What Does It Mean to Be a Good School Leader?

By Karin Chenoweth and Christina Theokas

A teacher of our acquaintance once remarked that “the daily-ness of teaching” overwhelmed all calm reflection. Only in stray moments or middle-of-the-night worry sessions could he ponder the big questions of whether he was helping all of his students and whether he needed to deepen his content knowledge or improve his lesson planning.

This phrase, “the daily-ness of teaching,” would probably resonate with many teachers who can’t help but be caught up in the endless work of planning lessons, grading papers, building relationships with students, communicating with parents, and the other myriad responsibilities they have.

In fact, teachers have so much to think about that even when they have opportunities to work with their colleagues, they often question whether collaboration is really worth it when they have...