Entry #24 - March 1, 1999
"A colleague from our school was supposed to visit me for three
days of sharing and observation of technology integration. This was my 11th
or 12th round of visits, but it was my first unsuccessful pairing. . . ."
This was a very busy week. Our Critical Friends Group (CFG) Winter Forum
was held Tuesday after school. About 100 teachers from all over the city
attended. It was great to see how CFG's are growing!
We started the event with a text-based discussion of a Grant Wiggin's article,
"The Futility of Trying to Teach Everything of Importance" from
the November '89 issue of Educational Leadership. Participants broke into
six discussion circles and spent the first hour of the Forum talking about
the issues raised by Wiggins and the implications for our schools and our
classrooms.
I couldn't participate because I was running around with my student helpers,
registering latecomers, making sure things were running smoothly, and taking
pictures. I'm anxious to hear about the discussions from others.
Next on the program were various sessions about our work. There were presentaions
on Lit Circles, Teacher Collaboration, Rubrics, Socratic Seminar and Professional
Portfolios. In our session, we formed a panel and shared pieces of the professional
portfolios we recently presented at the Annenberg
conference. We each gave a brief overview of the twists and turns we'd been
through in the course of our portfolios' development.
We discussed the importance of goals by which we could measure our professional
growth. We stressed the need to include student work to document and authenticate
our progress toward our goals. And finally, we urged our audience members
to collaborate with either their CFG as a whole, or a peer coach. None of
us could imagine assembling a portfolio in isolation from other like-minded
colleagues.
The two questions which our participants kept raising were: "what should
we put in our portfolios" and "why are we doing this anyway...".
These are "the" questions, after all. I know we kept raising them
too, especially as our presentation deadline got closer and closer.
The freedom to design your own learning goals goes hand in hand with the
responsibility for personal and professional growth, and documentation.
While these ideas seem quite heady in the abstract, they grow extremely
weighty in the concrete. At a certain point, I know I wanted someone from
on high at Annenberg to dictate what "my" requirements were, and
what "their" expectations were, as well.
I think we all found it very difficult to break free from the " how
do I pass this test with flying colors?" mentality. Putting meat on
the bones of this lifelong learner frame continues to be both difficult
and rewarding for all of us. I hope we were successful in conveying the
personal value we got from our experiences to our audience.
After the second session we filled out reflection sheets and sat down to
a cold supper in the school cafeteria. We called for a citywide coaches'
meeting in early April and announced the impending arrival of an IBM sponsored
website for citywide CFG discussions.
The next morning it was back to CPI (Continuous Practice Improvement professional
development model) for me. A colleague from our school was supposed to visit
me for three days of sharing and observation of tecnology integration. This
was my 11th or 12th round of visits, but it was my first unsuccessful pairing.
My colleague took a personal day on the second day of the three day cycle!
On the two days when he was supposed to be observing my teaching, he left
the room everytime I turned around.
I need to think more about why this visit didn't work. I need to examine
what I might have done differently to make it more successful, but I must
admit that at this point, I feel my partner just wasn't ready. I think both
of us need to be prepared to learn in these situations.
Maybe it was just a case of too much, too soon. Maybe he just felt too overwhelmed
by the technology. We teach the same kids, although he teaches social studies.
We have always had a friendly relationship. I don't know. I just know it
didn't feel right and we never accomplished much of anything in terms of
concrete applications for his classroom.
I'll have to discuss this with our tech facilitator. She's in the CFG with
me, and I think we'll be able to salvage something from this experience
for everyone concerned. Maybe we need to write some generalizeable lessons
about teaching and technology use. I always feel like I can learn from other
teachers no matter what the subject or grade level. To me, good teaching
is good teaching.
On Wednesday afternoon we had our first planning session for next summer's
enrichment program. I can't believe it's already time to plan for July,
but the budget's due next month.
We hope to hold TAPS II (Technology Assisted Problem Solving II) from July
6th to the 23rd. We want to bump it up from 3 resident teachers, 9 visiting
teachers and 45 kids, to 7 residents, 21 visitors and 80 kids.
As soon as the resident teachers are identified we can begin planning in
earnest. I'm hoping we can pilot "active research" projects with
the kids. Our District is planning to require exit projects in grades 4,
8 and 12 next year. With that graduation requirement in mind, I've been
reading, "Teaching
Middle School Students to Be Active Researchers" by Judith M. Zorfass
and Harriet Copel.
I'm excited by the possibilities that exit projects present, but I know
how much work science fair projects require and these new projects are supposed
to be cross-curricular and service-oriented too! It seems to me that this
type of thing should be phased in over a three-year period rather than imposed
as a regulation all in one year. But, as usual, no one's asking teachers,
parents or students....
Finally, my grades were due today. I always feel a little panicky when my
second period grades go in each February. I can almost hear the time rushing
by and I become acutely aware of how much more I want to accomplish before
June rolls around.
My eighth graders started receiving high school acceptance letters today
and my seventh graders found out that social promotion is over and summer
school will be held this year. Both of these developments should lead to
an interesting Spring.
[Editor's note: Some useful discipline and anti-bullying links are located
on MiddleWeb's "First Days of School"
page. Perhaps we need a "Last Days of School" page....]
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