1. At which level (emerging, developing, performing, or transforming) do you NOW place yourself for each of your four chosen competencies? 

Overarching Competency # 1 Interpersonal Effectiveness: from Emerging to Developing-Performing

-Saught opportunities to become for effective in supporting others by building trust.

-Built critical relationships and create a shared vision based on student needs.

-Lead discussion to identify and define a shared vision of consistency and clarity of assessment.

-Served as support for others by effectively communicating and building empathy, humility, and trust.

Overarching Competency # 2 Adult Learning: From Pre-Emerging to Performing

-Developed professional learning opportunities for colleagues that is designed to encourage growth.

-Empowered and enabled colleagues to present learning experiences to others.

-Designed and delivered learning experiences across contexts and communities that others can replicate for other groups of adult learners.

Foundational Competency Explore and Challenge Diversity: From Developing to Performing

-Purposefully promoted equitable practices with my environment of influence.

-Responded consistently in an appropriate and effective manner to challenge inequities.

Leadership Pathway Competency Facilitating Collaborative Relationships: From Emerging to Performing

-Connected and support colleagues to meet their developmental needs.

-Participated in a constructive and collaborative culture to make decisions and implement resolutions.

2. How did the TLI experience impact your growth as a teacher leader in each of your four chosen competencies?  

I feel like I grew the most in the adult learning competency. I've always passionately cared about what I was doing in my own classroom and making sure it was evidence based and equitably supporting students, but I learned how to bring those passions to my colleagues in a way that was (hopefully) approachable, productive, and never condescending. I would have joined the teacher clarity PLC anyways, but the TLI experience made me see and approach my role in that PLC differently. Because of what I learned in the Interpersonal Effectiveness competency and what I learned about my own bias and cultural differences I consistently spent our meetings thinking about my team members perspectives and how I could encourage them in our shared vision, as opposed to just making sure I did X Y and Z in my own classroom.  

As a member of our union I found myself in central conversations during the spring about what we were choosing to bargain for in our negotiations. These meetings were often heated and had people with very different strong points of view who were refusing to back down about what they personally believed was right. Because of what I learned in TLI, I trusted myself to have the skills to navigate the differing points of view, listen to each person with empathy, and work to bring all sides of the table together. We successfully dramatically altered our leave policy (to PTO instead of sick/personal days) and created a multi-year plan to reorganize the extra-curricular matrix; which had been left untouched for DECADES because it was too complicated and contentious to open up and look at.

3. What was the most valuable part of the TLI process for you? 

I learned to trust my voice and believe that people DO care and WILL listen to what I have to say. I now know that even though I am not the loudest person in the room I can make change and be a person people come to when they are facing challenges. Being a strong leader isn't as much about what you do personally, as it's about what you do to help others around you reach those same goals. 

I've thought a lot about many of the activities during the modules throughout the year as I was working on my project. Some of them that come to mind frequently were the engineering a new shopping cart video, the dancing "leader/first follower" video, the implicit bias tests, the discussion we had during module seven about privilege, and the activity where we took steps forward and backward to visualize our privilege. Although I didn't end up actually completing a formal empathy interview, the skills and perspective I took from our practice empathy interviews during module 5 majorly impacted how I conducted myself when having a difficult conversation with my co-workers, parents, and administration.

4. What are your next steps to continue your growth as a teacher leader? 

I am changing school districts this next year and moving to Teton Valley in Idaho (my husband and I were able to get teaching jobs in the same school). My new school district has 4 day school weeks for students, with every other Friday being collaborative PLC time for curricular and grade level cohorts of teachers. I plan to bring the work I did in my PLC this year to this new school district and know I will rely on all of the skills I've learned in TLI to navigate being in a new place and establishing myself as a leader there too.