Without effective and efficient communication skills and the ability to build connections with others, students, teachers and other stakeholders will not appreciate the value and importance of the role of the TL. I think building relationships with teachers and students is more complex in the TL role as you do not fit neatly into one teaching domain, or have your own classes that you are teaching so the opportunities for this really important part of your role are difficult to come by. In order to do anything of meaning in your role as TL, you have to be approachable by the staff and students in the school. I think you have to have the confidence to put yourself out there a bit more. In my teaching roles, I found going on school camps was the best way to make those connections with students and other staff. If you aren’t comfortable with camps, you can make concerted efforts to go and make connections in some other way – involving yourself in lunchtime activities, sitting with different staff at lunchtimes, after school activities, school sport. Anything that gives you a chance to build that connection.

I had terrible personal experiences with TLs growing up, and then when I first became a teacher I completely ignored the value of the TL at my first school. I barely ever spoke to them. My own fault, sure, but perhaps the TL reaching out would have changed that too. I was kind of forced into collaboration with the TL due to my role in my second school and it was the best thing that ever happened to me in a professional sense. Look at me now! Studying to become a TL 🙂 Would absolutely never have happened without the initial social connection. But also, and my main point, my students learning and my teaching was vastly improved by the collaboration with the TL. The (forced) connection was the catalyst to this.