Dawn Cottnair

EDAD 543
My Philosophy Statement on Role of Teacher Leaders
For 16 years I had the privilege of teaching students, whether they
were in my sixth-grade LA/SS, eighth-grade LA/SS, or my Reading Support
class. It was by far the hardest and most gratifying moments of my career
thus far. Over my years in the classroom, my administrators saw my passion
and my drive to help students succeed and more and more they began to
rely on me to share my skills with my colleagues. I began to found a new joy,
helping other teachers succeed with their students. In 2015 an opportunity
arose that I had to follow, the role of Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA)
for grades 6-12 in my District.
Im often asked, What is a TOSA? My initial response is Im a teacher
of teachers! My primary role is to support teachers in service of students. As
a teacher-leader I am a sounding board, a role model, a lead learner, an
instructor, and a coach. In leadership, I often find myself a sounding board
for my colleagues; they come to me to bounce ideas around, seek advice on
how to handle a challenging situation, celebrate successes, and sometimes
just to vent out frustrations. This responsibility comes from the time I have
spent developing trust and respect from my colleagues. In order to
effectively coach the teachers I work with I must stay on top of research on
effective teaching practice so I can ensure I am supporting teachers with
research based effective strategies. In my trainings with staff, I intentionally
include effective teaching strategies in my lessons that teachers should

replicate in their classrooms. I am transparent about my teaching strategies

so teachers not only learn the content I am teaching, but how I am teaching.
As a TOSA part of my role includes coaching. I believe, as a teacher-leader, it
is important that show teachers I dont have all the answers. There is so
much power in learning to solve problems together. Not only does the
teacher I am working with grow, so do I. As a TOSA, my job includes
challenging, engaging, connecting, and celebrating with the teachers I work
with.
There are several rewarding aspects of teacher leadership. One of the
most rewarding aspects is seeing the joy in teachers faces when they have
tried something new and found success. I truly enjoy walking into teachers
classrooms and seeing students engaged in content because teachers are
implementing effective teaching strategies I have taught them. It was hard
leaving my classroom, but now I see that by teaching teachers I can support
more students in our system now and in the future. Because I am not an
administrator, I am not bogged down by administrative responsibilities;
therefore I get to focus on instruction and student success and that is a
significant responsibility in my book. I also enjoy the time I have to develop
my own teaching craft. Being a teacher of teachers has caused me to refine
my teaching practices even more. I am better able to articulate why I do
what I do and much more conscientious about my teaching strategies. I have
become more confident in my role as a teacher of both students and adults.

Despite all the rewards, the lack of control is a challenge in teacher

leadership. One of the biggest challenges is working with teachers who think
and say they use the strategies I teach, but they actually do not. While I can
model and teach effective teaching practices, I cannot make a teacher
implement them. I am also not the administrator so I am sometimes limited
by the fear or lack of knowledge of the administrator in charge of the
building. Learning the scope of my influence has been a challenge in my role.