4.++Reality+101

4. Reality 101--Teacher Leaders' Experiences, Year 1, Including Why You Signed Up (You Guys) [//**Mary Kay, Special Education Teacher:**//] Being a teacher leader can be an exciting - or daunting - opportunity. Success in the classroom is something to share - but is my success worthwhile to others? Do I have enough experience to pass on to others? Will others care about my thoughts and experiences? Part of teaching is dynamic - always learning and growing yourselves to be a model to your students. How can you ask of them something which you yourself are not willing to do? Conferences, workshops, journal articles, discussions with colleagues - these are all ways not only to learn more but to get excited about teaching again and again. Standing still in time is not an option in teaching. Technology changes, history is constantly being made, state standards change. When your district offers training in something new, good teachers take notice. When the district offers intense training in a long term initiative but stipulates the catch: if you take this training, you will train others, good teachers weigh their options and decide if they are able and willing to commit. [or, **As a special education teacher at Lancaster High School who has always been interested in growing professionally, I felt**] the offer was too exciting to pass up. I was able and willing. I wanted to learn more. Strategies that we all know are effective because we've used some of them instinctively for years but are now being presented with research to back up their effectiveness. At the time, it seemed like a no-brainer.


 * [Allison Smerka, Judy Zitzka, Mary Ann Catalano, Sarah Gembar]:** As teachers, some were given a "taste" of the research and content in an inservice opportunity before being asked to be teacher leaders. Seeing that there indeed was a practical application to everyday classrooms piqued interest enough to cause some to commit to being teacher leaders.

The benefits of teacher leaders as opposed to one presenter talking to the district.
 * Familiar faces talking to you as opposed to a stranger
 * Tailoring the subject to our specific area
 * Being able to give the teachers time to work with colleagues on their specific content area
 * Modifiying the content to work best for our teachers