TLN Teacher Voices

A Useful How-To Guide for K12 Teacher Leaders

Other Duties as Assigned: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Expert Teacher Leadership
By Jan Burgess with Donna Bates
(ASCD, 2009)

Reviewed by Ernie Rambo, NBCT
Middle School Teacher and Mentor (NV)

Teacher Leaders Network

The term “leadership” is often used when discussing a school’s administration. More often these days, we’re hearing about the “teacher leaders” in our schools, those who may or may not seek to be administrators but have an interest in more than standard classroom duties.

This book serves as a “how-to” guide for teacher leaders in K-12 schools. Providing possible scenarios of the challenges that teacher leaders might face as they complete their tasks, the book includes ready-to-use resources for organizing, goal-setting, and reflection. I found Other Duties as Assigned to be a useful reference for both novice and experienced leaders.

Teacher leaders can include department or grade level chairpersons, team leaders, and heads of committees. Teacher leaders might be the educators at your school who organize professional learning communities, write grant proposals, or develop action research projects. Whether you are asked to lead or volunteer to do so, teacher leadership can be rewarding -- but it can also be challenging depending on the faculty’s perception of the roles of teacher leaders in their building.

Other Duties as Assigned presents effective strategies to help a teacher lead effectively while still maintaining positive relationships with one’s colleagues. Jan Burgess and Donna Bates provide a framework for any leader, new or experienced, to take charge of a project or duty without being perceived as taking over the task.

The authors develop a bridge to connect current academic research about school leadership and realistic faculty relationships, maintaining both a collegial and professional voice. In each chapter, Burgess and Bates combine the examples of three fictional teacher leaders, using different metaphors to describe the work that might be required of leaders. In one chapter, leadership is compared to river-rafting, in another chapter it’s rubber bands or real estate. Each metaphor serves its purpose, demonstrating the importance of trusting in the leader, being flexible yet strong, or building relationships.

Questions provided in the book’s margins prompt the reader to reflect upon their own leadership characteristics. Each chapter also includes a “Dear Donna” section where Bates provides suggestions for handling typical situations that a teacher leader might confront.
   
Other Duties as Assigned does not offer groundbreaking information about leadership. That’s not its purpose. Instead, it serves as a conduit between established research and leadership applications and becomes a one-stop resource for learning, recalling, and applying strategies that will help every school leader keep focused on project goals. You’ll find protocols for getting a team organized and for making decisions, and the appendix includes a “Teacher Leader’s Toolkit” with exercises and templates for reflection, goal-setting, meeting agendas, and evaluations. The publisher also tells us how to access an interactive version of the toolkit at no extra charge through their website.
   
Other Duties as Assigned can be useful to all team leaders, novice or experienced, because the chapters examine how to develop team unity while strengthening the professional growth of the faculty. For the teacher who is not sure if leadership is the next step in their career, reading this book provides ample information to inform them of what skills and tasks are expected of a teacher leader. For more experienced teacher leaders, reading Other Duties as Assigned can serve as a reference for how to solve problems in situations when things are not going as smoothly as anticipated.

If a guiding reference book is needed for a book study on the topic of leadership, Other Duties as Assigned would be a useful choice. Each chapter invites teacher reflection and examines topics that easily lend themselves to discussion.

Should you say yes the next time your principal walks up to you and asks you if you can do “just one more thing,” you might want to add: “As soon as I’ve read this book….”

Ernie Rambo chairs the electives department at Walter Johnson Junior High in the Clark County (NV) School District, where she also serves as a new-teacher mentor. She’s active in the Southern Nevada Writing Project and a National Board Certified Teacher.

Interview: Rick Wormeli Talks about Teaching with Metaphors and the Need for Teachers to Embrace Professional Growth

Teaching and learning really come down to connections and re-connections, and metaphors are wonderfully apt in creating those bridges in kindergarten, special education, gifted education, ELL classes, elementary/middle/high school, and at the university level. It’s such a commonly occurring yet powerful force in learning, we really shouldn’t leave it to chance or occasional attention.

NBCT and Disney Teaching Award winner Rick Wormeli began his writing and professional development career more than a decade ago, drawing on his many years of practice as a middle grades teacher in Northern Virginia to produce two “classics” for novice middle school educators, Meet Me in the Middle and Day One and Beyond. Wormeli, a long time member of the Teacher Leaders Network, has gone on to write other books about key aspects of effective teaching, including Differentiation, Fair Isn’t Always Equal (assessment), Summarization in Any Subject, and most recently, Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject.

In a recent interview with fellow TLN member Elizabeth Stein, herself an NBCT (literacy) and special education teacher in New York, Rick explains his own fascination with the power of metaphor and analogy to increase student learning — and extends the discussion with insightful opinions about the need for teachers to take full ownership of their own professional growth and to resist the anti-intellectualism that Wormeli sees as a significant barrier to advancing the teaching profession.

