on the math lesson. They took a pre-test and a post test. I knew that math was a good subject for about half of the class, and half of the class struggled. I knew this was going to be difficult to teach. Before I taught my lesson I did a lot of planning, but before I planned I worked with students every day in a math group. These math groups showed me what the students understood and did not understand. When I planned my lesson I talked to my cooperating teacher to see what I should go over if I wanted to help prepare them for the smaterbalance. After we talked, I decided to look up standards, and practice math tests to see what I should review for the test. After looking everything over

The first NC Standard states that teachers need to demonstrate leadership. Leadership means that one leads by example, shows respect and motivates people to do their best. This kind of leadership can be in the classroom or outside of the classroom. It also has to do with working with your fellow teachers to make sure your students have to the best education experience one can give them. When I was at Sunset Park and Codington elementary schools, I saw the teachers show leadership in similar and different ways. Both teachers showed leadership by working with other teachers. At Sunset Park, the two teachers did lessons on butterflies then released the butterflies at then need of the week. Through the respect the two teachers showed each other, their students were able to see an

|ILLSC 2008 Standard 1: An education leader promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, |

learn during the regular school year. My responsibility was to assist the teachers with lesson plans,

Apply principals of effective teaching based on educational theory, laws, county and school policy, and ethical practice in the comprehensive

The ISLLC standards define expected outcomes and activities that will develop school leaders into effective school leaders. The standards also provide a comprehensive overview of what leadership should look like in schools today and is meant to enhance the practice of school leaders.

As teachers, we need to create a comfortable classroom climate where there is a feeling of acceptance and celebrate differences among each student. Effective teachers will also demonstrate appropriate planning, preparing and execution of content. Standard 5 is focused on Middle Level Professional Roles. Along with understanding and applying knowledge of young adolescents, as discussed with Standard 1, it is equally important to be an advocate for the students. By using professional leadership strategies, being an advocate for all young adolescents helps maximize their growth and learning. In order to be fully effective, working closely with family member and also with the community strengthen the ability to achieve this success.

In general, as stated in the Standards for Advanced Programs in Educational Leadership by The NPBEA, educational leaders need to place teaching and learning as the focus for schools and districts. To this effect, all educational leaders from district to school level are responsible to ensure that decisions about curriculum, instructional strategies

I think and every successful teacher will agree with me that promoting the success of every student is the main value of any educational professional and it is very important for a leader to demonstrate these traits. What is leadership? Some people think that it is good to be a boss and it is easy to rule any organization. Leadership is more than just to rule any organization. It is the development of a practice around a mission or vision and an ability to inspire others to do the same. There are three sets of practices make up this basic core of successful leadership practices: setting directions, developing people and redesigning the organization. Foster (1989) says, “Leadership differs from conventional administration in much the same way that education differs from training (p.10).” This speaks to results- to the why of teaching. And the value of a leader can be determined by their results. If their aim is high-quality education (an admittedly vague term), academic success, and well-being of each student then this is the standard by which they should be judged. Burns admonishes that “power and leadership are measured by the degree of

However, The subject leader is not just the machine that carries out guidelines, policies and enforces the orders from the superior, but it should more address the relationships with relevant others and related performance hoped of a post holder (Adey,1988; Ribbins, 1988; Webb and Luons, 1982). The role-set of the subject leader should involve not only to be teachers, but also their subject leaders, head teachers, governors, parents and student (David, 2001). As an intermediary, the subject leader should accommodate the relationship between all aspects. Therefore, apart from the job of teaching and learning, the more crucial issue for the subject leader is how to deal with these relationships. Furthermore,