A guest post by Jim Cordery.

The past couple of years, I have had the opportunity to add several administrative tasks to my regular teaching assignment. These added tasks have ranged from completing our district’s No Child Left Behind grant and writing our Professional Development Plan to Leading our Teacher Evaluation Committee and Leading Professional Development on the following items: AchieveNJ, SGOs, SGPs and PARRC. This additional work has provided me with a lot of great opportunities to learn about the administrative side of schools. I am confident that this work will give me a solid foundation when the opportunity arises to be the Lead Learner of my own school.

In addition to these opportunities, I have learned a lot from the following authors: Todd Whitaker, Thomas Guskey, Robert Marzano and Will Richardson. Through my readings and experiences, I have noticed six common behaviors/characteristics of an effective leader. I am…