Professional Learning

Creating a Team of Teacher Leaders in Remote Schools and Local Communities: The Yellowstone Writing Project’s New Pathway to Leadership

Curators notes:

This narrative and accompanying resources tell one Writing Project site’s story of building a pathway to teacher leadership in a remote rural school district. Site leaders interested in supporting teacher-leadership development in remote rural areas of their service area may find this narrative helpful.

Excerpt

Our greatest success came through engaging these teachers in professional development. In fact, by offering PIR opportunities in their own school and by taking responsibility for structuring school events and guiding other teachers through them, the teachers at Savage had a much more intense professional development experience than any teacher in our traditional ISIs has ever had. In September of 2017, the four teachers designed and led an entire PIR day, focused on the schoolwide Landscapes of Savage project, which involves all teachers in the school. While an ISI teaching demonstration takes place in front of a group of supportive teachers invested in each teacher’s success, the PIR day included a range of teachers; most, thankfully, have been supportive and even enthusiastic, though, as we expect there would be in any school, there is a range of other attitudes, from apathy to disregard. Providing professional development to the teachers you work with on a daily basis—close colleagues and friends—the Savage teacher-consultants performed teaching demonstrations on steroid

Notes:

Original Source: Yellowstone Writing Project

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