The Making of a Teacher-Leader

By: Cheryl Canada
Date: July 11, 2007

Summary: Cheryl Canada describes her transition from beginning middle school teacher to leading teacher-consultant in the Mid Ohio Writing Project and finally, when the site's founder had to leave, to director. Consistent mentoring by the outgoing director laid the groundwork for each step in Canada's new direction.

My story begins in middle school, where I was a frustrated teacher seeking affirmation and direction. I had completed my first year of teaching and, like many beginning teachers, I wasn't sure about what had just taken place. I hadn't been very successful at getting my students to produce good papers, so perhaps I should not have been teaching language arts. Why did I have my students doing so much writing anyway? The other language arts teachers asked their students to diagram sentences, learn grammar, and study vocabulary words. What was wrong with me? Why didn't I think like the other teachers?

Maybe I wasn't cut out for teaching. Maybe I needed to consider another career. It was this state of confusion and my questions about it that opened the door for Liz Bryant, the director of the Mid Ohio Writing Project, to invite me to the summer institute.

I attended the Mid Ohio Writing Project (MOWP) invitational institute in the summer of 2000 for the sole purpose of inquiring about my practice and my ability to teach. I attended the institute with a mindset that the institute was a course that I could take to help me improve my teaching. I had no intention of becoming a part of an organization or network of professionals. I just wanted a one-time shot in the arm to rejuvenate me for the upcoming school year.

What I wanted and what happened were two different things.By the end of the institute, I was more than rejuvenated; I had discovered a researcher deep within me.

Liz Identifies a Leader

An awakening was taking place. I started asking important questions about my own practice and sharing my thoughts with Liz. I believe that this is what made her really take notice of me. Liz had an eye for identifying the strengths of each teacher-consultant at our site. She began to nurture the teacher-leader that was surfacing. Liz would invite me to every continuity program at our site.

I didn't think I was capable of directing the Mid Ohio Writing Project.

She even invited me to the fall and spring National Writing Project conferences within the same year that I completed the summer institute, and covered most of my expenses. I was complimented by Liz's invitations. She treated me like one of her colleagues instead of one of her students. This was a new experience for me. I was not accustomed to having an administrator, or any of my superiors, show regard for my opinion or thoughts. She made me feel that she really cared about me as a person and a professional.

Liz saw potential in me that I didn't see in myself. (She told me later that she had been impressed by the way I supported teachers and their work and the way I was willing to accept her invitation to every program.) Liz would call me on the phone many evenings to invite me to her house for dinner with her family, and sometimes she and I would go out.

Regardless of our venue or company, Liz always managed to talk writing project business with me. She was constantly asking my advice and seeking my opinion about the day-to-day operation of our site. There was a lot of talk about budgets. I suggested it was important to spend money to take teacher-consultants to the NWP Annual Meeting. For me, the trip to this meeting in 2000, when I had a chance to network with fellow teacher-consultants from all over the country, was a life-changing event.

One evening in the spring of 2001, Liz invited me over to her house for dinner and to help her plan the upcoming summer institute. She told me that I was a teacher-researcher at heart and that I possessed strong leadership qualities, "You just need a chance to practice your skills and you can do that in the writing project."

That fall, Liz asked me to come to work with her as co-director at the Mid Ohio Writing Project. I emphasize the word with because Liz constantly told me that there was really no hierarchy at the site. The writing project was a place where classroom teachers were seen as experts within their field; they were colleagues and should be respected as such. She always said, "My job is to work myself out of a job."

Learning the Ropes

During my first year as co-director of the MOWP, Liz gave me the responsibility of making the decisions for how the money should be spent at our site and for keeping track of the budget. I helped her write the Continued Funding Application, and I planned and organized our travel to NWP conferences. I came to understand that the money we received from our federal grant gave us an opportunity to begin to make money, rather than just spend money. The question became, "Where could we spend (invest) money to earn the greatest return?"

She mentored me in making visits to congressional offices. I learned that it is very important to attend the Spring Meeting to lobby for federal funding, but it is even more important to establish relationships with senators and representatives at the local level.

She always said, 'My job is to work myself out of a job.'

In addition to administrative responsibilities, Liz insisted that I read research throughout the year in preparation for what we might read in the summer institute. After my second year as co-director, Liz asked me to run the next summer institute without her. She gave me her summer institute folder and told me to go to it. She said that she would be available if I had any questions, but I that didn't need to run anything by her because she had complete confidence in my ability to get the job done.

I was nervous about running the summer institute without Liz, but she expressed such confidence in me that I began to feel I could actually do it. Following her lead, I made sure the summer institute did not become a university classroom where the instructor is the one holding the power; rather that it was a place where teachers feel empowered—honored and respected as experts in their fields.

Preparing for Change

At the end of that summer (2003) Liz knew that she wouldn't be staying on at the university and we all feared that the MOWP would dissipate once she left because no one else on the campus wanted to take on the responsibility of director, nor were we even sure that the university would continue to fund the site, since a new dean was taking office.

Again, Liz demonstrated great leadership and foresight by launching a plan to sustain our project. She called a meeting with all of the teacher-consultants who were active at our site and told them that she would be leaving and that we needed to convince the new dean to keep the writing project. She asked each one of us if we would be willing to attend a luncheon for the dean and give a testimonial of how the MOWP had impacted our classroom teaching and professional growth.

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

In the meantime, Liz planted a seed in my head, asking me to think about becoming the director of the site. Although I was co-director, I was still working full-time in the classroom and had no intention of leaving my students to work at the university. Besides, I didn't think I was capable of directing the Mid Ohio Writing Project.

In the past, I had always doubted myself and listened to Liz's words of encouragement to talk me into doing the work, but this time she had gone too far. I listened to her bright idea with one ear, and I let it out of the other ear. There was absolutely no way I could take on such a colossal responsibility and do a good job. As she had always done, Liz ignored my whining, pointed out to me the leadership responsibilities that I was already engaged in at the site, and assured me that I could do the work.

The rest is history: in the end there was no way I could refuse the giant task and great opportunity offered to me. I became director of the Mid Ohio Writing Project.

Liz taught many valuable lessons about friendship, leadership, and myself, but it was her lessons on leadership that have served me best since I have become director of MOWP. Liz taught me to always be on the lookout for teachers who would become leaders if only someone cared enough to do a little nudging and nurturing. It is my job to work myself out of a job.