We have to convince teachers that intellectual and professional explorations are positive things, directly benefiting them. Teachers who question policies, offer new research to consider, share compelling professional reading with others — who post regularly on professional listervs and networks and think critically about teaching and assessment practices — should be affirmed and supported, not made to feel like the goody-goody at the front of the room keeping everyone from recess because they are excited about amphibians and have one more question to ask about tree frogs in the Amazon.

At the end of the interview, Rick Wormeli invites anyone with an interest in pursuing these ideas to get in touch. We tell you how.

___________________

Elizabeth Stein: Rick, your idea for a book about teaching with metaphors was extraordinary, and I wonder why no one had written such a book before. Did you get any strange looks from your fans, colleagues or publisher when you proposed it? And how has it been received?

Almost everyone wondered how I could make this into a full-length book. Just like a lot of ideas in education, however, once you start going down the path, you see these other branches in the path. Then, suddenly, one path connects to a parallel path, but the two of them lead to an even greater route, and you have an “A-ha!” moment.

My publisher was supportive, but definitely wanted a fleshed out chapter outline just to make sure there was plenty of “meat,” and to make sure the content wasn’t just a re-statement of old ideas in new skin. I agreed with this — I hate to waste educators’ time with things they already know. There are some things in the book that many teachers understand, but I believe there is plenty of new thinking or alternative perspectives that can ignite novel applications.

Today, when most people hear of the book, they nod politely and think they know basically what it is – another tool for teaching metaphors in English or Language Arts class. While there’s plenty in the book that will help English and Language Arts teachers do that teaching, the majority of the book is for teachers of all subjects and grade levels. In fact, one of the nicest and most accurate commentaries I’ve seen about the book came from a technology blogger who applied the ideas to technology education. And Marsha Ratzel, a well-respected math and science teacher, wrote about how she was excited about all the science applications. Yes!

When I explain the book’s premise to teachers and administrators, they get very interested, noticing the same opportunities and connections that I saw when writing. They are curious about the practical applications, especially when so much of the book’s material helps teachers differentiate instruction and integrate many of the 21st century skills so often cited as necessary for students’ success.

When you researched other writing about teaching with metaphors, what did you find?

Before I began, I wondered whether anyone had written a book about this topic, too. When I dove into the research, I found a paragraph, a page, or a chapter in many different books where authors alluded to the possibilities, but nowhere did anyone flesh out metaphor applications across the disciplines to make them doable in daily planning, or to extend the possibilities into differentiated instruction.

There are several terrific books on cognitive linguistics, the larger domain in which metaphorical thinking and writing resides, but these were mostly research and analysis about the nature of the human mind. Not much was practical or inspiring for the educator. When I went back through my old lesson plans and saw all these metaphors in the lessons that were successful, I realized there was a missing bridge between the esoteric thinking about metaphors and real classroom application, and I became excited about the potential for the book.

When Kelly Gallagher, someone I respect very much, came out with his wonderful book, Deeper Reading, he had a great chapter in there about the power of metaphors in teaching. Though he wrote mostly about literature and character analysis, my mind was making connections to science, law, physical education, technology, religion, foreign language, politics, math, drama, art, music, and much more. I almost couldn’t finish reading his book; I was so excited about the possibilities for metaphors. That week, I wrote the first outline for the book.

You clearly express that it's time to "bust metaphors out of solitary confinement in English classes. Shackles off, metaphors are ready to serve any teacher of any subject in any grade level." In your experiences are there any limitations? Is there a type of teacher, subject, or grade level where the application of metaphors is more successful than another?

Great question. When someone like me speaks in seeming hyperbole, it’s reasonable to start looking for a limitation or catch. But I have yet to find a general exception. From the earliest learning experiences to the most advanced, whenever someone struggles to convey an idea or skill to someone else, they think of something familiar for the intended learner and try to map similarities between the new idea and the familiar frame of reference.

It’s amazing how quickly teachers and non-teachers alike pick up on this technique. I’ve seen sports coaches, CEO’s, dental hygienists, pharmacists, auto mechanics, heater repair personnel, landscapers, lifeguards, and many more professions use analogies and metaphors readily to explain something or to make an emphatic point, and I’ve seen it even more so since doing the intense research for the book

This quick resort to metaphors on our part is probably in our nature to some degree, as humans are consummate learners: The brain is wired for ceaseless learning. We quickly develop tools for making sense of the world, and one of the primary techniques is comparing new concepts to something we know and noting the differences and similarities. We constantly seek meaningful patterns: think of how many people look at the physical geography and shadows on one spot on Mars and see a human face, but it’s really just that geography and shadows, nothing more.
   
