Teacher Leadership Licensure
As teacher leadership increasingly gains traction in the UAE’s schools, the students, teachers, and leaders are benefiting from the shared responsibility. Though the new roles of teacher leaders and collaboration with all stakeholders, measurable and impactful outcomes are produced, and creates a sense of pride and satisfaction for those involved. I gained some important benefits from this licensure.
Filling in the gaps: Working closely and cooperatively with my team allowed me to identify the school gaps and then interview teachers who show an interest and potential in leadership to extend the capacity of teacher leadership in the school. I also focused on training teachers to be empowered with the critical skills, knowledge, and passion to lend their voice and expertise where needed. This was essential to analyze our school performance and potential strengths and opportunities and plan successfully for closing these gaps.
Delegating workload: As a senior leader, I was spontaneously visiting the classroom to support my team and offer key insights. By sharing administrative responsibilities with an instructional team of teacher leaders, I had more time to spend in the classroom observing teaching strategies and providing valuable feedback to educators so that they can continually grow their skills. acknowledging the value of teachers leads to enhancing their confidence to positively perform int heir classroom.
Leveraging the benefits of collaboration: Building strong relationships allows for enhancing critical collaboration, communication, and cooperation to create a professional learning community in the school to share and work on achieving the same vision. As teachers passionately work together, their efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning result in improved student outcomes.