In
Chapter 4 of "An Ethic of Excellence" Ron Berger speaks of the
passion for teaching and power of teachers to influence students
throughout their future. He compares
outstanding teachers as craftsmen who continually hone their skills through
professional development and collaboration with other skilled educators. Berger suggests that teachers should exercise
their scholarship through reading, conference attendance and coursework.
One
model of professional development that Berger cites is the use of summits in
which educators engage in an intense week-long study that includes study, team
building and firsthand experiences.
After
viewing the video introduction to Chapter 4 by Dr. Maynard, please read the
chapter and comment on this blog posting responding to the prompts below:
- How can teams of teachers meet to share student work?
- How can we work together to explore teaching techniques that will be most effective for our students?
As
with other chapter readings, please comment on the responses of two other
participants in this professional learning community book study.
At Hillsboro Elementary we have team meetings each week. We could start each meeting by sharing student work from our classrooms or we could simply walk the halls and take time together to look at what has been displayed. Another idea would be to have our meetings in different rooms each week. If we did this, it would give us an opportunity to see what each teacher is doing in their classroom. Exploring teaching techniques that will be most effective for our students could be done in these meetings also. We could carve out time in the meetings to watch videos on teaching techniques and then try them out in our classrooms. Once we do this we could come back together and discuss if it worked for us or not.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I always love your ideas! I think it would be awesome to rotate classrooms to have meetings in so we can observe how each grade level is thriving!
DeleteGreat idea!!
DeleteI like the idea of switching classrooms each week--I can probably count on one hand how many times I was in yours or Nicole's room. I also agree that since we are a small school it is easy to look at the work that is displayed in the hallway. I love looking at all of the projects and writing that is displayed. After visiting the Explorer Academy I know it is ok not to display everybody's work in the hallway--they have to earn the right to be out there. I always felt bad when I didn't put everyone's work out there.
DeleteI do like the idea of going to different rooms each week just to see what others are doing regardless of when we start this new style.
DeleteThe idea of meeting in different rooms is awesome.
DeleteI think alternating rooms for weekly meetings is a great idea. It would allow us to see first hand the projects going on and see student work samples as they are progressing.
DeleteI do like the idea of going to different rooms each week. It will give all of us an opportunity to view and expand as teachers.
DeleteI'm like everyone else! Great idea Laura, meeting in each different rooms each week allows us to see what is going on in the room. I rarely go into other teacher's classrooms because we are so busy during the day. When I did get the chance to go in someone's room there was always something going on that I liked or that inspired me.
DeleteI think changing classrooms each week is a great idea. It is hard for me as a 3rd grade teacher to get down to the younger grades for a visit.
DeleteThe collaboration meeting weekly between 3-5 and PreK-2nd grade is a start that teachers can share their students' work. However, the meeting needs to occur weekly with guidelines to follow. Teachers do go off track when we get together. Planning time is difficult because we do not have it at the same time as any other teacher. Also, only 1 class per grade level has its drawbacks. The Professional Learning days or CE days would be a great way for us to share our students work. These meetings would be an opportunity to explore teaching techniques. I do believe at first we need to research teaching techniques. This could be done individual with the teacher reporting back or as a staff viewing videos of teaching techniques then discussing them as a staff. What would work best for the staff?
ReplyDeleteHillsboro is a small school, but we can do amazing things.
I totally agree that our meetings would either get off track or we would spend too much time on certain things--even the things that we had no control over or we couldn't fix.
DeleteI do think that only having one teacher in each grade level is going to be a drawback for this--it would be nice to have another second grade teacher to plan and collaborate with--I always second guess myself-wonder if I am doing what I am supposed to do.
I feel like we are to the point where we need to meet and discuss this as a staff, it is hard to wrap your head around what we are actually talking about for tomorrow, next week, next month, next year.
DeleteJenny, I agree. We would need to follow guidelines in order to stay on track. Researching the videos ahead of time would help too.
DeleteI agree that PL or CE days would be a great way to give us a little more time to meet as a staff to share student work samples and teaching techniques. It would allow us time to discuss teaching techniques that have worked or may not have worked. Also, we could discuss student work samples that have been shared and get some incite on how they were achieved.
DeleteI think we are at the point now where we meet county grade level during our CE days on a frequent basis (the past couple years we have done this). I like more school level days. They are few and far between, really only at the beginning of school and end of school. We have work to be done at the school level and can really use the CE days there.
DeleteI think they were planning on having more early dismissal days this year--hopefully we can stay at the school and share work and discuss plans-if they do not tell us we need to be other places or give us a list of things that we need to do. That 3 hours would definitely not be wasted at our school.
DeleteJenny, I agree that we tend to veer off track, but when I think about it, often we are sharing what is or what isn't working as a class or with students individually. This can easily be revamped into an effective student success time. We can still work vertically to give each other advise or critique or share student work. Yep, I agree with the PL suggestion too- we can't completely move away from the expectations of collaboration meetings and need to carve out time within the year to specifically meet our goal of sharing student work.
ReplyDeleteThinking vertically is a very important mindset. Preparing students for the next level is also very important.
DeleteA way we could share student work vertically right away - during the first week can we all display our students' self-portraits in the hallway? It would be interesting to be able to walk down the hall to see the progression of skills from the lower end to the upper end!
DeleteI like this Sarah! In addition to a self portrait, maybe we can also have them draw out their family too!
