Teacher Leader Cohort for Shared Leadership

As a 2014 Rowland Fellow I will catalyze change in U-32’s teaching and learning culture by increasing our capacity to implement current transformation initiatives. I will engage the U-32 learning community to cultivate a collective, mission-driven vision to then align our goals and initiatives to. Those initiatives may likely include: revitalization of our TA system, implementation of proficiency-based graduation requirements, unification of 7-12 programming, bringing Youth and Adults Transforming Schools Together to our school, year-end studies, and/or further personalized learning across the curriculum.

I will facilitate the development of a shared leadership model through creating a cohort of teacher leaders. During my sabbatical colleagues will accompany me on site visits to schools and facilitative leadership trainings. We will design and facilitate faculty study groups, retreats, in-service, and professional development. Through forming Critical Friends Groups, Professional Learning Communities, and incorporation of retreat principles into our ongoing work, I will foster the supports and structures for authentic collaboration, collegiality, reflection, and renewal. My Fellowship work is grounded on the belief that of equal importance to what initiatives we choose are the ways we engage as a community to implement them. If how adults interact with each other and their work directly affects how students learn, we must develop shared vision, understanding, and structures through which we can sustainably transform U-32.