Teacher Growth - The Role of the Administrator

Over the past few years, I have been thinking about how an administrator can help teachers see that their growth is not something that they can take for granted or forget about. Individual growth needs to be planned and reflected upon in order for there to be continual that growth. Like an exercise program or a self-improvement plan, there is a need to monitor what is happening in order to see if changes are taking place and make adjustments where necessary. Too many people want to see great changes in short amounts of time. They are looking for the miracle drug or program that will save them time and hard work and get them to advertised result so they can move on to something new, impress people around them or whatever reason for forgoing the hard work.  Teachers and educational systems are no different with all types of new programs to increase everything from reading scores to physical fitness levels, all put together so all one has to do is present it. Now, these programs may be good but without someone to make them fit the students, success can be limited. Maybe that is why we seem to be seeing new wave after new wave of programs that are going to fix the educational system yet, compared to what is spent on developing and supporting these programs, little is put into the development of those who are working with the students on a day-to-day basis. This is where an administrator is so important in helping teachers to reach and grow as learners. By providing "other" opportunities for teachers to develop and grow, administrators can be that catalyst that keeps things growing despite all the changes that seem to take place on a semi-regular basis.

Change is coming

Teaching is changing whether we are ready for it to change or not. How we face this change will, ultimately, determine how the change will affect us as individuals. Change is something that many people try to forgoe because we are comfortable with our lives. The more comfortable we become with how things are going, the more we begin to resist change. How many people have heard a phrase similar to "This too shall pass."? Isn't that too bad? How much has that person missed because they were not willing to look at things from a different perspective. As an administrator I am constantly taking classes or reading journals or books because I know that to stop will be the beginning of the end. I'm adding blogs to my RSS reader all the time and always looking for interesting insights from the people who are part of my Personal Learning Network.

As teachers, one of the things that is important for change to be successful is that they have time to reflect and see what they are doing is being impacted by different forces. The blogpost, over at Random Thoughts examines this idea of "what makes a good teacher?" beginning with an article from some research. I encourage you to check it out. I further explore this in my own blog over at Educational Discourse. I believe that it is an issue that is vitally important to informing teachers' ideas about what they are doing and the impact new technology could have on their teaching.

If you have any ideas for the page or something that I might have missed, leave a comment. At the very least, comment and say hello!

Walk-Through - to add information or read this page, click the link.

Journal - Action Research - to add information or read this page, click the link.

Formal Supervision - forms and ideas for those formal visits.

Online Information - various links to online information.

Online Glossary - glossary of online terms.

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