The Principals Role as Leader of Learning

[Leader of Learning]
-Presented to the Department of Educational Leadership
and Postsecondary Education
University of Northern Iowa
-In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the
Master of Arts in Education or Advanced Studies Certificate
-by
Casey J. Kettmann
Resurrection Elementary School
Dubuque, IA
(April 3, 2015)
-Dr. Denise Schares

As a future principal, the phrase leader of learning means so much to me. There are many
skills required to be a lifelong leader that learns. Besides having a certain set of skills, a leader of
learning must possess a solid disposition and knowledge base. The Iowa Standards of School
Leaders have a strong impact on me as a future leader. I feel Ive done a good job of growing as
a learning leader through my experiences thus far. However, in order to be a true leader of
learning, I believe one must always continue seeking knowledge in order to be an effective
leader.
I believe there are many skills that are required of a principal to help facilitate professional
growth for themselves and others. A skill that I think is important to have as a principal is rapport
building. Theodore Roosevelt said, The single most important ingredient in the formula of
success is knowing how to get along with people. Ill take that quote one step farther and say
not only is getting along with people important, but also respecting and nurturing a relationship
with people.
Being able to build rapport is one of the most important things a leader of learning can have.
Wiseman (2010) stated, Building agreements creates healthy schools overflowing with
productive staff behaviors (p.38). Gaining the trust and respect of teachers can go a long way in
helping them learn from the principal. Wiseman (2010) goes on to say, It creates a whole-school
capacity to prevail over the natural conflict accompanying change (p.39). To me, that makes a
lot of sense. Rapport building is the first step in successfully implementing some type of change.
If we cant build those relationships as principals, we can expect to set ourselves up for
failure. Part of building a rapport is learning about our staff. By learning about our staff and
getting to know them on a personal level, an administrator can get so much more out of staff
when it comes to learning. To me the first step in emerging as a leader of learning is developing

that rapport. By developing a relationship, I will be opening the doors to many other
opportunities for teachers to learn from me and truly epitomize the phrase leader of learning.
Another important skill a principal needs to know is how to coach his or her staff. This term
of coaching from the administrators point of view is relatively new, but it makes a lot of sense to
me. According to Nidus and Sadder (2011), To effectively sustain school improvement, the
principal must be the epicenter of school change (p.31). As a leader, we need to be in the
trenches with our teachers and students, working together for improvement. We need to look to
help coach our teachers as much as we can.
Nidus and Sadder (2011) go on to say, Many school leaders strive to create a community of
educators who collaboratively reflect on and improve their practice with principals support
(p.31). The best way to obtain this is through formative coaching. Formative coaching allows for
principals to work with teachers and use student data. Nidus and Sadder (2011) say, Learning to
use data to inform your conversations with teachers-and teaching them how to reflect on student
work themselves-will help you create collaborative and reflective school community (p.31). I
really believe that through coaching and collaboratively reflecting on student data, the teacher
can learn from the principal, and in some ways the principal can learn from the teacher.
I also believe that in order to be a leader of learning I must learn from my teachers and
others. According to Reeves (2006), Leverage for improved organizational performance happen
through networks, not individuals. If the only source of inspiration for improvement comes from
the individual leader, continued improvement will be an illusion (p.52). This goes back to
getting everyone to buy-in. If teachers dont have a say in things, or if they are uninterested, they
will not be engaged to learn. By allowing teachers to have their voice be heard I will be a leader
of learning through them.

