Teachers are often not prepared to be leaders in their school. We are not trained on it in college as part of our preparatory studies. Yet once we hit the classroom, it is expected that we not only model strong leadership skills to our students, we ought to be leading the charge with our peers as well. I find this especially true with fine arts instructors. We have a special role within our schools to be cheerleaders for our programs and our students, to communicate proactively about our program needs, goals, and vision, and along the way, we should also know how to persuade others to support us in our endeavors.
While much is published for leadership in business, one does not see books for leadership in teaching on the New York Times best-seller list! Yet, there are many, many things we do every day to mold and influence our students to be leaders - and none of this comes from a vaccuum. Leadership is learned and it is the teachers and mentors in our lives that share it and help us along the way.
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