Although Stemley Road Elementary was also a Cornerstone school, I only knew a few of the faculty members. However, my real link to the school was Becky McKay, our Cornerstone Critical Friend. Becky and I are alike in many ways - we think we have to do everything. In our defense, we did this because we wanted to help the teachers. Yet, Becky and I both knew that we had to provide opportunities to share and build leadership capacity within the school. There was no way we could do it all!

Becky and I spent many hours together working on professional development sessions for the faculty. Since Mondays were designated for faculty meetings, we organized sessions for these days. The first Monday of the week was designated for school issues and SACS work, the second Monday for new teacher sessions, the third for our "Monday Musings," and the fourth for our faculty book study.

Since so many of the faculty were new, I thought it was important to organize some sessions for them. I asked Becky and some of the veteran teachers to conduct the "New Teacher" sessions. We addressed such issues as classroom management, time management, writing workshop, intervention strategies, and direct fluency instruction. In addition to offering practical help like classroom management, we also wanted them to understand the importance of balanced literacy instruction. Since many of the new teachers had few books to use for crafting, we always drew names from the new teacher list and gave them a crafting book for their classroom. It was not unusual for five or more veteran teachers to attend the sessions with the new teachers.

On the third Monday of each month, we decided to address issues in which teachers expressed an interest. Our "Monday Musings" sessions are voluntary and have included "Demonstration Lessons with the 6 Cueing Systems, "Author Inquiry," "Intervention Strategies for Strugglers," and "Using Assessment Data to Guide Instruction." Attendance was good from the beginning with as many as 15 attending, and the attendance has steadily increased. The most exciting part of this afternoon work is that many of the teachers are incorporating the strategies almost immediately in their classrooms. In fact, in our grade group planning time we have extended some of the sessions.

The book study for the first semester was Mosaic of Thought. Becky conducted the book study. However, for the second semester we are offering sessions on Strategies that Work, Reading with Meaning, Words, Words, Words, and On Solid Ground. Becky had modeled for the faculty how to conduct an effective book study. I asked the Cornerstone coaches and 2 classroom teachers if they would be willing to conduct book studies. All of the teachers seemed pleased to have been asked.

Each grade group has common planning time for one hour and 20 minutes twice a month. I decided to meet with the grade groups so that I would have an opportunity to work with each teacher and to become acquainted with them. Becky and I used these meetings for embedded professional development. Our first focus was assessment. We developed a tracking log for classes and for the school to enable us to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the school. Next we began to watch and discuss the Sharon Tabersky videos, which provided great examples of reading conferences and invitational groups. The second grade teachers had begun to read her book On Solid Ground. One of these teachers and I also attended one of her workshops. By October the second grade teachers were beginning to change their classroom environment and their teaching strategies. Then before we could take a deep breath, third grade teachers were implementing changes in their rooms too.

In December I approached several teachers about conducting sessions for our January inservice. It was interesting to watch their expressions. Some were surprised, but all of them were excited and willing. Many of our children are still struggling with surface structures, so Becky recommended we explore the book Spelling K-8 by Diane Snowball. We organized the day in sessions for grades K-1, 2-3, and 4-6. The teachers introduced strategies for surface structures that teachers could use during their crafting or invitational groups. As I sat in the sessions, I watched the teachers' confidence grow throughout their presentation, and I had a "moment" in which I realized that I didn't have to do it all myself. I was learning to share leadership and in the process was developing leadership capacity within the school.