Some Background about Deborah Bambino
and the Philadelphia Public Schools
A few years ago, I participated in a training program for new coaches. I
had been approached by my colleagues in the IBM Reinventing Education Project
about coaching a grant-based Critical Friends Group (CFG).
At my training I was exposed to a host of tools and methods which could
be used to support reflective habits of mind. The notion that we, as teachers,
were not taking enough time to reflect upon our practice, rang true. All
too often, I had felt as though I were running a race, trying to catch up
to the curriculum, never looking back, trying to drag along as many students
as I could.
Forming a CFG meant pausing to reflect regularly with a group of colleagues.
At one of our earliest meetings we developed a list of shared goals for
our work. One of our goals was to make teaching and learning public.
We had correctly identified teacher isolation as an obstacle to the refinement
of both our individual and collective teaching practice. We planned to look
for ways to collaborate through the development of a peer coaching model,
the use of protocols to examine student work, and the publication of our
views to colleagues and other members of the school community.
We left the CFG charged with the responsibility to concretize the group's
goals for ourselves as individuals. Personally, I had always planned to
keep a teaching diary. I even went so far as to buy a journal every September.
However, I never fulfilled the plan. I'd write for a day or two and then
the journal would become a casualty, cast aside as I entered the curriculum
race that I mentioned earlier.
As a CFG coach I took the collective goal-setting seriously. When I read
a posting on the MIDDLE-L listserv asking
for teacher applicants who were interested in keeping an online teaching
diary, I jumped at the chance. I believed that my commitment to keep a public
diary would give me the push I needed to make good on my stated goal. I
felt I had much to learn and nothing to lose by applying.
My application was accepted and I began writing my entries in the Fall
of '98. I wrote once a week, recounting the highs and lows of my classroom
experience. Very early on, I discovered that I was most interested in exploring
the things that didn't go well.
In the past, I generally threw failed lessons in the trash, anxious to put
as much distance as possible between myself and the artifacts of my failure.
As a CFG member and a diarist, I began to understand the wealth that could
be mined from the lessons that flopped. I began to appreciate the learning
that lay buried just beneath the surface of my miscalculations -- learning
that neither my students, nor I, could afford to miss.
I began to appreciate the learning that lay buried
just beneath the surface of my miscalculations -- learning that
neither my students, nor I, could afford to miss.
An added benefit to keeping a public diary was the feedback that I received
from teachers, parents and even a few students from all around the world.
My days of isolation were clearly numbered. I now had an expanded community
of learners to rely upon.
As a CFG coach/diarist I began to develop the reflective habits of which
I had previously daydreamed. I consulted colleagues regularly about lessons
gone wrong or dilemmas I had about my students' learning.
The feedback I received was priceless. I began to open up the conversation
to my middle school students as well. We began to focus on our preferred
modes of teaching and learning, and my classroom practice as well as my
facilitation of various teacher committees began to change.
The tangible benefits of reflection
The documented benefits of my/our reflection became tangible last year when
my school's science scores on our district's standardized test shot up a
full 10 percentage points.
Our CFG began to take on responsibility for professional development sessions
at our school. We fish- bowled a tuning protocol for the entire staff and
approved the use of a videotape of our group's work as part of a series
by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
As a result of our progress, I began to receive requests to expand my work.
I was asked to move out of the classroom and into the position of a teacher
educator or facilitator. While I enjoyed working with other teachers and
appreciated the role facilitators played in my development, I was reluctant
to leave my students and the comfort zone of my own school.
My anxiety, at least in part, grew out of my awareness of the credibility
gap which develops as soon as a teacher leaves the classroom. I knew that
facilitators were often viewed as suspect, as "others", as non-teachers.
I also worried about losing touch with kids -- the source of my wonder,
my laughter, my inspiration. Regular kid fixes have always energized me.
When the bureaucracy or the political scene has been discouraging, my kids
have always pulled me through.
A teacher without a classroom
In July, after much soul searching, I finally agreed to make the move. I
was offered a position with a team of educators whom I respect deeply. I
recognized long ago that our efforts to grow the habits of reflective practitioners
needed to expand beyond our individual classrooms and schools. It seemed
that it was now my time to step into the broader mix.
I am currently the Teaching and Learning Coordinator of the Washington Cluster
in the School district of Philadelphia. A cluster is a sub-district made
up of a comprehensive high school and the elementary and middle schools
that feed students into it.
I am responsible for coordinating the professional development programs
in these twelve schools. I will be working with two other facilitators and
a number of other coordinators whose areas of expertise include service
learning, equity and family resources.
As I approach my new assignment as a teacher without a classroom, I am worried
about the real and imagined barriers which may exist between myself and
classroom teachers. I am committed to working to develop the requisite trust
we will need to move forward toward our common goals.
As a coordinator I hope to facilitate the development of ongoing conversations
across the grades and the curriculum. I envision a corridor of learning
for our kids where students, not subjects, are at the center.
Within this conversation or corridor, I plan to sharpen the focus on the
special needs and talents of children at each stage of their development.
I'd like our unity to be built on a solid understanding of both our commonalities
and our differences. (In our Cluster the test scores are good at the elementary
level, but drop off precipitously in the middle years.)
A particular focus on middle schools
In my new job, I hope to bring my heightened understanding and appreciation
of adolescents to the table. While I think we need to examine all of our
"teams" to ensure that they are teams in more than name only,
we need a particular focus on our middle schools.
Initially, I hope to get involved in the celebration of October as the "Month
of the Adolescent." Up to now, our middle schools don't appear to have
had much relationship to the national middle school movement. My involvement
with other middle school teachers around the country has greatly enhanced
my understanding and practice. I hope to share these resources with my new
colleagues.
My sense is that many teachers find themselves in middle school by chance
and not by choice. Hesitancy and or a sense of resignation, cut against
an appreciation of this special age group. As a result of my own experiences
as an early childhood educator who landed in seventh grade, I hope to facilitate
the process of inquiry and appreciation for adolescents that are the hallmarks
of true middle school teams.
Access to the new MiddleWeb teacher listserv
and ongoing reflection about the latest research about middle level education
-- its ups and downs -- will serve to empower teachers in these positions.
Engaging families in their children's education
My interest in engaging families in the long term process of their children's
education, from K-12 will also be a primary goal of mine for the year. Parents
often get less involved as their children grow. As a parent, myself, I know
that our children want their independence most, at precisely those times
when they desperately need our support.
The divisions which exist between home and school are a special concern
for me. I am committed to exploring these divisions and bridging the gap
that separates us from our students'most powerful allies, their families.
Working together to find ways to navigate parenting and teaching during
the middle and high school years is a personal priority that I have set.
As a staff we are using the essential question, "How do I as a cluster
member define effective teaching and learning to support all children in
the Washington Cluster community?" to guide our work. My diary for
this year will be framed by that question.
I know I 'll miss my kids, I already do! I hope that armed with my CFG facilitation
toolbox and a commitment to active listening and learning, I will be a regular
and welcome guest in the classrooms of my new colleagues. I want to adopt
their students as my own, I know I'm going to continue to need those kid
fixes that I mentioned earlier.
Back to Deborah's 2000-20001
Diary Index
Deborah Bambino kept a diary at MiddleWeb last year.
Here's the index.