Teaching and learning really come down to connections and re-connections, and metaphors are wonderfully apt in creating those bridges in kindergarten, special education, gifted education, ELL classes, elementary/middle/high school, and at the university level. It’s such a commonly occurring yet powerful force in learning, we really shouldn’t leave it to chance or occasional attention. Hence, the book.  

PLCs at Work: An Interview with Teacher-Author Bill Ferriter

Bill Ferriter’s participation in the Teacher Leaders Network began in March 2003, on the very first day of TLN’s existence. We kicked off TLN with an email conversation among 200 accomplished teachers, mostly from states in the southeast. The idea was to stage a series of 3-day chats exploring some key professional issues and then see who wanted to stick around and become the nucleus of a national virtual community of classroom educators.

By the end of the six-week startup, Bill’s provocative questioning and his willingness to reflect on his own professional practice — tarnish and all — made him a leader in our fledgling community. He’s gone on to serve as a TLN Senior Fellow, co-author of a major TLN TeacherSolutions report, and the internationally respected TLN blogger known as The Tempered Radical, whose lively mix of classroom practice, policy and politics, and digital learning topics attracts a broad audience and recently led to a monthly column, Digitally Speaking, in Educational Leadership magazine.

As it turns out, Bill’s willingness—compulsion, even—to bare his teaching soul makes him one heck of a book author, too. Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year, co-written with principal Parry Graham, grows out of a several-year struggle by Bill and a group of teacher colleagues at his North Carolina middle school to learn to collaborate in powerful ways. In this interview, Bill recounts some of the pain and gain of that trial by fire, and how he and Graham went about translating their own experiences into a practical primer for other educators who might be willing to set forth on a similar journey.

As a bonus, I've asked Bill to speak to fellow teachers who harbor their own desire to write a book from their teaching lives. Bill generously shares his secret to publishing success, but I’ll warn you in advance. It involves a lot of writing. – John Norton, co-founder and moderator, Teacher Leaders Network.

----------

What created the burn to write a book for teachers just beginning to explore PLCs? Give us some history.

Bill Ferriter: I think the burn to write a book for teachers just beginning their work with professional learning communities is a product of my own early struggles and successes with collaboration. About five years ago, I had the opportunity to open a new middle school being built as a PLC from the ground up—and I was paired on a learning team with five of the most intelligent and capable language arts and social studies teachers that I’d ever met.

The problem was that we had no real idea what it was that we were supposed to be doing with each other, and that led to early frustrations. Our initial meetings were rambling, unfocused affairs and we often felt like failures. We fought through personal conflicts and professional disagreements, though, and eventually found a working rhythm and synergy that made all of us better teachers. I wanted to try to make those early struggles transparent to other teachers, hoping that the lessons my team learned might sustain others when the inevitable challenges of collaboration arise.

Collaborative work can make any teacher more productive and professionally satisfied, but only when early efforts at collaboration are structured and meaningful. Parry and I believe that Building a Professional Learning Community at Work can provide some of that structure for learning teams at any stage of their professional work together.

Your book is filled with action-oriented subheads, reproducibles, practical recommendations — there's even an annotated chapter guide divided into seasons of the year. It has the feel of authors who have been there and done that. How much easier might things be for teacher teams who take your advice?

Bill Ferriter: I think the real strength of Building a Professional Learning Community at Work is that Parry and I are both full-time practitioners. I still meet with a learning team every week, trying to identify instructional practices that work and ensure the success of every child. Parry still works as a building principal, trying to create the systems that enable teachers and students to thrive.

That first-hand experience with the real work of learning teams is evident in every chapter, handout and subtitle in our text. Our suggestions, strategies, and materials are suggestions, strategies and materials that we’ve used successfully in our work—and the text is really nothing more than a public reflection of the learning that we’ve done as we’ve tried to make professional learning communities happen in our own schools.

Should a “Lesson Plan Marketplace” Concern Us?

 

[click to enlarge image]

Teachers in the TLN Forum had lots to say about a recent New York Times article reporting on the growing tendency of teachers to sell lesson plans and other teaching materials they’ve developed via the Internet. A selection of comments from our discussion appeared in a recent post at Teacher Magazine, titled “Should Teachers Sell Their Class Materials?” If you’re interested in this topic, be sure to read this story.

We had more insightful comments than we could possibly fit into our Teacher space, so we thought we’d share more of them here. We do recommend reading the Teacher story first.

