Tomorrow October begins which starts a deeper teaching leg of the year--a time to think deeply about these students we're beginning to know, and a time to continue to build our shared teaching model.
With regard to the three classroom teachers and the principal, the model has been moving along great--all of our spring and summer planning has contributed to a good schedule and a nice teaching/learning flow. The challenge now is to incorporate all the others who support our model by taking a closer look at those structures.
Some of the areas of focus include the following:
- Looking at our team as TeamFive rather than three separate classes. Last week a colleague passed out "our students" reports to us by passing out three individual classes. That was challenging since we're all teaching all students, so what we need now is lists of all students, not one class or the other. That takes a shift in perspective.
- Planning meetings always focused on the classroom teacher and student, but now the planning meetings really need to focus on all the classroom teachers since we all share in the students' progress.
- Support personnel need to think about the students' schedule rather than the individual teacher's schedule so they are where they are most needed with regard to student support rather than teacher support.
- There's greater room for pulling students from many classes for small group instruction, special teaching/learning groups, projects, and enrichment.
Specifically I can't wait to get beyond the last few assessments so I can dig into the teaching and learning for each and every child. Onward.
