Living the Vision: The Need for Shared Leadership

Katrina Schwartz says, “When done well, distributing leadership creates a community of people on the same page, working hard toward defined goals.” The Teacher Leader and Compensation grant has allowed us to distribute or share leadership throughout the District. As we add more T.O.S.A’s, Instructional Coaches, Mentor and Model teachers, as well as have teachers as part of the hiring process on the Site-Based Council, the voices of teachers can only increase as we make our way toward the very clearly defined Vision of Teaching and Learning.  

As our Leadership Team for the District grows and more teacher voices are added, Dr. Taylor reminds us that we are all in one canoe, with many rowers, going in one direction as the Ames Community School District. We now have even more rowers in our canoe, but it's imperative that we all row in the same direction...if we don't, we're rowing in circles. Our objective is to move forward!

The purpose of sharing leadership is to build capacity. As a Leadership Team with one voice, we understand that through the Teacher Leader's use of Cognitive Coaching, we are able to build capacity in our given leadership roles in order to make the Vision of Teaching and Learning a reality. Administrators alone cannot make the Vision a reality. Mentor and Model teachers alone cannot make the Vision a reality. But, when all of us come together to help build capacity, the Vision becomes a reality.

One People, One Voice

As Teacher Leadership expands and we embark on this change in our world of education, we grapple with the idea of many voices. We should. We have many uniquely gifted and passionate teachers and leaders in the District. There are uneasy feelings about what this change might bring for us as individuals, but it's important to know that the Teacher Leaders have ONE VOICE.  

One People, One Voice, a song by the Wailin' Jennys, gives us the inspiration to work together in harmony.  If we collectively answered the question: “Why did you enter the teaching profession?” we likely entered with one voice.  Students.  We wanted to help students become the best they could be.  Part of the mission of the Teacher Leaders in the Ames Community School District is to work for the purpose of increasing learning for all students. One people, one voice.  

ACSD Teacher Leader Mission Statement

Teacher Leaders work for the purpose of increasing

learning for all students by strengthening teaching practices

through job-embedded professional development.

The second part of the mission is to strengthen teaching practices through job-embedded professional development.  When it comes to job-embedded professional development, Teacher Leaders have ONE VOICE.  Steve Barkley says, “[Teacher Leadership] is all about reflection and learning and not about fixing lessons.” Teacher Leaders were not hired to fix lessons. The lessons aren’t broken. Job embedded professional development allows Teacher Leaders to be visible, to open the doors of their classroom, to collaborate and reflect all with the purpose of continuously growing professionally.  

We know that each interaction is going to look and feel a little different. The same thing happens when we are working with students in the classroom as we differentiate our supports to reach the intended outcome. We might be singing in a different octave, but we know the notes are the same. We know that by singing the same song, the mission of Teacher Leadership becomes a reality.