DeleteEach year we do the self portraits and family portraits and we look at them and put them in their portfolio--I never thought about hanging them-
DeleteI feel like in order to work together to explore teaching techniques, we need to continue to visit the explorer academy and see how they "layer in" the curriculum and incorporate it across the disciplines. One visit at the end of the year, when the governor is possibly expected, a major field trip happening the next day, a power outage and a partridge in a pair tree did not effectively give me a chance to really see any valuable takeaways for effective teaching that will support student success. We need to see authentic applications in order to duplicate the learning sequence in an everyday setting to see what really works. The finished products were awesome, but I want to see what it looks like in the drafting process, how the teachers who have participated in EL have utilized the ethic of excellence approach and adapted it to best meet the needs of the students. I think we need to have the discussions and build time in to collaborate and continue the group support format, but it is also vital to see real life application that is working for the students as well. I think the only way to share work that makes the best use of the limited time we have as a staff would be to jump off Laura's suggestion and have meetings in different rooms so we can see in a rotation how work is evolving. Great thoughts, ladies!!
ReplyDeleteI agree that more extended contact with the Explorer Academy staff is the key to your PD. This could happen by establishing a few "clinical" visits or by establishing virtual skype visits with the teachers at the Explorer Academy. Let' talk more about how we could do this.
DeleteI agree with Gina and Nicole that we do need to be exposed more to an Explorer Academy at different times. I want to see a projects that are implemented from the beginning to the end.
DeleteI think seeing the school at a different time in the year would be very useful. I also liked the idea of using Skype with the teachers to understand things better. There was a lot going on when we visited last time, however I seemed to have missed the partridge in the pair tree. :)
DeleteI think it would be helpful to visit at different times. You not really experience a day in the life of something with just one visit.
DeleteDitto Nicole! I was a bit overwhelmed at the end of the year when they had their beautiful progressions displayed in the hall. I'm most interested in what the school looks like at the beginning of the year. Of course there is going to be a huge difference between what 1st graders are doing compared to the 3rd graders. Lots of front loading!
DeleteI agree our weekly PLC's is a starting point to share what is going on....but that half hour each week needs to be consistent. There needs to be a schedule made because we cannot forget about all of the other things that need to be done in this meeting. So maybe:
ReplyDelete-the first meeting of the month could be- looking at benchmarking results and talking about intervention groups
- 2nd meeting sharing work samples and talking strategies to get those high expectations
- 3rd meeting- Behavior issues- meet with Janesa-our counselor about students that may need extra help-
-4th meeting- PD ?
I just know when we try to squeeze everything in each week we never get anywhere. I also think these days should be sacred--not taken for other things unless it is absolutely necessary. Last year I know we lost this time for a variety of reasons.
I also agree that another trip to the Explorer Academy would be worth it. The end of the year can be crazy at any school--and it was no different there. I would like to see what is expected of 2nd graders at the beginning of the year and see how it progresses to the end of the year.
Gina, love the idea of scheduled topics for each meeting. I think it would make it a better use of our time. We could also carve out a time in each meeting to talk about our weekly concerns so we'd still get a chance to address everyday issues together.
DeleteGina, I like your proposed schedule of topics to cover during our collaboration times. This would really help to keep us on track. Laura had a good point though that we often have concerns to discuss from the week that may not be on the schedule, but are still valid.
DeleteWow! My mind is overwhelmed. These are all great ideas once we get to the actual teaching in the EL style but how are we going to get there. What can we do in these meetings to help us prepare for the following year when we start to implement this new way of doing things. Just food for thought...
ReplyDeleteTeams of Teachers can certainly share ideas and topics during the PL meetings. I also think this should be done with a plan in mind. Maybe themes. Such as Apples where each grade level could do some research about apples and then a project to where each grade level goes a little further than the previous grade.
ReplyDeleteI think our weekly meetings is an excellent way to start the process of sharing student work and to discuss teaching techniques but I don't think 30 minutes will be enough. I think we also need to have meetings that are a little longer that include the entire staff rather than just our teams. I would like to be able to visit an EL school again to attend a team meeting and get some ideas of learning techniques they use.
ReplyDeleteI agree that our weekly staff meetings and collaboration times are perfect opportunities to discuss student work and explore teaching techniques, since we already have this time built into our schedule. As others have pointed out, this time would be most beneficial if we create a monthly schedule to keep us on track.
ReplyDeleteI'm so thankful we have our weekly scheduled collaboration time but I do think (like Gina said) it needs to be more sacred. It is happening today regardless. We have a great starting point, as there is time in our schedule we just need to dedicate time within our meeting to share student work. I think a super easy way to share work is to take a few minutes and intentionally browse the halls. I know Ms. Maria is a regular hall browser and comments on my student's work displayed in the halls frequently. We are blessed with a massive amount of wall space. What if we use the bulletin board in the cafeteria and do a weekly display of awesome work from each grade level. On Monday morning we could have a brief reveal of the work picked. This would be super exciting for students. Teachers would have to choose and hang the work by Friday evening.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to continue visiting Explorer Academy and continue with book studies an an effective means to explore teaching techniques. We could send our PreK-2nd grade band and 3rd-5th grade bands at different times. I think it is important to visit with others so you can experience the teaching together and make note.
I also believe that using our collaboration time, as well as our morning weekly whole group meetings would be a great way to share student work and progress. I would like to meet as a whole staff because we are so small and I would like to see the progression of 2nd grade even though they are not in my collaboration. I think by being able to look back at the class before I can better prepare on how to meet each students needs.
ReplyDelete