What we need for real Teacher Leadership

Ariel Sacks (who taught one of my current students last year!) has a really insightful and accurate piece about what’s necessary for teacher leadership to take the next step over at Education Week (free registration required):

Teaching students is the single most important thing that happens in education everyday. That is where teachers make their biggest impact. So a leadership opportunity must provide a compelling reason to step away from the classroom—even for a day—or give up our valuable personal time. It must help teachers use their knowledge to empower their colleagues and school communities rather than present yet one more obstacle for effective teaching and learning.

 Read the whole piece here.  Ariel gives me a shout out towards the end of the piece as well:

When taking on new leadership roles, teachers often need to develop new skill sets. Teacher-blogger Stephen Lazar points out that the skills of a great teacher are usually not the same as those of an effective teacher leader. No matter how successful we are in the classroom, it takes time to grow into new roles, and we need support through that process.

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