Leading Up to Teacher LEADership Development Summit!

 That's right my friends, you saw correctly! My chapter of KDP at Kean is hosting a Teacher LEADership Development Summit!

The flyer will be attached at the end of my blog! 

This week, it seems fitting to focus on the idea of leadership since we are celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Teachers mirror his image everyday by showing their students what leaders look like in the classroom. 

I am also excited to be discussing the acronym (you all know I love them!) L.E.A.D the next few weeks to prepare for the Teacher LEADership Development Summit my chapter of KDP at Kean is hosting on February 11th. 

We wanted to take the idea of teacher leadership and spend the day together and with others discussing what does it mean to be a teacher leader? How do we continue to develop as leaders? What can we learn from others and their leadership?

So my friends, let's break down L.E.A.D with a focus this week on L- learn. It's true that all leaders are committed to learning. Without the idea of learning, things become stagnate. Learning can come from a wealth of places such as books, journal articles, webinars, and social media. We've arrived at a place where many educators complete their own self-learning activities, and embark on the journey alone. It's true that taking classes or even in a webinar setting there are more people, however there often isn't a real connection between what is being discussed and actively using it in the classroom. 

I'd like to think of learn from the lens of learn from others. Watch what they do in their classrooms or share experiences of how the research translates into practice. There simply isn't enough of this! I know from my personal experiences and discussions in the reading groups I network with we are always discussing how teachers can have the science translated into practical learning. As educators, we often do not get a chance to observe our peers teaching; which is where we could potentially do the most learning! While there isn't always a fast and easy solution to having peer observations available, it is possible to have meaningful and focused discussions, or even share videos (if permissible.) 

We encourage our students to learn from each other and to watch as we model constantly throughout the day, yet somehow we are expected to learn from a "one-and-done" training where far too often modeling is only a short component of the professional development. It's in the process of seeing others do it we get inspired and see how we can adjust the content for our own students, feel that rush of energy to get started and try it a slightly different way, or have a spark of interest in a whole new idea. 

Learning comes from leading! Do not be afraid to have peers observe and learn from you, and do not be afraid to ask peers if you can learn by watching them.

As a substitute for those missing moments, take advantage of conferences, classes, book clubs, and other opportunities to meet with colleagues in school and outside your district to hear from their experiences and how they approach a topic, lesson or subject. It's at least a close step in the direction of observing other teachers. 

This is why you should consider attending our LEADership Summit, where teacher leaders share their experiences in the classroom so we can all learn from each other! 

Final thoughts; Keep being a life-long learner as an educator, for yourself and your students.  Keep meeting others in the field and have meaningful discussions with them to learn how they approach teaching in their classroom. Keep working together to build trusting relationships where you welcome each other to observe when possible, and discuss what was learned from the experience. Keep working together to share knowledge with other educators- it spreads motivation and inspiration. And finally, keep up your own zest for learning, it's what truly makes you a leader! 

Register Here: https://bit.ly/LEADKDPReg