Several TLN members were taken aback by this paragraph in the NYT article:

“To the extent that school district resources are used, then I think it’s fair to ask whether the district should share in the proceeds,” said Robert N. Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

Like many teachers, Ken creates his lesson plans during uncompensated time:

If the school system wants to claim ownership of my lessons, which I create on weekends and evenings and during vacation, during the many extra hours for which I do not receive additional compensation, first they will have to pay me for that time. If they are not going to pay me additional for the hours I put in, which include searchingfor materials,reviewing them, thinking about how to use them, designing lessons and units, and laying out the materials (which are often NOT provided by the school system), then they have no claim of ownership and whatever I choose to do with them is my business.

As it happens, I design my lessons for my own use, and I am not sure how effective they would be for other people. I modify them based on my knowledge of my students individually and my classes each as a separate collective.

I am usually more than happy to share ideas and materials with other teachers -- in my building or in my system -- that I know perhaps only electronically.

But it is MY decision to share gratis the results of my efforts, and if I chose to charge -- assuming anyone would want to pay -- I fail to see how my school system has any claim upon the income I would generate.

A school system which wishes to take that approach might suddenly find it has so alienated its teaching staff that they will work to rule, which would mean no planning nor correcting/grading of student papers/tests outside the hours of the school day. Oh, and if you have two or three preps, one planning period a day will not get it done.

Sorry, but I am getting irritated at the small minds running some school systems who cannot see the forest for the trees, or whatever other image you care to use.

I am tired at having to take on an outside responsibility this evening for three hours plus travel time to make $100 to help pay my bills. If schools are so concerned about economic equity, they should start by paying us for all the hours we actually do work.

Mary added:

I agree with Ken. I am absolutely appalled at a school system's suggestion that they might own what a teacher creates. Since we have invested our own time and often our own money to educate ourselves, I believe the public school system owns none of it. (It's interesting that we are sometimes treated like blue collar workers and then other times like in-house talent.) In addition, I am currently getting my own professional development through various online NINGs, blogs, etc. that have nothing to do with my system's sanctioned program of development - which appears to be nil.

Nancy wrote:

As for the bureaucrat who works for New York's superintendents organization and his remark about the school district owning teachers' lesson plans and materials--wouldn't it be great if schools paid teachers extra for creating curriculum and materials, custom-tailored to their student population? In that case, teachers would be fairly compensated for their expertise, and the school would have some ownership rights. Schools don't balk at paying the big bucks for packaged curricula--and all of those materials were written by someone. Why shouldn't ground-level expertise be rewarded by both recognition and remuneration?

Vicky noted:

Imagine districts that might go beyond the familiar "publish or perish" mentality of higher education to a "produce or perish" attitude, requiring teachers to have a certain amount of financial intake each year. In addition, districts might consider the money teachers make on their lesson plans as stipends or part of the expected budget, so teachers would lose out on any classroom or departmental assistance they may currently receive.

Kathie offered her veteran’s perspective:

How much times have changed since I first entered the classroom in 1970! In my first year as a fourth grade teacher, an assistant principal told me the district follow-up worksheets were "crap" and I should make my own. How many hours I worked that first year to create my own materials, knowing I knew virtually nothing about how to do it, much less how to create an improved product! However, that was also the first step in acquiring a great affinity for creating my own lessons and units.

Now, however, I can go to the Internet and search for new ideas to supplement my own. I have yet to pay for a lesson -- I search under "free.” But teachers have been looking for pay for their ideas for a long time. A few years back, a company purchased my graph art ideas for two workbooks. I made $1,200 on the deal, but now I'm wondering how much more I might've made in the era of the Internet!

I see nothing wrong with teachers profiting from their ideas. I would try it myself, except that after so many years in the classroom, I recognize the fact that I have no clarity as to what is solely my own ideas and what I "borrowed" from others over the years. I may have to think more on that one!

A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community

Protocols for Professional Learning (The Professional Learning Community Series)
By Lois Brown Easton
(2009, ASCD)

Reviewed by Michael Fisher
Instructional Coach and Consultant (New York)
Teacher Leaders Network

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review Lois Brown Easton’s book on Professional Learning Protocols. It is a book that I know will have an impact on my own practice as a staff developer, and I’ve already used and shared many ideas from the text.
   
Because I work with schools helping teachers to set up Professional Learning Networks, both in-house and digitally, this book is specifically geared to my work with fellow educators. Many times, when I go into schools, teachers have not had much of an opportunity to meet in collegial groups, and they are satisfied with the “island mentalities” they have been allowed to cultivate over many years. This leads to not only missed opportunities, but also to feelings of inadequacy and a sense of constantly being under attack for failing to do this or that.

Easton’s career includes 15 years as a teacher, and long service as a curriculum leader and professional developer in Arizona and Colorado, including work with the Coalition of Essential Schools. In her introduction, she promises that through the use of protocols, teacher communities can “achieve trust and create a culture that is essential for collaborative work on issues of substance.” Schools can’t wait for a perfect culture to begin using protocols, she says. Instead, “it is through their use that the culture will develop and trust will emerge.”

