Friday, April 4, 2014

Teacher-Leadership Finding the Right Balance

As I start down the home stretch of my first year as Team Leader at my school I have been reflecting on how my time spent helping (hopefully) my school become a better place I realize it has come at a cost of making my class the best that it can be.

I spend about 80% of my time and energy on my classes.  I teach the equivalent of 6 different preps (3 a day, blocked over 2 days) and a few of them are classes that I have created that are new this year.  The effort required to run these classes at a high level it exhausting, so for a few of my classes I have been relying heavily on what I did last year.  Any good teacher can tell you that it is the extra touches that you can put on a class that take a class from good to great.  I just don't think I'm there this year.

My question is, what degree of "good" should I accept in order to help the school?  I have instituted several changes that have impacted the school in what I feel are very positive ways.  Is the 20% of my energy put into the school away from my classes an acceptable sacrifice to my students?

I should give a little bit of background in.  First, I teach at a small school so getting an hour or so off to do leadership stuff is not an option.  Also, teaching fewer preps wasn't an option this year and may not be an option in the coming years either.  What is an option is giving up leadership and focusing on my classes should that be the course I decide to take.  I'd love ideas that would help me that are constructive.

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