This has been a fascinating week of class in that reading my classmates' replies was so enlightening. All of us appear to be teacher leaders in one role or another and have also experienced a lack of leadership at times with peers or administrators. Sharing and comparing with each other has been most helpful in learning more about leadership.
I felt myself becoming a teacher leader last fall, my third year at Falls North Junior High. Believe it or not, my sense of leadership arose from DodgeBall. I was beginning my second year on our 8th grade WKCE committee. We were looking to find a wrap-up/rewards activity that would motivate our students as well as allow them to blow off some steam after several days of tedious, yet necessary testing. As we were brainstorming, I brought up how well DodgeBall worked as a rewards activity when I was subbing in Marshall. I also mentioned that our new Falls business manager, Jeff Gross (he formerly held the same position in Marshall), and our Marshall superintendent, Dean Gorrell, had participated in a staff/student DodgeBall tournament. This was a big hit in Marshall so I volunteered to organize and lead this in the Falls.
Even though it was a great deal of work, as Gabriel warned in his book, the effort was well worth it. Students and staff loved the competition and team building and we plan on doing it again this fall. I received many compliments from administration, staff, and students and suddenly found myself in a new leadership role, that of DodgeBall commissioner. Our 8th graders were motivated to work hard and get through WKCE because they knew we had a fun and physical activity as a reward. They loved creating boys only, girls only, and coed teams. The team names they created were hilarious and some teams even made up team t-shirts and outfits, similar to the Ben Stiller movie. Our guidance department, with funding from our very supportive principal, made up champion t-shirts that students often proudly wore all of the way until the end of the school year. Our PTSA even jumped on the bandwagon by asking me to organize a DodgeBall tournament for their Friday Frenzy student activity afternoon in February.
My commissionership allowed me to also work more closely with our principal, associate principal, and superintendent. There were legitimate concerns regarding workman's comp if a teacher were to get injured. However, I assuaged those concerns by making sure that all of us "older" teachers had done proper stretching with a warm-up led by one of our highly-regarded phy. ed. teachers. No one got hurt, everything went very well, and I will tweak a few things for this fall such as the sound system, team creation, sign-up deadlines, etc. As a teacher leader, I tried to be very observant during the event so that next year can be even better.
In conclusion, I want to list other areas in which I am a teacher leader:
- E4E Committee: This is a district committee that supports our voc. ed program and connects our staff to the business community. As a former retailer with a voc. ed. certification, I have been able to effectively contribute to this group.
- Softball coach: No doubt that I love this leadership position and learn so much from my fellow coaches.
- Business Education teacher hiring committee: I bring my interviewing and hiring experience to this group and am gratified that our selections thus far have lived up to their tremendous promise.
- Informal technology coach: My fellow bus. ed. teacher, Tami Strong, and I happily serve as teacher leaders by assisting our staff with hardware and software issues, particularly with how they apply to classroom learning.
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