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Enter the Teacherpreneur
The teacherpreneur merges the image of the innovative classroom teacher with the risk-taking and entrepreneurial leadership that we commonly associate with those who create their own place in the professional world.
Teacherpreneurs are, first and foremost, imaginative teachers. They have created a classroom culture of creativity and reflection. They think beyond the classroom in terms of how to make lessons meaningful, and in so doing, might see a need elsewhere in school that their innovation can address.
As a result, they might request to go part-time in the classroom in order to use their other untapped skills to meet that need. The district or school itself might fund this "other part" of their job, or it might be funded through grants or other outside agencies. For instance, in California, we have noticeable influx of recent funds from the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP).
As a result, many districts are spending a percentage of that money on creating teacherpreneur positions.
The key here is that the teacher creates a different way of navigating the profession without leaving that profession entirely. Their talents remain in the classroom and on the school site, but they've had the opportunity to shake their dice, try something new, and use their skills in a different way.
It comes down to differentiation. We differentiate our students, but we rarely talk about the need to differentiate our teachers, too. It isn't about one teacher being "better" or "worse" than others on a site. It's about admitting that staff can't be standardized and that the individuals running the classroom might have some strengths that should also be leveraged to improve the school and district culture overall.
Barnett Berry: Teacherpreneurs are classroom experts who teach students regularly, but also have time, space, and reward to incubate and execute their own ideas -- just like entrepreneurs!
Teacherpreneurs are amongst us, and they are, just perhaps, signaling in a new kind of educational system.
Learn more:
- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf
- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/
- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/
Barnett Berry: Teacherpreneurs are classroom experts who teach students regularly, but also have time, space, and reward to incubate and execute their own ideas -- just like entrepreneurs!
Teacherpreneurs are amongst us, and they are, just perhaps, signaling in a new kind of educational system.
Learn more:
- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf
- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/
- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/