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Domain 4 honors teachers as leaders. Teachers lead by example in the way they act, speak, and behave. Each day, they lead their students through challenging activities and rigorous learning. Then, they take on additional teacher leadership roles inside and outside the classroom. Teacher leaders contribute to their own growth and those of their peers when they contribute ideas, seek professional development opportunities, and collaborate with others. Teacher leaders understand activities, events, and extracurricular programs are what build positive school culture and often require additional leadership support from teachers. They recognize the critical importance of a strong home and school partnership and work to build that partnership through communication and connection. And teacher leaders work to be an advocate for all students all the time.
4.1 Leadership
4.1 Leadership
Effective:
Teacher will contribute ideas and expertise to improving the school's efforts when appropriate.
What does this look like?
Teacher leaders are constantly tweaking lessons even during a school day in order to ensure that they have given their best effort for every student that steps foot in their classroom. Teacher leaders see a problem and work tirelessly with others to devise solutions. Teacher leaders are people that others trust, and believe the primary purpose of their work is to maximize their students' growth and achievement.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Work to possess the respect of colleagues and supervisors.
Work to understand the culture of the school.
Behave in a trustworthy manner.
Be open to the views and ideas of all, non-judgmentally.
Respond positively and actively to colleagues seeking feedback, new ideas, and methods.
Utilize best instructional practices.
Actively participate on school teams.
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Highly Effective:
Teacher will seek out leadership roles.
What does this look like?
Highly effective teacher leaders will attend best practice professional development, and then bring those best practices back to share with and train colleagues. Highly effective teacher leaders help develop, take ownership, and lead school wide teams and initiatives.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Lead initiatives that positively affect student and staff growth.
Mentor teachers and staff.
Plan and carryout parent engagement activities.
Plan and carryout student engagement activities.
Lead school teams.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
4.2 Contribute to School Culture
4.2 Contribute to School Culture
Effective:
Teacher dedicates time efficiently, when needed, to helping students and peers.
What does this look like?
Teachers can improve the school's environment by building relationships with students and staff throughout the school which can lead to the prevention of physical violence, bullying, and emotional abuse in their classrooms. Teachers can develop culturally responsive classrooms to foster a collaborative environment.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Promote positive interaction amongst your students. Allow them to share their feelings, and encourage them to listen to each other, give compliments, express gratitude and practice problem solving together.
Search out and construct meaningful educational experiences that allow students to solve real-world problems and show they have learned the big ideas, and powerful skills.
Listen to new ideas and value the student voice. Students have ideas about what creates a learning environment that is supportive. Leverage student ideas to build plans that promote a positive school culture.
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Highly Effective:
Teacher will go above and beyond in dedicating time for students and peers outside of class.
What does this look like?
Teacher dedicates time to plan and lead outreach events.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Teacher participates in supporting or leading extra curricular events.
Teacher participates in and/or leads professional learning and other collegial activities with their peers outside of those required.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
4.3 Collaborate with Peers
4.3 Collaborate with Peers
Effective:
Teacher seeks out and participates in regular opportunities to work with and learn from others, asks for assistance when needed, and provides assistance to others in need.
What does this look like?
Teacher collaboration is an important aspect of teachers' professional lives, as a means to continuously reflect on and improve the practice of teaching. In collaboration, teachers can, for example, share knowledge, critically reflect on teaching practices, provide collegial support or peer feedback, and collectively design teaching methods.
Simply put, it takes the entire team to support our students. Every team member comes to the table with various strengths and areas to grow. When educators work together, they form important professional and personal relationships. Teachers often draw support from each another and can delegate tasks that allow each teacher to feel effective and better support our students. Collaboration between teachers contributes to school improvement and student success.
Successful collaborations happen when teachers work together to share the workload instead of doubling their efforts. From the delegation of tasks, teachers are also able to learn more from each other as they come back together to review and assemble their separate assignments into a cohesive lesson plan.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Strong collaboration and collaborative cultures develop over time and require commitment to the process. Teachers must make an ongoing effort to work together and find collaborative time in our every busy schedules.
