Jordan Teaching & Learning
Congratulations to our first cohort of Teacher Leaders in Jordan School District! The following have been chosen to participate in the Teacher Fellows program during the 2025-2027 school years.
Teachers were selected through a blind rating of the application submissions, and verified through an additional principal reference check.
Jordan School District was recently awarded an exciting opportunity to transform teacher leadership and boost educator retention through the Mentoring and Supporting Teacher Excellence and Refinement (MASTER) Grant Program (Utah Code § 53F-5-222 & USBE Rule R277-332).
Designed specifically for Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs), the MASTER program provides competitive funding to establish innovative, non-administrative leadership tracks. The goal? Keep our best teachers in the classroom doing what they do best, while giving them structured opportunities to lead, mentor, and grow.
The MASTER Grant is a program designed to help keep great teachers in the classroom by giving them new ways to grow and lead, without having to leave teaching or wait for a promotion. It helps teachers develop leadership skills and gives experienced teachers the chance to guide and support their colleagues.
In Jordan School District, the MASTER Grant pays for a special teacher leadership program, the Jordan Teacher Fellows. Top teachers are chosen to learn about leadership and explore six specific teacher leader roles in Utah. They then create their own project to practice one of these roles, all while still teaching in their classroom. Teachers chosen to participate in the Fellows program earn a stipend, professional recognition, and real-life leadership experience.
Jordan Teacher Fellow program invests in our classroom teachers so they can Lead, Educate, & Inspire.
We are proud to spotlight the Teacher Fellows program this year at the annual ISTE+ASCD conference in Orlando, FL. Welcome to Jordan School District's Teacher Fellow website. If you are here, it's probably because you saw our poster session at ISTE+ASCD 2026, "Mentoring and Supporting Teacher Excellence and Refinement to Lead, Educate, and Inspire."
Our goal with this poster session was to share with conference attendees how to:
1) recognize key elements of teacher leadership.
2) build and sustain collaborative cohorts using the Jordan Teacher Fellows model.
3) design targeted professional development to mentor and support teacher excellence and refinement.
All of these resources are available on this website, but we wanted to gather them together in one post for the conference.
Teacher Leader Guidebook: We used the 6 roles of a Teacher Leader as a framework for Year 1 of the fellowship. Teachers received six sessions targeted on each of the roles, in conjunction with a book study on leadership, and expanding their professional network by meeting significant people within district leadership.
Jordan Teacher Fellows Impact Report: At the end of Year 2 of the fellowship, our Teacher Fellows shared their Action Projects, student-centered leadership projects focused on their schools or communities, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for the students they serve. Check out the report to see the many different ways they demonstrated leadership throughout their fellowship learning experience.
Three Teacher-Leader Pathways: Lastly, in Jordan, we have used the MASTER grant to create personalized learning pathways for teachers interested in Teacher Leadership. The Teacher Fellows program is just one path for teachers to engage in Teacher Leadership. The other professional learning opportunities under the MASTER grant is the Site-Based Associates program and the National Board Certified Teacher mentor program. Follow the links to learn more about each program.
