“Great leaders build trust and collaboration while focusing on developing people’s capacities rather than focusing on their limitations.”

~Kenneth Leithwood

The Leadership and Collaboration standard is the second biggest point of being a teacher. This standard is important because teachers strive to take on leadership roles taking responsibility for student learning by collaborating with students, their families, colleagues, other professionals, and community members to keep learners’ growth rising in all aspects. People within a community look towards teachers to lead as we spend a great amount of time with students through instruction daily. The cliché saying that “it takes a village” is quite true, but now the villages are quite larger. Learning opportunities are everywhere and the effectiveness of a teacher does not only take place within the walls of a school but outside of the school as well. Some of the best ways to follow this standard are by volunteering outside of contract hours time, collaborating with the grade-level team, and being a constant learner.

Artifact #1: Volunteering

I show my understanding by volunteering in different ways. One of the ways that I volunteer my time is for organizations such as Turn The Page. Volunteering my time to help set-up books, hand out books, help families pick the best stories for their home libraries, and collaborate with families on what books they would like to see available at the next Books and Breakfast event. My favorite memory of volunteering for Turn The Page took place at Halloween time. Pictured to the left is the Reading Witch as she flew in ready to read to all those who dared to gather close to hear about The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat. As our community is slowing shifting back to the general norm before COVID, I look forward to being able to volunteer more of my time for such organizations. I still volunteer my time as a coach for the local Parks and Recreation club for youth sports. By volunteering as a coach I am able to help promote physical activities with the students, be a role model outside of the classroom, and continue displaying leadership roles beyond the classroom. Students can see me outside the classroom assuming on with leadership roles and good deeds within the community will help facilitate them to do the same.

Artifact #2: Collaborating With Colleagues

Another way that I follow the Leadership and Collaboration standard is to collaborate with colleagues. Collaboration is an important part of a teacher’s day and occurs across the school building. But collaborating with those who work directly within the classroom walls is key to many parts of the teacher role. Having grade level meetings weekly encourages professional growth within the classroom and helps to create growth within the grade level. By being supportive team members creates a healthy and safe environment for students and teachers. Collaborating with my fellow student teaching classmates is another way that I adhere to this standard. Each of us bring a different strength with us to the classroom and we help each other prosper in areas that we need help.

Artifact #3: Continuing Learning

Always looking for ways to continue my education is another way that I adhere to the standard. As I am ending my time at Hollins University and about to receive my Bachelors, I am already looking for ways to expand my education. By signing up to take a free course at Harvard over the summer on Introduction to Family Engagement in Education. The course objectives are to learn about the relationship between family engagement and the improvement from school and student results along with the benefits of bringing community engagement back into the classroom. Taking this course will help me in my first year of teaching to connect with my students families back into the classroom.