Teachers may share work products on a common drive.
Teacher make time at each grade level or subject area, creating teams. When a teacher is the lone person in their subject or area, they work to make connections with other teachers in collaboration towards common goals, improved instructional practice...
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Highly Effective:
Teacher goes above and beyond in seeking out opportunities to collaborate, takes on leadership roles within collaborative groups, and coach peers through difficult situations.
What does this look like?
Teacher leaders believe that meaningful and sustained change happens when teachers work with administrators, staff, families, students, and the community to do what is best based on evidence about what students need. A highly effective rating in this category would be supported by evidence of leadership in forming collaborative relationships with other stakeholders that benefit the students, school, and community.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Teacher leaders help establish systems, protocols and agendas to help conflicting personalities learn to appreciate each other and work well together.
Teacher leaders offer to share their skill and knowledge. They help establish and/or actively participate in conversation about improving school programs, staff meetings, collaborative groups, and team work sessions.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
4.4 Seek Professional Skills and Knowledge
4.4 Seek Professional Skills and Knowledge
Effective:
Teacher will actively pursue opportunities to improve knowledge and practice and seek out ways to implement new practices into instruction, where applicable.
What does this look like?
When we think of professional development, it’s easy to imagine a conference or a workshop. However, professional development occurs any time we, as educators, continue to learn. We might not always get formal certificates or official credits for recertification. But every time you learn something new, you get the chance to broaden your worldview in ways that will help them connect with students (even if it’s as simple as providing a new example). This indicator is intended to honor your efforts as a life long learner.
Teacher will identify area(s) of growth, research best practice for addressing the need(s), seek out and participate in professional development in the area of need(s), then apply what is learned from best practice to their classroom.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Document articles, books, and other reading you do that enhances your teaching.
Document outside workshops, conferences, or other that you attend.
Work with your peers on growing and learning new things. Meet in small groups.
Join professional organizations and social media groups that provide resources, ideas, and new thinking.
Reflectively sett growth goal(s) and actively seek best practice professional development that can be applied to their classroom.
Actively participate in school level PD. (Team meetings, book studies, PLCs, early release staff development activities, and corporation committees)
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Highly Effective:
Teacher regularly shares newly learned knowledge and practices with others, and/or teacher seeks out opportunities to lead professional development sessions.
What does this look like?
Share your own experience as a professional educator with your peers and others. When this happens, you are not only more reflective (a key part of professional growth) but you also think more deeply about your own craft. We know that teaching something can be one of the best ways to master a subject. The same is true of teaching. As you teach others about teaching, you get to know those concepts and strategies at a deeper level.
Teacher moves from actively participating in PD sessions that impact classroom instruction or building culture in a positive way, to leading professional growth sessions. Teacher shares those best practices that have had positive impacts in their classroom with other educators, staff members, parents, and the community.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Share within your team or grade level.
Offer to share during a staff meeting or PD opportunity.
Send out information via email to your peers that connects them with your learning and new ideas.
Actively participate in sharing social media groups or other outlets sharing new ideas and learning.
Lead PD sessions at the school level.
Lead PD sessions at the corporation level.
Lead PD sessions for parents and our community.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
This is a great resource for thinking about how we own our own professional learning: https://spencerauthor.com/own-your-pd/
https://spencerauthor.com/category/professional-development/
4.5 Advocate for Student Success
4.5 Advocate for Student Success
Effective:
Teacher displays commitment to the education of students in their class(es).
What does this look like?
Teachers who are advocates for student success work to identifying students' educational needs and then take proactive steps to gain maximum support for meeting those needs. They work to remove barriers and roadblocks, and they support students in connecting with appropriate supports to maximize their opportuning for success.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Ensure you are student centered and committed to helping each student be his or her best.
Make decisions that are in the best interests of students understanding the complexity of the factors that affect their performance and success.
