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Author Archives: sutterlearn
Book Review: All The Roads
I don’t read nearly enough fiction, so when a colleague and close friend, Jessica Cotter, recently self-published her first book, I devoured it…uncomfortably because of our friendship. At times it felt like I was walking around in parts of her … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
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An Education Allegory
The fourth-grade safety patrol tells his side of the story like this: “I told this second-grade girl that she needed to stay off the snow on the sidewalk because that’s the rule. Then she asked me where she was supposed … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Students
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Moving Leadership Along, Teacher Leadership Series Finale
In our work as cross-district teacher leaders, we have explored leadership and its many dimensions. Leadership in education has morphed over the past sixty years from institutions with a principal as manager and social pillar (Newsome, 1949) to more recent … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, Teacher Leadership
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Servant Leadership, Teacher Leadership Series #4
In his book, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness, Robert Greenleaf defines the servant leadership that is the final, critical trait we have found among effective teacher leaders, underlying the first three attributes of … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, Teacher Leadership
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Self-Directedness, Teacher Leadership Series #3
The third key component of the leadership disposition is self-directedness. Self-directedness is a professional characteristic that includes self-correcting, self-managing, and self-governing behaviors. Systems that nurture these traits are more effective than those that attempt to monitor and manage behaviors (Sanford, … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership, Teacher Leadership, Teachers
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Adaptivity, Teacher Leadership Series #2
The second critical component of a leadership disposition is adaptivity. As things change in the educational landscape, and be assured they will, an adaptive leadership disposition supports the teacher to remain effective and reduces anxiety. Adaptivity is different from reactivity. … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, Teacher Leadership, Teachers
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Problem Solving, Teacher Leadership Series #1
The first attribute of the leadership disposition is problem solving. As we work to empower a system, we must see ourselves and our roles clearly within the system. More than being productive members of the teaching community, teacher leaders are … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, Teacher Leadership, Teachers
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Teacher Leadership Series
A colleague and I have been watching our district’s attempt to shift its leadership structure to be more distributed. The nature of distributed leadership in education expands the roles of teachers and changes their interactions with principals, the community, and … Continue reading
Posted in Coaching, Leadership, School Reform, Teachers
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Full Plate
So many times we go into a professional learning session, meeting, or our classroom to teach even, and the litany of distractions in our minds starts to roll like film. There’s even research now to show that people who don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Icebreakers
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Six Degrees
This community building activity is reminiscent of the old “6 Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon” where people had to associate actors or movies and relate them to the actor Kevin Bacon in 6 steps or less. The purpose is … Continue reading
Posted in Icebreakers
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