As I state in my opening metaphor for teaching, "Teacher leaders are willing to stick their heads into the mouths of technological lions and dance with pedagogical bears. Though new theories and developments can be intimidating, the teacher leader faces them without fear; he is confident in his competency. It requires massive amounts of time and practice, but taking initiative as an educational leader is just one more act for a teacher."  I consider myself such a leader because I am willing to face such lions and bears that appear daily in my classroom.  I recognize that there are moments when I must use my strength and rely upon my abilities to reach every student I can.  However, as a good teacher leader, I also recognize that part of leading is listening.  In order to effectively lead a group, you must listen to the group members and appreciate the directions your associates desire to explore.  In my classroom and personal life I lead by example and strive for excellence, setting equally high expectations for my students.  I focus on helping every student achieve their greatest potential by scaffolding their learning and recognizing their successes.

 Within my school I have acted as an educational leader in and out of the classroom.  For my ninth grade students, I implemented a wikispace to allow my students to interact with content material and easily communicate with other members of the class.  I created the wikispace and then unfortunately discovered that the filter system for Williamsburg-James City County was blocking the site on school computers.  Rather than becoming frustrated and giving up on my plan, I became flexible and sought the aid of my curriculum leader.  She referred me to Peter Schweitzer, one of the technology experts at our school.  Upon my request, he emailed the system director and I was able to get the site unblocked for my students.  Instead of allowing obstacles to stop my plans, I recognize my available resources and rectified the situation.

In addition, I am always present at meetings for the English department, school-wide faculty meetings, staff development opportunities, and student teacher-cooperating teacher meetings.  At the first staff development meeting, Mr. Horvath shared a Power Point presentation that showed his adventures in Japan during a Rhodes Scholar trip.  During our last English department meeting, I worked with the tenth grade English teachers in creating a standardized assessment of grammar.  At the moment, Jamestown High School is trying to align their grammar instruction so that each year the students are developing their skills and not experiencing redundant lessons.  I provided input about the structure and content of the tests that had been designed for each grade level and my suggestions will contribute to the final collaborative product.  This sample test was designed for ninth grade and I provided many suggestions about how to reformat the test to benefit both students and teachers. (This artifact also fulfills NCTE standard 1.3)