Leading Beyond Walls: The Role of Teacher Leaders in Education

In the book Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice, Charlotte Danielson defines teacher leadership as a “set of skills demonstrated by teachers who continue to teach students but also have an influence that extends beyond their own classrooms to others within their own school and elsewhere.”  

The Role of Teacher Leaders

Teacher leaders inform, inspire, and impact students and staff as they strive toward collaboration to carry out their school’s goals and mission of improving student achievement.  

Danielson explains that although some teacher leaders have a formal role, “teacher leadership is spontaneously exercised by teachers in response to a need or an opportunity through work with colleagues.”  

Boost Your Teaching: How to Meet Teachers’ Needs with an Early Literacy Collection

When I was a first-grade teacher at a Title I school on the east side of Michigan, I often spent time with the media specialist and librarians at the local public library trying to find a wide range of books to use for interactive read-alouds that also connected to science or social studies content and standards. I would walk away with many engaging recommendations and titles that made my heart sing. Not to mention the incredible relationships I came to foster with those talented and knowledgeable librarians! I tapped into these resources because I knew my classroom library collection wasn’t robust enough, the provided science and social studies curricular resources were not always high quality or were missing, and getting funds to cover the cost of new resources was sometimes a challenge.