Protocols, Easton tells us, are:

• Processes that help groups achieve deep understanding through dialogue.
   
• Structures for groups that allow them to explore ideas deeply through student work, artifacts of educator practice, texts relating to education, or problems and issues that surface during the day-to-day lives of educators.
   
• Guidelines for conversation based on norms that everyone agrees upon in order to make the dialogue safe and effective.
   
• A facilitated set of steps which everyone understands and has agreed to that permits a kind of conversation that people don't usually have when they discuss things.
   
• A constructivist approach to discussion that allows for deep development of ideas as certain people talk while others listen and then the talkers listen and the listeners talk, with each round characterized by reflection and exploration.
   
• A way for educators to build collaborative communities, sometimes called critical friends groups (CFGs) or professional learning communities (PLCs).

 Over the course of six chapters, Easton then explores the whats and whys of protocols and how they can be put to use to examine student work and professional practice, to address learning issues and problems, and to promote effective professional discussions. Each chapter describes various protocols in step-by-step detail. (See sample chapters here.)

The protocols in this book help to inspire the atmosphere and culture of trust and collegiality that is necessary to open and maintain conversations among teachers. When there is a framework of understanding, and a foundation of value for everyone’s participation and unique voice, it helps everyone move forward.
   
Besides the great examples she describes, Easton creates a defining framework around protocols and how they should be used. This supplies teachers and meeting leaders with detailed tools from which they can choose to facilitate different types of gatherings, whether the purpose is to share ideas, analyze a specific problem, or deal with something unpleasant in an honest but supportive way.
   
I especially liked that the author included a section on protocols to use with students. I am always being asked what I think about the peer review or peer collaboration process and what resources I have. Using protocols is a perfect way to examine, review, revise and discuss student work. The protocols listed facilitate both student to student interactions and teacher to student interactions.
   
This book also contains protocols for examining professional practice and for addressing issues and problems. Out of these, I found the Success Analysis protocol to be immediately useful, and have used it several times in professional development recently with wildly successful results. In fact, I just proposed to another staff developer that she may want to include a reference in her new book to this particular tool, as the content she is writing about is quite conducive to using protocols.
   
Overall, I see Protocols for Professional Learning as very necessary to the field and unique in its delivery. It’s short (70 pp.) and to the point and written in such a way as to be immediately useful to practitioners, be they teachers or administrators. It could also be useful, in part, to students, as they construct ways to be mutually supportive but also understand that all voices are necessary and needed. I was impressed and excited by what I read, and look forward to more from Lois Brown Easton and ASCD’s Professional Learning Community series.

You Can Be a Change Leader

Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results
By Douglas B. Reeves
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) (2009)

Reviewed by Elizabeth Stein
Special Education Teacher (New York)
Teacher Leaders Network

My interest in this book was first sparked by the title. After all, with words like "leading change" and "conquer," any action-minded educator is likely to get drawn in. It was the author who caught my attention next. Being familiar with Douglas Reeves's work on change leadership, including his monthly column in Educational Leadership, my interest was clinched.
 
In Leading Change in Your School: How to Conquer Myths, Build Commitment, and Get Results, Reeves does not promise magic formulas. Instead he aims to instill hope and confidence in teachers and administrators who would like to transform their thinking into actions as change leaders. This is not just another "how to" book that proposes a framework of sequential steps, leaving readers with that "I’ve heard this before" feeling. The author strives to have the reader easily connect to the educators described in the book.

Reeves says,

The Change Leaders described in this book are veterans and novices, women and men; they represent a broad spectrum of cultures and backgrounds. They are introvert and extroverts, teachers and administrators, exceptional and ordinary. You will find, I hope, people like you, sharing similar challenges but perhaps with different results. Their stories are completely authentic.

The reader can easily connect to the reality that change is not an easy task to accomplish. Reeves states that when it comes to leading change there are often overwhelming challenges that lead inevitably to cynicism. As a result of traveling to many schools around the world, Reeves explains that he has found a number of effective change leaders who share common characteristics. For example these effective change leaders:

• engage colleagues rather than manipulate them
• focus on ideas-not personalities
• balance their sense of urgency

Reeves goes on to say:

...these are people who not only implement change successfully, but also appear to thrive on it. Their colleagues are no more insightful, desperate, or well-informed than the average. Rather, these change leaders share a common commitment to the notion that ideas are more important than personalities.

As I read this, I readily grasped the author's attempt to create an "I can do this in my school" mindset. This book is a great read for those who are new to the idea of becoming a change leader or for those who wish to extend their abilities. It is helpful for teachers or administrators who have already succeeded with a few ideas and feel the need to continue making positive changes.
 