The disposition of a principal plays a role in growth for self and others. There is much
research that defines disposition a number of different ways. To me, disposition is how a
principal handles himself or herself in good times and tough times. I want my disposition to be
that of a positive and inviting person. Whitaker (2012) says, Allowing negative forces among
faculty to simmer unchecked would eventually bring down even the most positive teachers,
regardless of our best efforts to support them (p.121). Having that positive and welcoming
disposition can allow for an easier way to handle and work with negative people.
As a leader of learning, I want to learn from both the good times and the bad times. The best
way I know how to do that is to be positive. Every situation has something that went well and
something that needs to be improved. If I can have that type of disposition I really believe that it
will radiate down to the staff. Being positive is through both my words and actions. This can be
hard to do at times; and if it is not done genuinely, it can have a huge effect on the productivity
and mindset of the teachers.
Another role that a principal must have as a leader of learning is facilitating professional
learning communities. According to Dufour and Marzano (2011), The PLC process provides a
vehicle that allows principals to execute a number of responsibilities of school leadership in an
integrated and focused fashion (p.52). Through PLC work the principal can have a huge effect
on the culture of learning in the school. By giving the teachers a scheduled time and objective to
collaborate upon, the principal is allowing a great growth opportunity for teachers. This
collaborative brainstorming therefore directly affects the learning of the students.
In order for our teachers to perform the best they can for their students, they must stop
working in isolation. Dufour and Marzano (2011) go on to say, Principals do indeed make a
difference in student learning, and the most powerful strategy for having a positive impact on

that learning is to facilitate the learning of educators who serve those students through the PLC
process (p.63). This embodies what it means to be a leader of learning. Being that catalyst in
student learning through the PLC process is essential to being a successful principal.
In order to be a leader of learning I think that principals must be lifelong learners themselves.
According to Robins and Alvy (2014), If the principal is to help teachers improve what they do,
the principal must continuously be learning to improve what he or she is doing (p.3). A principal
can do this through a number of different ways. They can participate in the development and
demonstration of effective teaching practices, read and share research with staff and parents, and
actually participate in professional development sessions. All of these examples are great ways to
not only walk the walk, but talk the talk when it comes to be a leader of learning.
The Iowa Standards of School Leaders have a big impact on principals as leaders of learning.
I believe that in order to be a good leader, I really need to make a conscious effort to follow all of
the standards. I think that standard 2, culture of learning, is probably the most important as a
future leader. The criteria for standard 2 is directly linked to what I believe defines a leader of
learning. Since many of the skills I view as important are connected to standard 2, there is no
doubt in my mind that it is the most important standard when it comes to being a leader of
learning.
I think that Ive taken a few actions to display my skills as leader of learning. One way
includes teaching the Learning Continuum to the teachers at my school. The Learning
Continuum is part of MAP and helps with using test results to drive instruction. I did not have
anyone teach me how to do it. I taught myself how to use it, put it into user-friendly language,
and trained the staff on it during a professional learning day. I think this is a skill that will help
me a lot as an administrator; I will independently have to learn a vast majority of the content I

teach my staff. This experience will be really beneficial to me when I have to plan professional
learning on my own and help me continue to be a leader of learning.
Another big thing that Ive done is informal evaluations. Ive had the opportunity to observe
almost every teacher in my school. I go into the classroom with my mentor and we do informal
observations of the teachers. After we leave the room, we compare what we each came up with
and match it with the domain criteria. As an instructional leader it is so important to be
continuing to grow as a learner as well.
In conclusion I believe that in order to be a leader of learning one must have a variety of
roles. These include building rapport, coaching teachers, learning from others, having a strong
disposition, learning from a variety of experiences, facilitating professional communities, being a
lifelong learner, and following the Iowa Standards for School Leaders. I hope that all of these
different components will help define me as a leader willing to learn. If I, as principal, cannot be
looked upon by others as a leader willing to learn myself, how can I expect them to learn as
well? I recognize that people are always going to be watching and judging me. I want them to
see me as a strong leader of learning. As I get set to start my path as a principal, Im excited to
delve into additional best practices to help me become a strong motivator and inspiration to my
faculty and staff.

References
Dufour, R., & Marzano, R. (2011). Leaders of Learning: How District, School, and Classroom
Leaders Improve Student Achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Nidus, G., & Sadder, M. (2011, October). The Principal as Formative Coach. Educational

Leadership, 30-35.
Reeves, D. (2006). The learning Leader How to Focus School Improvement for Better Results.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Robbins, P., & Alvy, H. (2014). The principal's companion: strategies to lead schools for
student and teacher success (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Wiseman, P. (2010). Strong Schools, Strong Leaders: What Matters Most in Times of Change.
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Whitaker, T. (2012). What great principals do differently: Eighteen things that matter most (2nd
ed.). Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.