After reflecting on my role as a leader in a school setting, I feel as though there are two main strengths that make me well equipped to be a math leader. While these leadership qualities may not be specific to the subject area of math, I believe that they are crucial skills for any leader to have. 

The first leadership strength that I possess is approachability. A leader can only lead if others are willing to engage and/or collaborate with that person. I always want to make sure that people feel comfortable coming to me for support or advice. I make a conscious effort to check in with others, whether personally or professionally, to show that I care and I am here for them. My social circle within my staff team extends beyond my same-grade teaching partners, which is something that I am proud of. There have been times when Intermediate teachers have come to me for support when teaching a specific subject area, even though I am currently teaching in the Primary division. This is a true testament of the importance of being approachable; your age, experience, or grade level does not necessarily matter, as long as others know they can come to you for support!

My second leadership quality is my willingness to try new things. I believe that this is a crucial leadership skill because it models the importance of personal and professional growth, as well as an openness to making mistakes and failing. An expert is only an expert because they have tried something new, learned from it, and is now equipped to teach others. I am excited when learning new types of coding technology, such as online programs or physical robots. Sometimes, it’s the students who are teaching me, rather than the other way around! Is the learning experience always a smooth one? Absolutely not! But the only way to learn is to try… and try… and try again. My willingness to try new things also involves trying new teaching methods. Social pedagogies, such as a thinking classroom style of teaching/learning, took some time to adjust to, but has paid off greatly in my teaching practice. 

A long term goal in which I feel I would be able to best utilize my leadership skills would be becoming my school’s math lead teacher. This role would allowed me to work under the direction of our school board’s math consultant, learning from them and providing math coaching on-site to teachers. I think this would be a valuable position in that it would help me to improve my own teaching practice, while also being able to support, learn from, and co-teach with my colleagues.

As I am on parental leave at the moment, I was not able to put my name forward to be our school’s math lead teacher for this school year. However, there are steps that I can take this year to prepare myself for this role in the future. It is important that I continue to check in with my fellow educators, especially on the topic of math (i.e., curriculum, instruction, best practices, types of assessments, etc.). Another short term goal would be sending out valuable resources to my staff as I come upon them. This would allow me to be an informal leader in my school before any formal position is assigned. Lastly, I will continue building upon my own competencies as a math teacher by continuing to seek professional development opportunities about teaching math.

A math concept that I am interested in doing a deep dive into is “coding skills”. While coding is something that some teachers have been informally teaching for many years, it is now officially a new addition to the math curriculum. My first experience with learning coding in the classroom was when I took a Grade 10 Computer Science class. I am thrilled that students as young as Grade 1 will now be learning coding skills and building upon them throughout their educational journey. I am interested in exploring the continuum of curriculum expectations throughout the elementary grades, discovering new resources, and developing more teaching strategies that I can incorporate into my own teaching practice and share with other teachers as a math leader.