Throughout the book, I noticed how skillfully the author brought idealism and realism together. For example, Reeves explains:
 
Sustainable change requires reorientation of priorities and values so that the comfort and convenience of the individual is no longer the measure by which the legitimacy of change is considered. Rather, we respond to a vision of change that is so compelling and whose benefits for others are so overwhelming that we see students and colleagues not as cogs in the machine but as stars in a galaxy that outshines our fears and dwarfs our apprehensions.

At the same time-and this is the key to change leadership-we know that each star in the firmament holds an essential place, and without it, a constellation would be diminished. Thus the paradox of change leadership is the elevation of a vision far greater than the individual and, at the same time, the elevation of the individual to a place that is unique, powerful, and essential.

Reeves blends his poetic ideals with the reality that everyday people can make the choice to be successful change agents. His book describes leaders who are everyday people-in schools across the globe-who have succeeded.

 The book is organized into four parts that include:

1. Creating Conditions for Change
2. Planning Change
3. Implementing Change
4. Sustaining change

Each chapter builds upon the next to allow the reader to absorb realistic views that can be transformed into the actions of successful change leaders. In addition, an appendix provides supporting documents to guide the reader to begin changing rhetoric into reality. Each part of the book is comprised of 3 to 5 chapters that fully outline specific experiences and steps for taking action.
 
Reeves's writing style, along with the information provided in the book, make for an interactive reading experience. For instance, the author encourages the reader to share his own successful change leadership stories by visiting ChangeLeaders.info, which is a noncommercial website devoted to sharing successful ideas and research.

I recommend this book for all who desire to break the barrier of the cynicism of change. The reader can be left with the thought that by applying simple yet powerful ideas, determined educators can enjoy the experiences that result from taking the initiative to be successful change leaders.

Teacher Leadership 3.0 – An Interview with Gayle Moller

 When Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders first appeared in the mid-1990s, teacher leadership was not on the lips (or minds) of most superintendents and principals. Or, for that matter, most teachers.

In the ensuing years, through three editions, Sleeping Giant has become a much-read classic, inspiring countless teachers to come out of their isolation and accept roles as leaders, colleagues and collaborators. Although the book has also become a staple in higher education leadership programs, in the new edition co-authors Marilyn Katzenmeyer and Gayle Moller continue to speak directly to teachers in classrooms and schools, urging them to wake up and take greater ownership of their profession.

To celebrate the appearance of this new edition — updated to reflect the many advances in teacher leadership during the past eight years — we spoke to co-author Gayle Moller, who in 2003 served as an expert advisor during the creation of the Teacher Leaders Network. We also invite you to read TLN member Nancy Flanagan’s review of Sleeping Giant, as well as her Teacher Magazine essay about the book's impact on her own life. — John Norton

* * * * * * * * * *

Thanks for talking with us, Gayle. You have many fans in the TLN community. Awakening the Sleeping Giant was first published in 1996. A second edition appeared in 2001. Why did you and co-author Marilyn Katzenmeyer decide that the time had come for a third edition?

In 1996, when we first wrote about teacher leadership, there were few people who acknowledged that teachers could be leaders. At the same time, when teacher leaders read our book they said: “You wrote about me!”

The opportunities for teacher leadership have increased substantially since those days. Our editors at Corwin Press approached us, noted the continuing interest in the 2001 edition, and suggested that the time might be right for an update. Marilyn and I knew the population of teacher leaders was continuing to grow, so we agreed.

What’s changed since 2001?

In the last eight years, school system leaders have begun to acknowledge that they’re not getting the results they would like. And many realize that mandates and limited professional development are not effective ways to improve results. The perceptive district leader is now turning to teachers who are competent and can work with their colleagues at the school building level.

New teacher leadership roles — literacy coaches, mentors, and staff developers — are becoming commonplace. In addition, the National Board certification process has helped many potential teacher leaders realize how they can improve their own practice and help other teachers. External support systems, like the Teachers Leader Network, are encouraging teachers to move outside their “comfort zone” to interact with other teacher leaders. When Education Week relaunched Teacher Magazine in 2006 with a specific focus on teacher leadership, many of us took it as a sign!

What's new or revised in the 3rd Edition?

We’ve done quite a lot of revising in this latest edition. Throughout the book, we show how teacher leadership has evolved over the last 20 years by linking current research and practice to new developments. There’s a new chapter written specifically for teachers who take on new instructional leadership roles. In that chapter we address things like deciding to be a teacher leader, negotiating the principal-teacher leader relationship, working with peers, and facilitating professional learning.

