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Teachers As Leaders
This semesters coursework has given me a solid foundation on what it means to be a teacher leader, as well as understanding the teaching strategies in helping develop strong citizens through various approaches in citizenship education. I now understand the importance of preparing students to act as citizens in the 21st Century through my role as a leader. When I entered graduate school, I was still living abroad in Jordan. I was able to value the meaning of global citizenship, global competence, and diverging mixed cultures into an individual.
I know that I must help lead through global citizenship education, and this is the path that I am on currently. Since the world is changing, we need teacher leaders to help prepare students to become globally competent, knowledgable in various fields of education, critical thinkers, collaborators, effective communicators, and creative problem solvers. In my Teachers as Leaders class, I defined teacher leaders as "individuals who are servant leaders that find their voice to speak and serve in the state and nation, as well as empower others to become leaders in their expertise and field. Teacher leadership is certainly individualized, but also relational. Our target is the point of impact, and teachers are the heart of the commitment to leadership roles. Teachers need to be part of the reform efforts, and they are the ones that will make the change." As I reflected on my personal leadership log, I wrote, "I would partner with the North Carolina Council for Social Studies, and I would convince them through having a set curriculum for Global Education (at this point right now, these are my thoughts)."
I have a greater image of what teacher leadership means, and I plan to grow as a leader within my own educational and social community.
As Dr. Pope was inspired to build a course around teachers and their leadership roles to recognize educators’ potential as an individual and as a group, I am exercising my leadership abilities and action plan by collaborating with a Global Education teacher in establishing a solid curriculum for the next school year. This idea came from the advocacy project that I had completed in this course, Teachers as Leaders, and it has grown ever since. As I was researching about the pedagogy of social studies in elementary school for the advocacy project, I contacted the teacher directly and was able to learn about her strategies and implementation. I had proposed an idea of collaborating to start a curriculum for Global Education. I was able to pass on some valuable resources I had learned from the NC-CSS conference, which was part of my Theory and Research in Social Studies course this semester.
As through my review of literature in Research and Theory in Social Studies course, I've reflected upon John Dewey's "Method of Intelligence." The modern teaching of social studies are student-centered and technology enriched. One of the research articles, Innovative Teaching of Social Sciences to Enhance Multiple Intelligence, discussed the teaching methods that develop students multiple intelligence, and since the activities are diversified, students have the opportunity to explore linguistics, mathematics, musical, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of each student individually. The teachers role is to be the listener of their students voices to engage them through critical thinking and helping develop holistic individuals.
This fits into my research since Dewey's "method of intelligence" is specified around interacting with the world and providing students with the opportunity to participate in intellectualization to help them develop more critical thinking and reflective thoughts through their knowledge. The activities summarized in this article extends Dewey's "method" of intelligence into "multiple" intelligence.
Students can expand their knowledge and become intellectual citizens. They would be able to construct their work and display it to the school and community. Students would also build their self-confidence and understand their worth as an individual in a society. Therefore, teachers would focus on their strengths and empower students to make a difference. Students would be able to develop strong problem-solving skills, which would enable them to understand how to interact in real life situations.
Final Leadership Essay:
Personal Leadership Log:
Abstract for the research about John Dewey's "Method of Intelligence"
Annotated Bibliography for the Review of Literature and Research Proposal
Other Documents from Teachers as Leaders:
Board Observation
Advocacy Presentation
Teacher Leader Interview
Action Plan Project
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