A teacher as a leader in schools is a powerful asset. However, teacher friend do you feel like you don’t have the leadership in your building that you want… and the only way to get that leadership feels like you have to leave the classroom?
Teachers are overworked & under-supported and too many teachers are tired of feeling undervalued and with nowhere else to turn they are leaving the profession. This work feels too important to feel unsuccessful daily.
So how do we help keep good teachers in the classroom, help them feel successful and find joy in the work?
I think, Teachers as a Leader in the Math Vision Work
Does any of this sound like you? 👇🏾
If you are wondering what change you can make in your school’s math culture, I can help! Let’s get on a 20 minute call to chat about your current math culture and brainstorm a few ways you can step into the leadership role you were meant for!
Teachers as a Leader
In the last episode (episode 33) of Honest Math Chat we talked about how forming a Math Vision can really help drive a positive math culture in your classroom or better yet, your school. In that episode, we talked about how developing a math vision can help both teachers & students know the actions to take in math to build positivity & joy in math.
However, this work is best done when it is led from within the organization. So teachers, I’m talking directly to you. YOU can lead this work.
School wide change.
Culture development.
A positive math experience and culture for your students.
I’m talking about a dedicated person in your building that is going to take on leading the math work. Often, this falls on an administrator. However, I’m here today to say it should be a teacher.
Often We Don’t Think of a Teacher as a Leader of School wide Initiatives
Now, this isn’t something we typically think of a teacher as leading. However, when we are talking about culture or a school… our teachers are the experts.
- Our teachers know what is holding their students back from reaching that math joy.
- Our teachers know what math teaching practices help students learn best.
- Our teachers know how to build a community with students and families to best support learning.
- Our teachers are our best bet at transforming our math culture from disengaged and “meh” to positive, supportive, and inspiring.
So, what if…
Your staff created a math vision collaboratively and then a teacher was brought on as the math vision leader. The person tasked with helping everyone get on board with that vision.
They lead the schools’ vision for math culture– including but obviously not limited to… math mindsets, risk taking, and problem solving. This teacher leads the conversation with administrators about the strategic plan for student growth in math. They will establish school-wide structures and routines to support problem solving and math proficiency. This teacher will lead the math culture around instructional practices used by teachers and the tools such as curriculum, and assessments.
I know as you’re listening as a teacher it might feel like a lot, and it is… but think of the leadership opportunity!
Leading professional development, supporting teachers in decision making, and collecting and analyzing data with teammates– this work can actually move the needle forward.
This is work that can inspire our teachers to find meaning in the work and see themselves making a real change.
So, why have a teacher as a leader?
Frankly, because our schools need this.
- our students aren’t performing well NAEP
- our culture of math is lacking in most schools
- too many of our teachers are still identifying as “not math people”
I first heard about this idea through ELeducation. They call this role a “Math Culture Lead”. In 2017, ELeducation identified all of the top-performing schools had a person in this role, and that the role was considered to be fundamental to each school’s success. It can be an internal staff member (lead teacher or instructional coach), or it can be an external math expert consulting with the school on a significant basis (e.g., at least 25 days annually).
What is a Math Culture Lead?
Eleducation has been working with schools to develop this position within their schools. Several schools in the ELeducation network have tried and found a lot of success. However, let me be clear here as someone who has also tried out this role in my school, this is not a role where the teacher would be in the classroom doing all the tasks. Instead, this work would start with a teacher in the classroom and then that teacher would develop as a leader outside of the classroom.
I am not advocating for a teacher to do another job on top of the already very long list of teacher tasks.
So, what is a math culture leader?
ELeducation has identified some responsibilities of successful math culture leaders in their schools:
- Leading the school’s vision, growth mindset, and continuous improvement culture in mathematics
- Overseeing the strategic plan for faculty and student growth in mathematics
- Establishing school-wide common structures, vocabulary, and practices for problem-solving and mathematical fluency
- Improving the curricula being used in the school—pacing it, adjusting it, supplementing it, and differentiating it to meet the needs of all students and to align it with state test content and timing
- Leading faculty professional learning, in both mathematics instruction and also the individual mathematics content knowledge and skills of teachers
- Supporting teachers to expertly use and enrich both core and supplementary curricular resources, and to connect with broader resources and experts
- Coaching teachers in the ongoing collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data of student understanding and performance
A Teacher as a Leader for Teachers
It is time we invest in cultivating the things we know we should be doing, but never have time to give toward it. By empowering a teacher to lead PD on math mindset, data dives, and establishing school wide structures & routines we build leadership in those teachers we value most.
When we build it or create it we are invested. So, by giving teachers a voice and a seat at the table of the decisions being made… teachers are more invested in the work. It doesn’t feel like something that’s being done to us, but by us and for us.
How can you make this happen at your school?
Step 1:
First, you need a math vision. I would LOVE to help you and your school create a math vision. I have TONs of free resources out there— episode 33, monamath.com/blog/math-vision, but if you want to start this work with a powerful beginning of the year pd send my email address (hellomonamath@gmail.com) to your principal and I’ll work to set something up especially for your school.
Step 2:
Second, take some simple first steps to creating a math culture in your classroom. I have 8 ways you can start right now. It’s a quick checklist of ideas that you can start doing immediately. Then, you can share with your colleagues and build some momentum.
That’s what this is all about building momentum in teachers for teachers, with teachers. Because let’s be honest if we really had the energy teachers can change the world. I know there are road blocks and district mandates that make no sense, but what we do in our classrooms each day can make a huge difference.
So, download those 8 tips at monamath.com/community and start building that classroom community that ca change the math culture in your school.
Step 3
Third, talk to your administration about a math culture leader position. Express interest, start the conversation with your principal. If you don’t ask you don’t know what they will say.
If you want support with that conversation you can head over to ELeducation Math framework for more information about the job description. But if you want to just start that conversation with your principal about your interested in a leadership role and how you think leading math work around the culture of math is the first step– I would LOVE to support you in that. Send me an email hellomonamath@gmail.com and just say I’m interested in talking to my principal about math culture leadership. I will email you back with ideas and a script of what you can say!
Inspiring a Teacher as a Leader
I am SO excited about the idea of teachers pushing the work forward in creating math cultures that are beyond our wildest dreams. We know the way we were taught did more damage than good, and we know there is a better way… and that better way starts with changing the narrative on math in our classrooms and school buildings. So, let’s create a culture of problem solvers, where the process is valued, and students are bought into the idea of collaboratively solving real world problems to ultimately build their math proficiency.
One Response
Thanks!