Context I

My name is Jessica Davis and I just competed my sixth year of teaching. I have taught in the Ronan School District all of those years. Ronan is a suburban town with a population of about 2,000. It is a part of the Flathead Indian Reservation and many of my students come from a low socio-economic background with high ACE scores. I teach 6-12th grade Theatre Arts and I lead a National Thespian Honor Society Troupe. I have attended and am a part of the Leaders for Just Schools initiative and I want to become more active in my local union. I am joining the Teacher Leadership Institute to further my leadership skills and hopefully to learn how to successfully and appropriately go about addressing and changing issues within my school and changing policies for the good of our students.

I have often seen injustices or problems within the system and felt powerless to change what needs to be changed. I was not sure where I needed to start or what I was even capable of doing. A friend and facilitator of the MT TLI came to me and encouraged me to look into the program. When I saw what TLI encompassed, I knew I had found my pathway for change. I started this program to better educate myself on the resources and programs available to find solutions to the problems I see and to recruit fellow stakeholders who also want to find solutions.