Deptford High School teacher Jonathan Ayer has earned the New Jersey Teacher Leader Endorsement.
Ayer – who teaches English as an Additional Language (EAL) – got the award after attending the New Jersey Education Association’s (NJEA) Teacher Leader Academy (TLA) as part of a second cohort of instructors from Deptford schools. The endorsement recognizes him as a teacher leader in the district.
“The teacher leader academy allowed me to think about how I could really enrich and hone my craft,” Ayer said in an interview with the academy. “Really zero in on what leadership is and make it better.
“What I really loved about TLA is the model of the four-fold practice,” he added. “Starting with that self-reflection, that was a huge part of that first step – being able to look in the mirror, thinking about myself as a leader.”
Not only does the teacher leader role include helping students reach their full potential on an academic level, it also enables the peer coaching of other teachers so they can become the best version of themselves.
“There’s so many more teachers that still need a lot of mentorship, and to me, that’s one of the things that TLA has given me,” Ayer explained. “To be sort of a continued mentor for my colleagues.”
Ayer has been a teacher at Deptford High for nearly 18 years, with 21 years in the field, according to his bio on the high-school website. He primarily teachers British literature to juniors and world literature to seniors. Ayer is also coach of the cross-country team and supervises the stage crew.
The goal of the TLA is to help teachers build the capacity of their colleagues and support them from a non-evaluative position that not only affects their schools, but the entire district as well. The academy also enables teachers to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and challenge themselves.
TLA tuition is $6,000, according to the TLA website, but it can be paid in installments over the course of the program. Teachers can also apply for the program on their websites.
“If someone was on the fence about joining the leadership academy, I would definitely tell them to just dive in,” Ayer noted. “Because there’s more to it than you would probably think.
“It could help you grow in ways you probably didn’t imagine.”
