The books and best practices that change everything in your classroom

Teachers who are leaders change the world one student at a time. Leaders are readers. Leaders are learners.  But where do we start? What do we read? What do we learn?

Be a multiplier.

According to the book, Multipliers, there are two kinds of leaders: multipliers and diminishers. Some leaders help a person operate at more than they are capable of doing. Then there are those sad souls who diminish others. Poor teacher leaders have students wallowing the squalor of low performance.

Listen to and Act Upon Feedback from Your Students.

In Todd Whitaker’s 1993 research on what makes excellent principals, he found they “routinely consult teacher leaders for input before making a decision.” (What Great Teachers Do Differently, p 92) We should do the same with students.

College professor Dean Shareski asks after every assignment, “How can this assignment be better?”  For example, in a flipped classroom assignment, one student asked, “why not have us create a flipped classroom lesson?” Dean said that suggestion was an obvious improvement.

Help Students See Their Value and Worth.

Booker T. Washington said,

“Most leaders spend time trying to get others to think more highly of them when instead, they should try to get their people to think more highly of themselves.”

When a student is underperforming, I’ve found that it is often an internal struggle. Before students can succeed, they must try. Before students try, they must have hope. Hope comes from knowing that you either have the strength or someone will help you.

Unleash the Power of Yet.

In Carol Dweck’s TED Talk, she shares how  people with a growth mindset will say, “I’m not good at ____ yet.” In her research, she calls people who think they have fixed abilities: “fixed mindset.” These people rarely level up and are grossly incorrect when they self-assess their talents. Fixed mindset people resist learning.

Those who adopt a “growth mindset” believe that they can improve and level up. Growth mindset people see their abilities as separate from their worth as a person. Growth mindset people learn.

Incredibly, a growth mindset makes all the difference, AND IT CAN BE TAUGHT. A growing body of knowledge on metacognition helps us teach the growth mindset.

When faced with mediocrity or injustice, leaders stand up and say “It is not going to be this way.”  Leaders are visionaries who see a brighter future just past the problem. Most importantly, leadership can be learned and taught. We need teachers to rise up and lead. We need open minds and a willingness to help students (and ourselves) achieve more.
For when a teacher leads, they are teaching far more than content knowledge, but spawn the leaders of tomorrow.

The post 4 Tips to Develop Great Teacher Leaders appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog.