Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Good analysis; many points of view

In school life, there are many points of view. There are also many factors that affect student and school success. Multiple points of views, multiple contributing factors makes good analysis, a shortage of time for analysis, and often the lack of a good process make good analysis challenging when it comes to school decisions and issues.

In the near future, I'll meet with a couple of administrators to advocate for time to discuss potential revision to our RTI process. My research related to the benefit of good relationships, consistency, and knowing children well with regard to success in education points me to a desire to change our RTI model. I believe we can do a better job, yet I don't have all the answers and would like to host a conversation that invites the perspectives from the entire team in a thoughtful, inclusive way. I look forward to sitting down with the administrators to advocate for time and support to discuss this idea. I hope that they will support this idea so that we can all hear the multiple view points, experience, and knowledge the team has related to the issue. I believe that this is a decision that will profit from a team approach rather than the decision of one or only a few.

When we teach each day, we also work with multiple points of view. Children have varied interests and preferences when it comes to learning. At the elementary school we want to honor students' preferences and interests while also embedding well-researched, successful strategies and giving children an experience to learn in many ways that they may not naturally choose--ways that could later become their preferences.

Our staff, led by our building union representatives, are meeting more frequently to share ideas about what's important for our school. It is helpful to hear my colleagues' perspectives about many issues, some of which I share and some for which I think differently. In many ways our staff is similar, but in many ways we are different too. I believe this is one reason why we are a strong, collective teaching staff.