Entry #19: Reflecting on the future of
teacher development and collaboration
They say you take your health for granted until it's a problem, well the
same can be said for the weather. I am totally preoccupied with the tracking
of storms, snow or ice, the wind chill, and of course, the latest school
closings.
I live about 8-10 minutes from my school so I can always get in to work,
but the conditions are a concern because it translates into doubled-up classes,
extra coverages and high anxiety, if my suburban colleagues get stuck.
Add to that the awareness that we must make up every snow day we miss. Grades
will still be due at the same time, standardized testing schedules are carved
in stone, but school will go on! The kids laugh and say that they just won't
come and most won't.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one who takes the summer off. I actually think
the schedule should be changed to a year-round model. The last time I checked
most of my kids weren't needed to help with the harvest or chores over the
summer. I just wish that when we did have school, whatever the schedule,
that it would correspond to real blocks of learning and assessment as opposed
to rigid and somewhat arbitrary schedules.
I've been reading The
Hero's Journey: How Educators Can Transform Schools and Improve Learning
by John L. Brown and Ceryville A. Moffett, and I opened to a page with the
following quote this morning:
"...no individual can intend the future of that system
or control its journey to that future. Instead what happens to an organization
is created by and emerges from the self-organizing interaction between its
people..." ( Ralph Stacey, Managing
the Unknowable, 1992)
The quote is found in a chapter called "The Philosopher's Stone"
and goes on to talk about the stone as the tangible representation of our
personal insights and knowledge.
The whole notion of "polishing the stone" of our craft or actually
developing a "philosopher's stone" collectively as a learning
community appeals to my sense of constructivism in action. Of course the
powers that be seem to think that a stone is a rock and a rock is a dead,
static thing.
But I won't dwell on the petrified nature of some of their thinking, at
least not now. Instead I'm turning my sights on the changes needed to support
teacher development and student achievement. My school has just started
holding Saturday School. We've decided to ignore the "sanctity"
of Saturday and organize extra help for our students in need.
Beyond the Saturday classes, we're also holding extra sessions before and
after school to help our overage kids that have fallen behind. All of these
extras have a few things in common: the classes are smaller, the times are
unusual, attendance represents a partnership between home and school and
perhaps most importantly, they're being designed on site by the people involved.
It's exciting to have the opportunity to address students' needs creatively
and consistently. It's exhilirating to teach in a classroom setting where
you can actually make contact with all of your students in any given period.
But just having smaller classes won't do the trick. Better teacher-to-student
ratios without creative collaboration and purposeful planning won't make
the difference for our kids or our teachers.
The down side of all of this is whether we'll be given sufficient time to
get it right. Meaningful collaboration takes time, it's not a quick fix.
If the test scores go up, we'll probably get the funds to continue. If we
don't make enough progress, the plug will be pulled. In fact, in today's
political climate, the money plug may be pulled at any time, regardless
of the results.
Pulling the plug on the National School Reform Faculty
This whole area of teacher collaboration and its relationship to whole school
change and student achievement weighs heavily on me generally, but especially
now. On Wednesday, I'm leaving for LA and a national meeting of Annenberg
coaches and principals.
The Critical Friends Group coach's training that I've been part of, the
development of my professional learning portfolio, the nurturing of the
reflective habits which this work has fostered, amount to the greatest contributing
factors in my professional development. From my discussions with others
from Philadelphia and around the country, I know I'm not alone in this assessment,
and yet, the plug is being pulled.
Next weekend, in addition to our focus on the work of our individual CFG's,
we'll be planning for the transition of the national work. The National
School Reform Faculty will no longer be funded through Annenberg or centered
at Brown.
The development and expansion of the NSRF program to support the development
of reflective practioners as a vehicle to advance student learning has run
out of funds, not steam. We have a new home lined up at the Harmony School
Education Center, but the critical details of ongoing communication, the
organization of local regional and national networks, and the funding and
staffing need to be ironed out, in some fashion, next weekend.
While it is exciting to develop an organization which flows from the needs
of its participants, it is also a monumental task. Balancing our responsibilities
toward our individual learning communities and kids with this additional
layer will require a mustering of all the lessons we've learned thus far.
Figuring out the ways and means to assure ongoing, high quality expansion
in the absence of the luxury of stable funding is mindboggling. Maintaining
communication with our peers from all around the country without regularly
scheduled national meetings is another matter of concern.
Listserv's, chat rooms, message boards and a host of other electronic avenues
loom large. Documentation of our work for assessment purposes and to garner
the funds necessary to continue, will also need our focused attention.
And while I try to wade through this maze of questions, questions and more
questions, I hear the incoming report of an impending snow and ice storm
and I wonder... Will there be school tomorrow? Will my flight go off as
scheduled Wednesday?
Time to set all these thoughts aside for a while, my immediate reality beckons.
A retired friend will be covering my classes and I must work on my three-day
packet of lessons. It's a relief to know that a solid teacher will cover
my classes in my absence, if the weather holds up. Unfortunately, that remains
a very big IF...
Next week I hope to return to my diary with a few answers to the questions
I've outlined today. I'm looking forward to the work, the time to focus
on it and I must admit, I'm looking forward to the warmer weather too!
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