As educators, we never stop learning new approaches on how to teach our students and lead them to success. This week’s learning resources emphasized the need for collaborative forms of professional development and increase professional growth. The insights that I gained with the Learning Resources this week were very helpful for my professional growth. For instance, I learned about the many roles that a teacher leader must execute in the school and the benefits of collaboration among teachers. According to Knight (2008), each role requires a specific set of knowledge and skills with a distinctive set of challenges that meet a specific teacher need.
By acquiring information about the different roles and challenges that a teacher leader faces in the classroom, I am able to reflect as an educator and discover the specific role that I can implement with new teachers as well as the roles that I need to work more to become proficient. I understand that as educators, it is our responsibility to share our effective practices with new teachers so they can become better teachers. As a mentor, the coach’s primary responsibility is acclimatizing the new teacher to the school’s profession norms, practices, and policies (Knight, 2008). The professional strength that I can offer other educators is that I am an educator that enjoys helping others adjust to the expectations and routines of the school. I am an individual that encountered many problems as a novice teacher and nobody helped me with school procedures or teacher expectations. I still remember when I started teaching, I did not have a mentor nor a curriculum for the class; therefore, I did face many challenges with my students and I learned the hard way.
I want to help these teachers wi. .Mentor teachers share their expertise with new teachers rather than the teachers having to wait years to figure all out on their own. As a teacher leader, we also share data results with other colleagues to find the strengths and weaknesses of the students. Teacher leaders share results and discuss strategies they used to help teacher increase their learning (Beers, 2006). After data is collected and analyzed, we reflect and adjust the instructional methods to meet the need of the students.
In addition, we also share our thoughts, learning objectives and learning experiences to best serve our students. Working collaboratively with my colleagues is beneficial because we get to have the experience of giving and receiving positive feedback. With this feedback, we reflect, adjust, and discuss ways in how we can improve our teaching practices to serve our students better.
