Challenging times demand dynamic leadership. Schools rely on teachers to assume a variety of leadership roles, both formal and informal, including department chair, peer coach, faculty representative, and Web page curator. With little or no leadership training, however, many teachers are unprepared to take advantage of such opportunities. In How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader, John G. Gabriel explores the responsibilities and rewards of teacher leadership, offering practical, positive advice on * identifying leadership qualities and building a team, * enhancing communication and earning respect, * overcoming obstacles and implementing change, * energizing colleagues and strengthening morale, and * improving student and teacher achievement. From setting goals to mediating conflicts, from mentoring colleagues to motivating students, Gabriel provides clear strategies—grounded in experience and illustrated by examples—for becoming an effective teacher leader. A generous resource section, including sample letters, surveys, and checklists, enables readers to quickly put these techniques into practice. Whether you aspire to a leadership position or are in a position to inspire future leaders, this insightful and informative book will help you lead the way to success.

A former high school English department chair provides practical strategies and proven resources for becoming an effective teacher leader.

There's a lot more to being a teacher leader than any job description can capture. When action must be taken, new goals must be set, and new standards must be met, the administration depends on teacher leaders to tackle dozens of other duties as assigned—and do whatever it takes to help their peers function as a team, improve as educators, and further student learning. In this book, you'll find varied and engaging guidance for mastering both the concrete and intangible aspects of the essential teacher leader role, including * Thriving in a modern, shared leadership environment * Building positive team culture focused on student learning and achievement * Strengthening professional practice * Gauging your team's progress Authors and veteran educators Jan Burgess and Donna Bates highlight key research findings, provide prompts for reflection, address the common dilemmas of teacher leaders, and give real-world answers to the most-pressing leadership challenges. Along with lists of easily accessible resources to extend your professional learning, you'll find a collection of practical, downloadable tools, surveys, templates, and checklists to help you translate the book's advice into action. Whether you are thinking about becoming a teacher leader, are new to the teacher leadership role, or are a veteran teacher leader committed to the professional growth of your peers and yourself, you'll find something in Other Duties as Assigned to challenge you, make you think, validate your work, enhance your leadership skills, and move your team (and students) forward.

Children in today's world are inundated with information about who to be, what to do and how to live. But what if there was a way to teach children how to manage priorities, focus on goals and be a positive influence on the world around them? The Leader in Meis that programme. It's based on a hugely successful initiative carried out at the A.B. Combs Elementary School in North Carolina. To hear the parents of A. B Combs talk about the school is to be amazed. In 1999, the school debuted a programme that taught The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleto a pilot group of students. The parents reported an incredible change in their children, who blossomed under the programme. By the end of the following year the average end-of-grade scores had leapt from 84 to 94. This book will launch the message onto a much larger platform. Stephen R. Covey takes the 7 Habits, that have already changed the lives of millions of people, and shows how children can use them as they develop. Those habits -- be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek to understand and then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw -- are critical skills to learn at a young age and bring incredible results, proving that it's never too early to teach someone how to live well.

How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank will help you improve your school without investing in externally developed, expensive, and time-consuming reform programs or initiatives. It's packed with replicable strategies and practical tools that educators in any school can incorporate to transform the culture and improve student achievement and professional practice. You'll learn how to * Hone your own leadership and grow new leaders among your staff; * Develop a vision and a mission for your school; * Promote excellence among both staff and students; * Make the most of your time and facilitate effective meetings; and * Mine and use data with purpose. For most schools, times are tough and money is tight—but school leaders must still focus on how to steadily improve student achievement. Academic performance will improve in the long term only if your school has a healthy culture marked by integrity, a strong work ethic, collaboration, and reflective risk taking. Strengthening those foundational elements will help you sustain positive change in your school, even in difficult economic times. The good news is that you already have the resources you need to help your school thrive. This book will help you to maximize them.

Every school relies on teachers who informally and voluntarily lead various efforts in the school. These teachers may not be appointed leaders or paid leaders, but they are committed leaders: they see a need and they respond to it. What do these teacher leaders do that is different from the work of excellent teachers who are not teacher leaders? If we can articulate those skills, says Charlotte Danielson, then we can take steps to enable more teachers to develop those skills and be better equipped to tackle special projects. Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice is designed to be a resource not only for prospective teacher leaders but also for administrators who want to better support the development of outstanding teacher leaders. Teachers seeking to expand their leadership capacity will learn how to * recognize an opportunity and take initiative, * mobilize colleagues around a common purpose, * marshal resources and take action, * monitor and adjust the initiative, * sustain the commitments of others, and * contribute to the learning organization. Administrators will find advice on how to cultivate, promote, honor, and empower teacher leaders--and how to work with them to successfully present innovations to the school community. In short, this book gives individuals and schools a practical framework for tapping teachers' leadership potential and marshaling their efforts to better educate students and create a stronger learning community. As Danielson convincingly shows, genuine teacher leadership is a powerful force for constructive change.

Replicable strategies and practical tools to help education leaders develop a healthy school culture, improve student achievement and professional practice, and make the most of their time and resources.

A discourse on women’s leadership within science education has, until now, been largely invisible in book form. This, therefore, is the first book to address women’s leadership within science education. The book embraces relational ways of knowing as a foundation for leadership and takes courageous steps by exposing our innermost tensions, dilemmas, and feelings about leadership, making them available to others. The power/promise of feminine approaches to transform traditional leadership cultures is also addressed. The authors believe that anyone can lead, regardless of position, title, years of experience or age. They also believe that each of us has a responsibility to provide some leadership and direction for the shared endeavours of which we are part. The purpose of the book is to inspire and guide educators and academics in K-16 science education, as well as individuals in other professions, as their leadership skills develop. The leadership activities provided offer guidance and/or concrete ways to delve into issues of leadership.

There’s more to student success than standards and test scores… Integrating Social and Emotional Learning into a curriculum has been shown to increase personal and school-wide growth. With lifelong success the goal over simply meeting academic thresholds, Teaching Kids to Thrive presents strategies, activities, and stories in an approachable way to develop responsible, self-motivated learners. Uniting social, academic, and self-skills this instrumental resource offers benefits to students such as: Using mindfulness strategies to help students tap their inner strengths Learning to self-regulate and control other executive brain functions Developing growth mindsets along with perseverance and resilience Cultivating a sense of responsibility, honesty, and integrity Encouraging a capacity for empathy and gratitude

In Teacher Leadership, Lieberman and Miller discuss current changes in the teacher's role, and make sense of the research on teacher leadership. They offer case studies of innovative programs - such as the National Writing Project - that provide teachers with opportunities to lead within a professional community. In addition, they tell stories of individual teachers - from Maine to California - who are able to lead in a variety of contexts. Teacher Leadership offers a new standard of teaching and community that recognizes all teachers as leaders. It shows how to develop learning communities that include rather than exclude, create knowledge rather than merely apply it, and that offer challenge and support to both new and experienced teachers. This book is a volume in the Jossey-Bass Leadership Library in Education - a series designed to meet the demand for new ideas and insights about leadership in schools.