You Learn Leadership from Those You Lead

This Teacher Appreciation Month I am thankful to my teacher colleagues

who unknowingly taught me how to lead.

In my early years as a literacy coach, teams of teachers would join me each week at a large table, squeezed into the tight space of my office to engage in cycles of collaborative inquiry.

Together we would pursue answers to questions about real student-centered challenges, for which none of us had clear answers. Especially me.

I used to think my not knowing every solution as a leader was a deficit. My teacher colleagues taught me that it was an asset.

When my English language arts and History teams were at a loss for how to get students beyond spitting out formulaic, lifeless analytical essays about text, I brought in an article that was shared with me by Professor Judith Goleman in a literacy workshop I had attended.

The seminal article challenged our notion of teaching writing (and reading). We had always asked students to start with their claim and then support it with three pieces of evidence and analysis: A writing to prove approach.

But this author had a different approach: Writing to make meaning. Students don't start with a claim, they discover one by adopting a "wandering viewpoint".

This was the inverse of everything we had been doing with students.

Nervous about steering my team down the wrong path, I shared that this would be a departure from what we'd been doing and that I wasn't confident we'd get better results because it was new to me, too.

But my teacher colleagues embraced my not knowing. We'd learn together.

We read, debated, tested out mini-lessons on each other, tweaked them, then brought them into the classroom and could not believe the shift we saw. Students analytical essays became so much more compelling than the paint-by-number regurgitation from before.

I learned from my teacher colleagues that I am a better leader when I learn alongside them.

I used to think my team leader role was to facilitate step-by-step data protocols and keep everyone on track. My teacher colleagues taught me that data analysis is about discovery.

When first leading teacher teams, I'd move through data protocols like a car inspection checking-off steps.

Problem?

Check.

Is it what we suspected all along?

Check.

Should we reteach?

Check.

This was not "analysis," just a meeting where we looked at data to confirm what we thought we already knew and do what we'd already been doing.

Over time and with the vulnerability-based trust of my teacher colleagues, I learned that protocols only give structure to a data conversation; it's the facilitator who moves the group to engage in real talk about hindering beliefs and instructional practices that need a remodel.

When our data showed that a segment of our special education population weren't showing growth in reading comprehension, we had to face the hard truth that we were having them spend more time on low-leverage tasks than reading. (E.g., "Draw a picture of the main character." "Go on a scavenger hunt to find the adjectives." "Make a diorama of the setting.") Our instruction needed to shift to build in more time on reading and teach students how to make meaning of the text. This discovery might not have happened had I just mechanically ushered us through the data.

I learned from my teacher colleagues that being a leader is not about facilitating protocols; it's about facilitating collaborative learning.

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I used to think resistance was something that needed to be squashed. My teacher colleagues taught me to inquire further and understand it.  

As I wrote in a recent blog about resistance based on Move 9.4 in Intentional Moves, when people go through change they are moving through transition and this can generate feelings of loss which cause them to hold more tightly to old ways. Reframing my perception of people who show resistance helps us move forward.

This reframing is something I've also learned to apply to myself. It helps me better understand why I'm digging in my heels and allows me the grace to reset.

To the more than hundreds of teachers I have coached and facilitated in teams and professional development, I am deeply grateful for all that you taught me about leadership and learning. Happy Teacher Appreciation Month!

~ Elisa

www.elisamacdonald.com