Valentina Torres & Abisai Mena *Enhancing teacher leadership

Enhancing teacher leadership

Most of us know that it does not matter when, how or who; big changes always start with an innovative person´s idea and it is thanks to sharing that those dreams can come true, that is the reason why, it is so important that us, as future teachers, learn the value and importance of sharing our ideas with our school colleagues.
It is easy to dream about doing great things, but not to put it into practice, because in this way, there will always be all kinds of obstacles which in many times can be stronger and therefore will discourage those who want to change for the better. Some examples of these barriers can be our own colleagues, the time, also the place where these changes are taking place or even the school’s principal. Aspects like fear of failure, laziness (because it is easier to do the same one has been doing for years) avoiding more responsibilities, envy, disrespect to authorities that are not the principal of the school and refusal to change or try different strategies and methodologies. As a result of these threats, we will feel that there is no reason to continue but, to give up is exactly what we should not do, instead, we should fight for our dreams and show our colleagues all the benefits this new teaching model, methodology, strategy, etc. can bring to us as teachers and to our students.

Tips
It may sound easy to say it, but not to do, it, so, we need to work hard to convince the school members to trust in the dream and to motivate them to bring new ideas. Some ways to promote cooperation between the school colleagues and create a good school environment are: let the teacher do their job; respect them, give them the chance to make important decisions and ask them for advice; take their opinions into account. Always be collaborative and supportive to the teachers, focus on the tasks in a small proportions, try not to take them as a whole; visualize teachers in an individualize situations; not as a whole, recognize the others teachers’ leadership, to identify and create opportunities for teachers to get involved as leaders and follow the dream, identify the barriers that can give us a lot of headaches and also find solutions to them; give the teachers the opportunity to improve their leadership through courses, show them the advantages to work in groups and to share teaching experiences, support the other teachers´ ideas and distribute the leadership tasks in groups instead of in an individual way.
Although it is not an easy work, is not impossible to achieve it. At the end, it will always be for the bennefit of our students and for us. Keep in mind that we are the change; we are the present and the future in education. Do not keep your ideas only to yourself: share them, try them, and make them real, this only with the purpose of giving something special to the students, the community and the world.

Benefits
If the teacher leadership factor is taken seriously into your school, the results are going to be shown immediately in a positive way: the teachers will improve their quality, as well as students, many teachers will have the desire to work on your school because they will be rewarded, motivated in all of their accomplishments and the ones that are already working for you will be happy doing their jobs.

Strategies
There are some strategies that can help teacher leadership grow and establish itself and they are as follows: recognize the importance of teachers, identify and create opportunities, establish professional development programs, identify barriers, improve development programs, build professional learning communities, support teaching leaders, promote principal support, encourage the development of teacher leaders, encourage positive faculty relationship, recognize teacher leaders, utilize external professional networks, recruit qualified and effective teacher leaders, distribute leadership tasks, enhance the professionalism of teaching and teachers and promote union support of teachers as leaders. Taking into consideration these aspects of leadership, the teachers would be able to feel supported and at the same time required to do a professional job and the result will be to have formers of better people in this world.

Conclusion
Do not forget that we are what we want to be, we are…, we are… everything we are able to imagine. Successful leaders had very clear goals, and even when they failed more than once in their lives, they got up and tried again. Mediocre teachers, on the other hand, have not failed because they do not try and they have always been behind the battle line, scared of the change and the confrontation. So, if our wish is to become teachers with real leadership, we must try again and again, keep fighting and never give up. Remember, it is better to dye doing things and not to dye regretting about the fact that you never tried out your ideas.