To encourage more conversations about teacher leadership, we’ve added two new instruments. The “Teacher Leader School Survey” measures how supportive a school culture is of teacher leadership. We’ve also included the “Teacher Leader Self-Assessment,” which can help potential teacher leaders determine how they currently match up with leadership standards.

The book is based on a leadership development model that includes planning for action. In this new edition, we introduce an action research process called the “Influencing Action Plan.” It’s a practical tool that helps teacher leaders work through strategies to address school site problems and issues.

Finally, we wrote a new chapter on the future of teacher leadership. In that chapter we predict, based on current developments, what teacher leaders might be doing in the years ahead.

Book Review: The Sleeping Giant Awakens

Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders (3rd Edition)
Marilyn Katzenmeyer and Gayle Moller
Corwin Press (June 2009)

Reviewed by Nancy Flanagan, NBCT
Teacher Leaders Network

The second edition of Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders sits on a shelf above my workspace, its spine cracked and tattered. Text is highlighted — in three colors — and the volume is awash in sticky tabs, margin comments and random scraps of paper bearing quotes and additional book recommendations. I have assigned the book twice as a text for a graduate course I teach called "Teacher as Change Agent" and consider it a seminal work in the field of teacher leadership, my personal passion.

To be a useful source of ideas for positive change over time, updates to any education book must be significant, and content must have lasting value and importance. Teacher leadership is a rapidly evolving theme in the broader field of educational leadership. Books that once represented cutting-edge thinking are eclipsed as new research, conceptual frameworks and tools emerge. Works that once had great relevance and utility for practitioners are reexamined  in the cool light of collected and analyzed data. Major policy shifts re-prioritize educational goals, and technology modifies leadership practice.

When Katzenmeyer and Moller published the first edition of Sleeping Giant, in 1996, the concept of teacher leadership was neither well-known nor clearly defined.  Over the 13 years between the first and third editions, many national organizations and educational thinkers have attempted to identify critical characteristics of practitioner expertise and influence, and develop models, standards and structures for advancing teacher leadership. The new edition of Awakening the Sleeping Giant keeps pace with these developments. It continues to stand as a practical and effective foundation for the work of developing leadership in teachers — a kind of primer around the basic rationale for paying attention to teachers' craft and collegial knowledge, and a self-help plan for teachers interested in building their own leadership skills.

Revisions in the third edition were carefully incorporated; one of the nicest is the replacement of "expert" quotes at the beginning of each chapter with quotes from real teacher leaders. New self- and system-assessment tools have been added, and Katzenmeyer and Moller include updated thinking on the long-range career development of teachers who lead, generational differences in teacher expectations, and a range of new insights garnered from recent research. While each new edition has grown by approximately 40 pages, the authors have also judiciously removed or modified outdated or less-useful sections. The Resources section includes a well-chosen collection of important books and organizations, and the References list is comprehensive and thorough, a great launching pad for anyone interested in studying teachers as leaders. Moller and Katzenmeyer also generously acknowledge many teacher leadership initiatives, communities and authors in the text, including the Teacher Leaders Network.

The first two chapters of the book provide a framework for understanding the multiple definitions and kinds of teacher leadership and offer a well-researched justification for promoting leadership in teachers. Plainly, there are clear benefits to empowering teachers, beginning with increased student learning, accountability, creativity, retention, teacher satisfaction, and sustainable improvements in practice. In Chapter Three, the authors make a case for intentional development of leadership capacity in all teachers, beginning in pre-service teacher preparation and continuing with experiences in sharing expertise, building learning communities, and changing roles over the span of a career.

Chapters Four through Six describe an interactive, three-part model of leadership development: Personal assessment, changing school cultures to utilize teacher expertise, and cultivating individual leadership strategies and skills. The pieces of this model are interdependent — and the most exciting and progressive examples of teacher leadership happen when teachers understand their own strengths, fill their leadership tool bags, and work in an environment where adults can and do collaborate.

Katzenmeyer and Moller debunk the myth of the single charismatic school leader and offer hope to teachers whose school cultures seem inhospitable to the influence of teachers with good ideas. They provide a number of research-supported suggestions for reaching out to formal school leaders with evidence that distributing leadership tasks makes organizational sense and leads to more effective teaching and learning.

Chapters Seven and Eight examine some of the emerging challenges to new conceptions of teacher leadership, and the authors sketch a template for ongoing scholarship and structures to continue building knowledge and leadership models. Again — "teacher leadership" was virtually unrecognized in the educational leadership literature two decades ago. As teachers step forward to be change agents,  eager to take responsibility for improving instruction and taking control of their own work, the path is not likely to be smooth. Moller and Katzenmeyer offer a persuasive rationale for pursuing the goals of teacher leadership in spite of obstacles and setbacks.

