Nurturing Teacher Leadership

One of a principal's most important roles is to nurture leadership skills among school staff by creating a school with a variety of leadership roles, opportunity for inquiry and reflection, and the chance to learn and develop new skills.

There are many ways to help others develop their leadership capacity. They include:

• Inviting them to work on a project outside their area of expertise;
• Asking them to help screen and interview new hires;
• Encouraging them to attend district meetings with you;
• Asking them to work with you to deal with a challenging parent or instruction issue;
• Inviting them to lead a book study group;
• Asking them to serve on the school leadership team;
• Asking them to serve as a mentor for a new teacher;
• Encouraging them to become a member of a professional organization;
• Asking them to present information to the staff after attending a conference or other professional development activity;
• Inviting them to maintain a journal and reflect on the "good," "bad," or "flawed" leaders they know and observe.

These ideas and others are discussed in Practical Suggestions for Developing Leadership Capacity (NASSP, 2009).

I'd enjoy hearing from you about how you work to expand the leadership capacity in your school. I'm always interested in practical ideas I can share with my students and other leaders with whom I work.

Mentoring and Coaching Tips

Nothing a principal does impacts student learning more than having good teachers in every classroom. One of a principal's most important roles is cultivate a high quality teaching staff. Too often we get distracted by the unexpected events that occur in any school---an unplanned visit by a parent, a discipline problem, a request from the superintendent. But it is important to intentionally focus on the role of mentor and coach. But some of the most effective mentoring relationships are between colleagues---teacher to teacher. In a recent blog by Sheryn Waterman for Eye on Education suggests four important tips for maintaining a close, supportive mentor relationship among teachers. They include:

• Proximity - Close physical proximity makes it easier to get together. But for school leaders more frequent visits and interaction can create proximity.
• Frequent Contact - Talking with each other regularly helps to build a relationship that is central to successful mentoring.
• Quality Conversations - Assure that the interaction is high quality, about teaching and learning.
• Classroom Observations - Learning from observing and co-teaching deepens the relationship and the conversation. 

Additional information about how to nurture a supportive mentoring relationship is in the blog and in Sheryn's new book Mentoring and Coaching Tips: How Educators Help Each Other.

Strengthening Professional Development

An essential part of efforts to improve your school is effective professional development. Traditionally, it has included workshops, seminars and conferences. Too often these activities didn't result in long-lasting change and had little impact on student learning.

Contemporary professional development focuses much more on job-embedded activities where teachers and school leaders work together. Things like peer-coaching, collaborative work teams, study groups, book study, action research, and mentoring can be far more effective in promoting improvement, supporting teacher leadership and changing practice.

This week I read a blog from ASCD that describes 8 steps to improved professional development. I found it helpful and want to share it with you. I hope it is useful in your continued work to improve your school.