Leadership and Collaboration

The Leadership and Collaboration INTASC standard calls for the teacher to seek appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession. Leadership is a big part of teaching and of becoming a better teacher, and collaboration is something every teacher must excel at for the betterment of their classroom and others. Throughout my time at Samford University, I have held leadership positions of various kinds such as a Resident Assistant, Convocation Leader, and Academic Tutor which have all helped me developed skills as an academic servant leader, organizer, and communicator in a variety of academic and organizational contexts. My time as Resident Assistant at Samford was especially helpful in developing skills for collaboration with students and families in a professional and empathetic manner. As an academic tutor, I developed additional skills in collaborating with students and supporting struggling learners of various needs and skills.

Artifact 1 is a Peer-Review response sheet created during an exchange of observations between me and a colleague. This was a fantastic experience. My colleague discussed my areas of strengths and a few weaknesses and I did the same for her. Observations as a whole, both giving and receiving them, are great for professional development; having fresh eyes and a new perspective on your strategies is integral to personal leadership growth. Artifact 2 is an example of the design of my data collection sheets as shared with my cooperating teacher as a part of an instructional team. Together, me and my cooperating teacher analyzed the data, examined the specific student work samples, and used the data I collected and organized to plan for further instruction and ensure learner growth.