Sunday, February 28, 2016

Shared Teaching: Moving Forward with TLI

On Friday and Saturday, I'll meet with the Teacher Leadership Initiative (TLI)  Massachusetts cohort in central Massachusetts. Together we'll work on our capstone projects. My project is focused on developing our shared teaching model in ways that matter.

To date our team has done the following:
  • Proposed the model
  • Revised the model
  • Gained approval
  • Introduced the model to students, families, and colleagues
  • Met with family members at fall conferences.
  • Coordinated and sent out our first standards-based reports. 
  • Nurtured and developed the model schedule, efforts, and practice
  • Surveyed students and family members with regard to the model
  • Met with the principal to review the model midyear
  • Shared the survey and review with the systemwide administrators
  • Met weekly as a grade-level teaching team and as an extended team of coaches, specialists, assistants, leaders, and teachers.
Now that we're getting closer to the 2/3 point of the year, our thoughts are moving towards how we can continue to develop and improve on this model in order to teach children well.  We have the following efforts planned:
  • Establishing a date to meet to develop our shared STEAM efforts
  • Coordinate student-led spring family conferences
  • Discuss and advocate for an improved schedule next year
  • Work with administration with regard to the needs for the learning environment to be sensitive to specific student health/educational needs next year
  • Revisit and revise last year's introductory efforts such as the website, team letters, supply lists, and team Back to School Night presentations.
  • Completing this year's orders and submitting receipts.
  • Working together to complete this year's teaching efforts, almost all which are planned, but many still to be executed
  • Completing students' transition materials
  • Ordering materials for next year
  • Possibly pulling our work together and presenting it at a local conference next year
As I've said again and again, this, in many ways, is one of the best years of teaching I've had due to the terrific team approach we're employing--I LOVE what we're able to do, and how our sense of team and collaboration is moving us forward. 

When I meet with other TLI participants this week, I'll look forward to listening to their stories and hearing about their efforts. I'm sure their work will impact ours--it should be a wonderful weekend of growth.