Recognize and support the special needs of all students: academic, social, emotional, and physical needs.
See things from the student’s perspective always keeping in mind what is best for the individual student. This trait will be reflected in your philosophy relative to such matters as student discipline.
Create an environment in which students can focus on their interests and strengths. This advocacy trait requires attention to the inclusiveness of the school’s programs, such that the curriculum and instructional methods support individualism.
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Highly Effective:
Teacher displays commitment to the education of students in the entire school community.
What does this look like?
The teacher works beyond students they serve in their classroom in support of each student they connect with being given the opportunity to participate in the school’s programs and maximizing each student's opportunity to reach his or her potential.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Work to connect all students to programs and supports that will help them grow and succeed.
Be an advocate for school all programs.
Sponsor/coach school programs and or extra curricular activities.
Participate in supporting, chaperoning, or attending school programs and extra curricular activities.
Keep a log of those things above that you do in support of helping students be their best beyond the classroom and beyond your specific group of students.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
4.6 Responding to Families
4.6 Responding to Families
Effective:
Teacher responds promptly to contact from parents and addresses concerns of parents and students in a timely manner.
What does this look like?
When families have concerns about their child, they may come to you, their child’s teacher, for support. They may have recently noticed a behavior that’s out of the ordinary for their child. Or they may have observed a pattern of behaviors over time. They may not understand an issue that occurred in school, or they may not understand a grade or assignment.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Ensure you support families understanding how they can contact with you with concerns.
Ensure you respond promptly to parent concerns. Usually within 24 hours when possible.
Keep a log of all parents contacts (phone calls, visits, letters, etc.), noting date, time, place, and what was discussed. Keep copies of all documents.
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Highly Effective:
Teacher makes a concerted effort to be open and available to address concerns posed by parents and students. These are addressed in a timely and positive manner, and, when necessary, outside of required outreach events.
What does this look like?
The teacher will ensure multiple ways for parents and families to connect with them when there is a concern, and the teacher's response will be prompt. This contact may come outside of school time and/or outreach events.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Provide open times for parents to connect and/or meet with you outside of scheduled conference windows or required times.
When families come with concerns, take on the mindset of an investigator to really understand what they’re seeing, experiencing, and feeling. Also, take time to assure them. Let them know that it’s great they’re asking questions and seeking support early to help their child.
Follow up on concerns. Set a timeline where you will reach back out families to ensure the concern is being addressed effectively.
Keep a log of all parents contacts (phone calls, visits, letters, etc.), noting date, time, place, and what was discussed. Keep copies of all documents.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
4.7 Communication with Families
4.7 Communication with Families
Effective:
Teacher proactively reaches out to parents in a variety of ways to engage them in student learning. Teacher engages in all forms of parent outreach required by the school.
What does this look like?
It’s no secret that when schools make a concerted effort to foster healthy, strong relationships with families, students benefit in a number of ways. Studies suggest that parental involvement can lead to academic gains for students: higher grades and test scores, improved social skills and time on task, better attendance and participation, and decreased behavioral problems in the classroom.
Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:
Ensure you support families understanding how they can connect well with you and with their child's grades and updated learning information.
Send out emails, newsletters, Remind notices, etc… of what is going on in your classroom.
Develop and share a class syllabus with your students and parents.
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Highly Effective:
The teacher strives to make consistent contact with parents and forms relationships in which parents are given ample opportunity to participate in student learning.
What does this look like?
Highly effective teachers find ways to close the communication gap. Often parents will report that they did not receive information from their child’s school or teacher. Teachers can turn to any number of tech tools to improve communication and reduce barriers.
Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:
Open reliable channels of communication: Not all parents communicate the same way. Find ways to communicate with all families and support families who may struggle to communicate in your preferred method. A teacher might consider creating a beginning-of-the-year Google Form to gather information on how best to communicate with each family, use an introductory phone call or email, or discuss the topic at back-to-school night. This is also a great time to learn what languages are spoken at home.
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Questions to Consider:
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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:
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