At which level (emerging, developing, performing, or transforming) in the progressions do you NOW place yourself for each of your four chosen competencies? Name each competency.
My first overarching competency is Interpersonal Effectiveness. At the start of my TLI journey, I found myself at the pre-emerging or emerging phase and now as I sit back and reflect on my growth, I feel like I have come a long way in this competency. I see myself stepping outside of my own personal vision in the professional seeking opportunities to become more effective and supportive of my colleagues. I have tried to build relationships based on a shared vision and have tried to inspire others to try new things outside of our comfort zone within our group. I am not sure, however, that I am yet fostering interpersonal skills in others, so for that reason I feel I have landed somewhere between Developing and Performing. Evidence previously included in Artifacts 2 and 9.
My second overarching competency is Communication. Again, at the start of my journey, I saw myself at the pre-emerging phase and was a bit disheartened as I thought for sure this was a strength of mine. I quickly realized, however, that I while I was a strong communicator in my own classroom, I wasn’t effectively reaching my colleagues. Right after the first meeting, I felt that I needed to reflect and improve as well as differentiate the communication I used to structure the meetings. I realized that the same time and effort I put into planning my lessons for my kids needed to be used when planning my collegial meetings. For these reasons, I know I improved on my communication competency. Again, I don’t feel I am at the full performing stage yet, but am somewhere between the developing and performing. I know I have articulated messages based around student-centered goals (see Artifact 1 and 13 for growth in this competency).
My diversity-equity-cultural competence selection was collaborating purposefully. At the start of TLI, I felt I was at the pre-emerging phase and now I feel I have started to move into the emerging phase, but honestly haven’t shown much growth in this competency. This competency felt the most challenging to me as I noticed that I often surrounded myself with like-minded thinkers and didn’t push myself enough to expand and think about those stakeholders outside of my comfort zone. I did engage in self-reflection as well as acknowledging the cultural groups that are present and absent within our collaborative setting. I didn’t, however, implement a plan to overcome resistance to joining our group. See Artifact 11 shows me addressing the diversity of thought within our own group and the need to let different thinkers share and lead the conversation.
Within the Instructional Competency, I focused on facilitating collaborative relationships. I felt at the start of my journey that I was in the pre-emerging phase and showing some signs of the emerging phase. I feel as though this competency was a big part of my project and journey. My whole vision was to create a group of teachers who wanted to work together to strengthen and innovate the reading instruction at our school. I wanted to find ways to build consensus and energy surrounding instruction. I was certainly willing to work in a group, but hadn’t yet needed to work on my craft of engaging and articulating collaborative learning. I believe my Artifacts 2 and 12 show my growth along the continuum towards the developing stage.
How did the TLI experience--both curriculum and Capstone project—impact your growth as a teacher leader in your four chosen competencies?
The curriculum and project helped me grow in all of my competencies because I was forced to identify the skills and evidence of good leadership qualities. I had a very narrow perspective of what it took to be a good leader. Unpacking and differentiating the different competencies at multiple levels allowed me to really understand want it took to be a transforming leader in many different ways. The most valuable thing I learned is that is a continuum and that progression through the continuum is SLOW and deliberate. Just because you were designing a capstone and focusing on certain competencies didn’t mean that you couldn’t grow (or not grow) in another competency. For me, the combination of the curriculum and the capstone itself was essential. I couldn’t miraculously move from emerging to developing just because I was doing a project that required communication. I needed to keep those skills and steps at the forefront of my planning and purposefully work to accomplish them. If I didn’t have the curriculum to guide me, I would have created a “project”.
What are your next steps to continue your growth as a teacher leader?
My next steps are outlined in the list of goals and ideas (Artifact 12) that our group created! I want to continue to work to be a better leader for my group and ultimately my students. To do this, I want to make connections and communication early on in the year for the group to meet right away. Something I ran into with this project this year was that I was waiting and waiting for the “right time” to start and a time when no one felt stressed or busy, but the fact of the matter is...you just need to go for it! As educators, we are always busy, there is never enough time and there are always going to be roadblocks. If you are committed to making a change, you need to set a course of action and stick to it. I found once I got the ball rolling it was positive and people were willing to engage. Therefore, my immediate next steps are to communicate with the staff at the start of the year and get the group going and meeting within the first month of school. I think this will encourage people to try out some new techniques with instruction right away and maybe get a schedule for observations going before we feel overwhelmed!
I also think that I am now ready to think about the steps towards my National Boards. I wanted to do TLI as a first step and I found it incredibly valuable. I love surrounding myself with other passionate teacher leaders and working to push myself and hold myself accountable for growing as an educator. I would like to continue this growth mindset and take the steps I need to this year to learn about the National Boards, so I can hopefully begin the process the following year!
What was the most valuable part of the TLI process for you?
The whole process has been great for me. I was looking for a way to push myself and collaborate with colleagues to grow as an educator. I wanted to find a way to generate collaboration and action steps towards discussing and changing curriculum in our school, but I didn’t know how to do this if I wasn’t the “expert”. TLI gave me an excuse to start my discussion group and to learn about what it takes to be a good leader. I used the curriculum to help me be more aware of my own qualities as a leader and to work to set goals to improve them. If I hadn’t have done TLI, I am not sure I would have pushed myself to try to make this group. It gave me confidence and the tools to try it.
The most valuable part of the whole process was probably meeting face to face. I liked being able to talk with other teachers around the state and swap stories. The online components were very hit or miss. I had a few that were great and had excellent leaders, but then others were very quiet and not much meaningful conversation was generated. It was much more meaningful to talk and collaborate in person, but I also think it would be neat if once every two online components it was just the regional people together. This would allow for the “face-to-face” feel without the commitment of getting everyone in the same place.
I also felt the curriculum, in particular the work we did unpacking the competencies was tremendously helpful. While sometimes I felt the actual assignments were a bit redundant, becoming an expert in the building blocks of true teacher-leaders was essential. If I didn’t have these competencies at the forefront while I was planning and implementing my capstone, I don’t think I would have grown as much.