Teacher Leadership
The two videos above show examples of teacher leaders. In the first video, Catrino noticed one of her students did not have supplies and was upset. Right away, Catrino reacted to the situation to help the student, Lilly, not feel left out. She had her be a helper for the class. This made Lilly feel better. Miss Catrino also noticed that Lilly was a struggling reader, who worked alongside her to help her grow. Even though she was working hard and not making much progress. However, with determination and motivation, Lilly was able to succeed and make enough progress to pass the first grade. Miss Catrino showed servant leadership because she was present and also empathetic towards the situation with Lilly. She was present in the situation to realize something was going on with her student. She also showed empathy as she immediately cared for Lilly to help her out the best that she could. The types of words she used towards Lilly were encouraging and meaningful to her progress.
Miss Catrino also possesses teacher leader characteristics. She showed friendliness and affection with this situation. She developed a good rapport with Lilly from the beginning, and began growing a relationship with her. She cared about her success as a student and as an individual (Nichols, 2011). Catrino also demonstrated a sense of purpose and direction. She understood the direction and focus of each day, but also had the end goal in mind, which was to build Lilly's confidence in herself and as a reader. She stayed on task and had a purpose (p. 19).
Overall, Miss Catrino empowers because she demonstrates that she values people. She showed her appreciation for Lilly's uniqueness, and worked with her through her struggles. Even when Lilly was feeling sad or when she was struggling with reading, Catrino still treated her with value and appreciation. This helped Lilly succeed. The characteristics that this teacher has as a servant and teacher leader, along with her empowerment characteristics, all meld together to help her be the most successful in the situation with Lilly.
In the second video, Mrs. Collins shows servant leadership because she is present and useful. She does not look at her job as just something to do or tasks to fill, she shows that she cares for her students and their education. She is present because she knows what needs to happen in her classroom and in the school. In a segregated school, she had little resources compared to the other teachers. She worked with what she could to get the students the education they needed. As she was tired of the system, she decided to open up her own school. In this way, she was very useful, using the skills she had to take things to the next level (Goodman, 2019).
Mrs. Collins possesses many teacher leadership characteristics. Her most prominent in this situation were decisiveness, intelligence, and teaching skill. She had to make decisions for her students quickly to get them to raise their test scores. She also was decisive when she felt fed up with the school system and created her own school in her home. She was able to raise the students' test scores five grades higher (Goodman, 2019). Collins put a high value on education, through which she had to share her intelligence with the students. Not only did she share intelligence about subject matter, but also life intelligence. She emphasized to her students that they were born to succeed (National Endowment for Humanities, 2004). Teaching skill is also a strength, as Collins had to demonstrate this to her students to get them to where they needed to be. For the time she was teaching, she must have taken into account new and different teaching practices than the ones the other teachers in the school system were not.
Collins was a problem solver. She pinpointed problems, not problem people. The problem at hand was that the students were not succeeding. Though many of the teachers did not have the willingness and drive she did, Collins went directly to the problem, and not the people that caused it. She came up with a solution for the problem that worked for her and was successful while doing it. As she created her own institution, she found a solution to the problem that proved to be a success.
All of Mrs. Collins characteristics come together to help her gain success in her tough situation. She needed all of these traits to solve the problem of the school system. By being present, useful, decisive, intelligent, and a problem solver, Collins used all these traits for the benefit of the students. As her biography states, Collins believed that retraining teachers and shifting paradigms is essential to creating a more positive climate in the classroom (NEH, 2004).
If I were in either of the two situations as Catrino and Collins, I probably would have reacted similarly. I think that it is important to be present in the students lives and the situation that is happening. Being present allows a leader to be able to know what is happening and begin looking for solutions. It is also important to create a paradigm switch, as Collins did, and see things with direction towards a goal. Having a sense of direction helps a leader be successful, as they need to know where they are going. To overcome these issues, I would need to use my intelligence to think of the best way to move forward. I also think it is smart to be a problem solver, and look at the situation and not the people involved. It is so easy to find someone to blame, but it shows a lot about a person if they can take a step back and look at the problem as it is and start looking for solutions.
Goodman, Mark D. “Marva Collins's Biography.” The HistoryMakers, 2019, www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/marva-collins-40.
National Endowment for Humanities. “Marva Collins.” National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), 2004, www.neh.gov/about/awards/national-humanities-medals/marva-collins.
Nichols, Joe D. (2011). Teachers as Servant Leaders. Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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