While the authors provide conclusions and recommendations in each chapter for principals, district administrators and university professors — and most teacher leaders would love to have their superintendents and graduate advisors reading and endorsing the ideas presented in the book — Sleeping Giant's natural audience and greatest impact is likely to be with practitioners. Well-researched and full of useful citations, the volume is less a scholarly investigation of changes in the practices of teacher leaders than a guide to developing and advocating for leadership from the classroom.

A teacher colleague, currently a graduate student at a local university, confessed that she found the book eminently useful in her own thinking and personal growth as a leader —— but said she had been discouraged from using it as a resource in developing a framework for her dissertation research on teacher leadership. She was told that Sleeping Giant was a "practitioner book," full of self-assessment surveys, tools, resources, and concrete (non-academic) language. She described the text as "leadership code switching for teachers" — turning significant and complex educational concepts into constructive, accessible suggestions for teachers.

This strikes me as both true and a ringing endorsement for the third edition of Awakening the Sleeping Giant. I seldom buy a new edition of a volume I already own, but I'm making an exception with this book.

Nancy Flanagan is a 30-year teaching veteran, a former Michigan state teacher of the year, and a consultant specializing in teacher leadership and virtual professional communities. She blogs at Teacher in a Strange Land.

Read an interview with Sleeping Giant co-author Gayle Moller here.

Secrets of Successful Learning Teams: An Interview with Anne Jolly

In this interview with author and professional learning teams expert Anne Jolly, you’ll learn at least three things:

• Details of a new edition of her book Team to Teach, a practical guide to organizing and sustaining PLCs and PLTs that promote continuous professional growth.

• Jolly’s eight secrets of PLC success.

• Her answer to the question: If you were asked to create a school reform design, what would its chief components be?

“Effective PLTs are teacher leadership hothouses,” Jolly tells us. “They’re places where teachers increase their professional knowledge and leadership skills – and they can also serve as perfect vehicles for teachers to begin to put leadership into action at several levels.”

NSDC describes Team to Teach as a “step-by-step book…written in plain, easy-to-read language.” Jolly provides backgrounders that set the stage for each of 10 chapters designed to familiarize teacher teams with a proven process that can help them become high-functioning working groups. The book also offers a comprehensive set of tools that facilitators will find useful along the way.

Anne is a second-career teacher who began life as a lab researcher and evolved into an accomplished middle grades science educator — and Alabama’s 1994 Teacher of the Year. A charter member of the Teacher Leaders Network, Anne continues to consult with schools and districts interested in translating the learning-community concept into a viable vehicle for everyday school improvement. We invited her to talk about Team to Teach and the current state of PLC development in American schools.

Continue below to read our conversation and learn more about Team to Teach.

Sticky Professional Development

Posted recently in the Teacher Leaders Network Forum:

In these difficult economic times, I’m hoping to share a cost-effective, truly reforming professional development program with district leaders. Right now, it’s a meeting that exists in my mind only.

I began my thinking yesterday (while swimming laps) by examining the transformative educational experiences I have had -- and both of them involved total immersion for an extended period of time. This is the key to truly transforming teaching practices (or any human behavior, I believe). The problem with most professional development is that it is "one-shot," which may have only limited application when teachers return to their classrooms. Teachers may try a technique and succeed -- or try it and be frustrated or fail. If it works, the teacher will shove it in a bag of tricks for the next year or next unit, but it will hardly transform the teacher's thinking.

True classroom reform occurs when the teacher has two things: (1) a deep understanding of how a practice helps students learn; and (2) the confidence to make decisions based on that theory for the individuals who present their unique learning challenges in the room on any given day.

This can only come about if the teacher has a supporting network to return to time and time again to revisit and revise teaching practice in a safe yet challenging environment. (The same thing we need for kids in our classroom.) Presenters are great, but they will likely have little to no effect on teaching practice over time simply because they are here today, gone tomorrow. No network. No follow up. No stickiness.

And what were the two instances when a course literally changed my life? The first, oddly enough, was a one-credit course in jogging when I was a senior in college. We read the theory in class and then experienced the theory in action with three required jogs a week. When the theory -- aerobic exercise makes you feel, look, and even eat better -- was borne out in practice, my life was transformed. I was swimming laps yesterday because that single (one-credit) class changed me into a "lifelong exerciser." Its been 33 years.

The other instance: Five intensive weeks learning from other teachers in a National Writing Project summer institute. The five weeks of immersion made me a "lifelong learner of pedagogy" -- and an avid reader and writer who now models those habits for my students. The Writing Project support network continues to safely challenge me in my ongoing practice.

Both educational experiences changed my life in very positive ways. They're "sticky" examples of personal and professional development that have repaid the investment many times over.