A Leader-teacher “leads” and “deals” to provide ongoing learning opportunities for teachers. Leader-teachers serve as in-house expertswho are striving to provide information, modelling and assistance to other teachers and each leader-teacher is selected by the head or principal that should have these characteristics to perform well their roleas a leader-teacher.

• Leader-teacher needs an extensive repertoire of skills  to be effective  and he must be expert and be perceived by his colleagues to have a depth of knowledge in his field of expertise and subject area.
• Leader-teacher needs to increase his knowledge on a continual basis so that he can grow professionally and provide the most up-to-date- information to teachers.
• Leader-teacher  attends conferences, reads articles and books on his area of expertise and seeks assistance from experts outside the school.
• Leader-teacher must develop the ability to press his colleagues to change, to acquire new skills, and to experiment with new teaching strategies, while building hisconfidence and willingness to take chances.
• Leader-teacher should    take risk and builds self-confidence whichrequire  a combination of persistence and patience, persistence in challenging teachers to develop new understanding and skills, patience with what is often slow process.

The principal plays a key role on how effectively the leader-teacher functions. Creating the role of leader-teacher is only the first step in using teachers to develop internal capacity for improving students learning. Making this effective strategy for on-going instructional improvements require careful planning, leadership development and continuing support system. Although involving teachers in leadership roles can amplify change efforts, these efforts would be effective only if the principal is involved on a continuing basis.

By: Zaldy H. Cacacho | Teacher I | Orion Elementary School | Orion, Bataan