The Skillful Team Leader

So, I guess one advantage of spending waiting time in hospitals lately, is that I am able to do a ton of reading. My latest read is a resource for overcoming hurdles to professional learning for student achievement.


I am blessed to have a skillful leadership team. I have three wonderful Associate Principals, and two in house Instructional Coaches, that have helped move forward our values, our vision, and provide guidance to the work that our teacher teams do. What a teacher believes in his core about every student's capacity to learn impacts his effectiveness in the classroom. In turn, what a team leader believes in her core about every teacher's capacity to learn and improve impacts her effectiveness in leading a team. Applied to leadership, the skillful team leader approaches hurdles from a growth mindset with a belief that every student and every teacher can improve as can her own ability to lead them.


Collaboration is fundamental to professional learning. The collaboration most teams hope to achieve, but only some do, is that in which team members work well together, learn from one another, and implement change that yields measured gains for students. How high-functioning is the team that you are a part of?  

The "real" work of all teachers is to promote learning for student achievement. Team goals and action plans should advance that work. This is what all teachers will produce  next school year with evidence in their SLO's.

Rigorous discourse in your PLC teams without data is like trying to get a weightlifter's body without weights. There might be a modest benefit, but no one should expect transformation. My intention as a school leader is to make sure that every teacher, every PLC team....achieves this transformation for the sake of our students!