Can Principals Encourage Collaboration Between School Leaders And Teachers Essay

Educators working closely together will allows students to receive the best possible instruction in the classroom. “Strong collaboration for the delivery of education services involves all the various education professionals serving a school building or district” (pg. 3). One of the major issues with the identification of poor performing students is if it has anything to do with the delivery of the instruction, or the instruction itself. Collaboration is an excellent way to make sure that the students receiving the best possible instruction to increase the academic knowledge. Teachers that are struggling have the opportunity to work with reading and special education professionals to work on implementing appropriate lessons in the classroom. “The classroom teachers, reading specialists, and special education professionals collaborate in planning and implementing the intervention” (pg. 3). This intervention and collaboration should not be seen as a negative, but as a positive because they are all working together to help the teacher use the correct instruction that is going to benefit each and every

In order to establish and maintain interest there needs to be regular and reliable communication and sharing of information between the school and pupils families. Schools must create an effective partnership by providing an open and communicative environment with its wider community, forming a link between the classroom,

In addition, the past several years have seen recent changes to administration at both schools. Three years ago the long-time middle school principal retired and a new principal was hired from outside the district. This principal was surprised at the lack of collaboration between the schools and would like there to be more. Last spring, the long-time principal of the high school passed away after a battle with cancer that brought the entire community together. The high school’s assistant principal, who was acting principal during the principal’s medical leave, was hired as the principal. He, too, seems ready to build better collaboration between the schools. Now seems to be a great time to begin the collaboration that is needed between the two schools.

By implementing this idea in Area Two schools to support special education students, we will create a more data driven approach to increasing student achievement. By following this idea the team will also do a better job of implementing professional development and mentorships that greatly increase teacher effectiveness. The idea will also increase understanding of the diversity of the schools and promote community involvement by establishing more open communication with the parents and the community to support their students’ needs. The leadership teams will work together to set goals and objectives to support achievement in all grade levels. They will develop a framework for good communication between teachers and leaders so there is

In this paper, I will reflect on my new knowledge and skills that I have acquired regarding teacher leadership, supportive communication and collaboration. I will also reflect on practical application of these skills, such as assessing the needs, problems or issues, and creating the action plan to address the issues. In the end, I will define how teacher leadership can positively affect student learning and achievement.

The purpose of this research is to understand the perceptions and experiences of professionals on collaboration in the educational environment. Data collection will occur within the Virginia Beach City Public School (VBCPS) system. Specifically targeted will be three elementary schools that I work in being Ocean Lakes Elementary School, Princess Anne Elementary School and Red Mill Elementary School. The people that volunteer to take part will include VBCPS staff involved with the Individualized Education Program (IEP) for special needs students in any one of the above identified schools, and has been part of an initial eligibility, new IEP, current IEP, or consulted on as part of the IEP process.

W. Edwars Deming, American engineer and management consultant, wrote “a bad system will beat a good person every time.” This quote demonstrates the necessity for a school administrator to establish a school culture that is inviting and characterized by collaboration. In order to intentionally create a welcoming and collaborative school climate, clear, frequent, and inclusive communication is fundamental. Families, staff, and community members should be afforded the opportunity to become involved in enhancing student learning, the decision making processes of the school, and meaningful school-based activities. Opening the lines of communication about possible involvement at a school promotes a good system, in which good people can thrive.

Collaboration between teachers is a key component to professional development that will lead to higher student achievement. There is a need for schools to set up time for teachers to be able to collaborate together. This allows for teachers to help each other, matchup content, teach each other new and best practices, troubleshoot student issues just to name a few of the areas that collaboration time can help foster within a school. The key is to build time for teachers to be able to collaborate during the school day or week. This collaboration time needs to be between grade levels, departments, and cross curricular when needed. For many schools this is an afterthought to the school schedule or a fleeting thought after the master schedule is completed. A principal needs to keep an open mind to any strategy that will enable the teachers to be able to collaborate for the good of the students and the school.

During my second preclinical experience at Westview Hills Middle School, I learned the importance of cooperation and collaboration among teachers at a school. I was able to observe team and department meetings during this experience. It became clear that it is important for teachers to work together in order to provide a positive atmosphere at a school and in a specific department. Although it became obvious that personalities and teaching styles were different throughout the school, the teachers still acted professionally and used each other as resources in

Administrators and teachers must work together to develop the PLC plan addressing the needs of their students. This means administrators need to trust teachers and allow them to work in a way that is autonomous from leadership. Delegating more responsibilities to staff was a way of creating a more knowledgeable community that could cope with the diversity of demands created by schools moving from being relatively simple organizations to highly complex ones. It was also recognized as in accord with the rhetoric of distributed leadership recommended as a strategy for school improvement and raising pupil attainment (Bolam et al. 2005, Webb, et al.

In terms of becoming a mediator and consensus builder the authors detailed the need for principals to possess relational leadership skills in order to be able to both facilitate groups and coach others on staff in the ability to facilitate their own groups, and stressed that the key to this is the ability to effectively participate in conflict resolution (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009). The authors suggested that conflict is part and parcel of school reform and that in addition to being able to deal effectively with conflict the successful principal needs to develop the ability for bringing about consensus within the group, noting that interpersonal and intrapersonal skills were as much or more important than knowledge (Donaldson, Marnik, Mackenzie, & Ackerman, 2009).

Collaboration in the world of education has become an increasingly popular method of addressing a variety of school issues, such as curriculum design, behavioral plans, professional development and management of resources. One of the areas in which collaboration is becoming more popular is co-teaching in special education, where special education teachers and general education teachers share the planning and instruction responsibilities for inclusion classrooms (Friend & Cook, 2010). As academic standards for the education of students with disabilities are held to the same standards as their typical peers due to the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the co-teaching model has been increasingly

In order for the principal to develop positive relationships within the community the school needs to demonstrate, and promote the contributions provided. The school needs to adopt an “our children” attitude with the community to share in the benefits for students (Epstein, 2009).

The principal’s role in developing positive community relations sets the tone for communication patterns, partnership formation and/or alienation (Fiore, 2013). There are many tasks that the principal has that is important to school and community relations. Some of those are being a good listener, diplomatic and tactful and all situations. They also have to promote the open door policy to be free to communicate with students, parents, and their staff. They also have to inform the superintendent and community about good and bad things that are

Fundamentally the role of the classroom teacher is to implement strategies to support, engage and extend the learning of all individuals. In order for this to occur we need to also consider how we involve, collaborate and communicate with parents, fellow colleagues and specialised teachers. Ashman and Elkins (2008) state that teachers need to make themselves aware of the support systems they can access or create to support the needs of all students. This in turn will ultimately enhance teaching potential allowing teachers to fully maximise learning for all. I personally believe that collaboration is not only essential to the professional growth of teachers (Cramer & Stivers, 2007), but a vital key when acting in the best interest of the students and their families.