C4T #4

Teacher Leaders: Planting a flag – or foot – in the classroom
Submitted by Sharon Rubinstein on Wed, 04/22/2015 - 6:47pm


Jose Vilson has been a math teacher in Manhattan for about a decade. He’s part of the new crop of “Teacher Leaders” with one foot in the classroom, and another on a career ladder up.

When he first began expanding his duties, it was to coach other teachers in math instruction. Now, he’s an advocate and author too, and a board member of the Center for Teacher Quality, one of the supporters of the federal Teach to Lead initiative. He says he has no plans to leave his school anytime soon.

Just what - and who - are teacher leaders? Why does the role exist? And who chooses them?

A key feature of teacher leadership as it is evolving now is greater precision about qualifications, selection, tasks, and rewards.

Professor Susan Moore Johnson, who has been advocating for a more differentiated teacher corps since the 1980s, says the teacher leader role responds to a relatively flat teaching profession that has characterized American public education. By recognizing teachers for their expertise and providing them increased responsibilities, the teacher leader position creates some “elevation,” she says, and can stem the fast-swinging revolving door of teachers that creates instability in the workforce, and problems for schools that have to cope with constant restaffing.



My comment:
Kristin Evans • a few seconds ago
Hi my name is Kristin Evans I attend the University of South Alabama and I am in the Education program. I really enjoyed reading this post. It help me gain a lot of confidence that when I become I new teacher in a school I can make a difference, even without having all the experience everyone else has around me