Teaching is leadership and networking

The last two days, I sat in a room surrounded by educational leaders across our region as we were trained on the new teacher evaluation tool. We have all "heard" about this instrument, but we never expected how useful it will be for our teaching performance. The expectations in our classrooms will change with the implementation of this evaluation method as it ensures that North Carolina will maintain high quality teachers and administrators. Thirteen school districts in our state piloted the program this school year and fifty additional systems will be encouraged to try it next year. The entire state will be mandated to use this tool in 2010-2011.

As with any staff development, I was empowered as a teacher leader to make these improvements to my own professional endeavors along with spreading a positive outlook to my colleagues. The two main goals of this instrument was to make sure the thirty kids who usually dropped out of school each year would stay and to promote 21st century learning skills for our students. Once again, technology was emphasized and it is actually a main element of the evaluation standards.

It is always uplifting to come together with other passionate educators who share a common goal to better education. I always call this beneficial networking. The educational world makes the world even smaller with the connections we make with other teachers across the state. We become each other's valuable resources during challenging times and each other's cheerleaders during times of success. It is obvious we must work together as a team, not only in our individual schools and districts, but as an entire state and nation.

We have one goal: to impact the children we serve! We are the professionals who strive to make a difference, and it was proven today that this job has become so much more than teaching...