Conflict is a steady issue in schools. Daily students experience many conflicts including conflict with learning, conflict with friends, conflict with protocols, and conflict with matters they bring to school. A big part of an educators' job is helping out with that conflict. Sometimes it's as easy as bringing two students together to each tell their side of the story, and other times it's a very complicated conflict change that extends from home into the neighborhood and to school. What makes the complex conflicts most difficult is the lack of hands or time to resolve the issue. For example our school has 400 students and two counselors. On an average day, that works, but when a complex conflict arises, that's often not enough support. Or for another example if you're one teacher in a classroom with many children, it's difficult to put the rest of the children on hold while you deal with a complex conflict with one or two issues, and if the conflict includes home or neighborhood issues, that's even more challenging.
In general, conflicts are easy to resolve, but when those complex conflicts arise, it's not unusual to feel a bit unprepared or ill-equipped, but with thought and collaboration we typically find a way to resolution. Onward.
Tuesday, December 05, 2017
Where Do You Invest Your Professional Time and Energy?
Last night I attended the local school committee meeting. As usual, I was inspired by the dedication of the committee as well as the many administrators, townspeople, and educators who were at the meeting. I listened carefully to the many initiatives they discussed including school start times, goals setting, goals, athletic fields, and budgets. There's lots to think about when it comes to leading a school system, and still more if you approach that work with a growth mindset.
This morning it will be more of the same deep and thoughtful investment as I listen to colleagues and school leaders discuss ideas to create an environment that's of greater help to our students who face issues of trauma as well an environment that embraces diversity and encourages respect. In addition, we'll look at our school improvement goals and learn about the WPSF grants, a resource that helps us to innovate.
As you can see there are many positive efforts in the works, and this is good. As I reflect on these efforts, I am thinking again about where I will invest my professional time and energy. Much is the same as in the past, but the focus is a bit more defined.
Local Union
As the secretary I'll continue to record information and keep the website up-to-date. I'll forward my own interest in helping educators know about the tremendous professional learning opportunities that exist via our local union professional learning website page. Further, I'll support the efforts of colleagues to speak up, discuss, and forward issues and ideas that matter.
Math Education
I'm spending a good amount of time working with individual students, small groups, and the class in math. I'm looking deeply at how students learn, and the ways that I can develop the program to engage, empower, and deeply educate students in this regard. My goal is to create more meaningful, culturally proficient, and student-centered project work as recommended by the math researcher, educator, and evangelist, Jo Boaler.
Cultural Proficiency and Community Building
With my team, I continue to work at developing our ability to teach in culturally proficient ways. Many other colleagues are contributing to this work too by sharing their research, learning, and ideas from conferences, reading, and teaching. I want to take some time over the holiday break to consider a number of resources and shares to deepen this important work. Colleagues and I are looking at planning spring events to forward this work too. As part of this is our effort to continually develop a strong and vital teaching/learning community and look for ways to broaden and deepen our collaboration to teach each student well.
Environmental Education
Last night at the school committee meeting, there was advocacy for greater environmental education. I believe in this, and I believe there is opportunity to develop our science teaching in more experiential and environmentally friendly ways. My colleagues and I have done work in this area in the past, but there has not been consistent financial or planning time support. I'll think about how we might not lose sight of this as I follow the efforts of the many who spoke at last night's meeting.
This morning it will be more of the same deep and thoughtful investment as I listen to colleagues and school leaders discuss ideas to create an environment that's of greater help to our students who face issues of trauma as well an environment that embraces diversity and encourages respect. In addition, we'll look at our school improvement goals and learn about the WPSF grants, a resource that helps us to innovate.
As you can see there are many positive efforts in the works, and this is good. As I reflect on these efforts, I am thinking again about where I will invest my professional time and energy. Much is the same as in the past, but the focus is a bit more defined.
Local Union
As the secretary I'll continue to record information and keep the website up-to-date. I'll forward my own interest in helping educators know about the tremendous professional learning opportunities that exist via our local union professional learning website page. Further, I'll support the efforts of colleagues to speak up, discuss, and forward issues and ideas that matter.
Math Education
I'm spending a good amount of time working with individual students, small groups, and the class in math. I'm looking deeply at how students learn, and the ways that I can develop the program to engage, empower, and deeply educate students in this regard. My goal is to create more meaningful, culturally proficient, and student-centered project work as recommended by the math researcher, educator, and evangelist, Jo Boaler.
Cultural Proficiency and Community Building
With my team, I continue to work at developing our ability to teach in culturally proficient ways. Many other colleagues are contributing to this work too by sharing their research, learning, and ideas from conferences, reading, and teaching. I want to take some time over the holiday break to consider a number of resources and shares to deepen this important work. Colleagues and I are looking at planning spring events to forward this work too. As part of this is our effort to continually develop a strong and vital teaching/learning community and look for ways to broaden and deepen our collaboration to teach each student well.
Environmental Education
Last night at the school committee meeting, there was advocacy for greater environmental education. I believe in this, and I believe there is opportunity to develop our science teaching in more experiential and environmentally friendly ways. My colleagues and I have done work in this area in the past, but there has not been consistent financial or planning time support. I'll think about how we might not lose sight of this as I follow the efforts of the many who spoke at last night's meeting.
Sunday, December 03, 2017
Vote/Advocate With Your Presence - Attendance at Important Meetings Matters
Tomorrow night our local school committee will discuss a few important issues including school start times. Many educators have privately and publicly shared viewpoints about this decision. Many administrators, family members, and townspeople have similarly shared their points of view. I believe a decision can be made with regard to this issue that's a win-win, a decision that benefits many without pitting some groups against others.
I plan to attend the school committee meeting tomorrow so that I can listen carefully to the discussion. I know that some of my peers are planning to attend too. I recommend that if this issue means a lot to you, that you make the time to attend the meeting. Attending meetings after the school day is a challenge for most educators and parents since their days are busy, and for many, their personal responsibilities to second jobs and their families are great. Yet, if we look out into the future, this issue can impact the success we have with teaching and learning every day. To choose wisely will benefit all in this regard.
If you care about what happens, I recommend that you attend the meeting. And, if you feel a bit overwhelmed, you can always bring your computers and multi-task a bit during the event.
I plan to attend the school committee meeting tomorrow so that I can listen carefully to the discussion. I know that some of my peers are planning to attend too. I recommend that if this issue means a lot to you, that you make the time to attend the meeting. Attending meetings after the school day is a challenge for most educators and parents since their days are busy, and for many, their personal responsibilities to second jobs and their families are great. Yet, if we look out into the future, this issue can impact the success we have with teaching and learning every day. To choose wisely will benefit all in this regard.
If you care about what happens, I recommend that you attend the meeting. And, if you feel a bit overwhelmed, you can always bring your computers and multi-task a bit during the event.
Students Benefit from Teacher Leadership
My grade-level colleagues and I attended Friday's Teacher Leadership in Action Conference at the Microsoft Center in Burlington, MA. The event was sponsored by Education First and included educators, administrators, consultants, and advocates. I included many of my tweets in a Storify above. You may also look at more of the day's tweets via #TLinAction.
Teacher leaders led the conference, and their talks/videos were informative and inspiring. I recommend that educators and administrators take a look at their videos, and perhaps use those videos during faculty meetings or other gatherings as one way to encourage greater teacher leadership efforts, discussion, and decision making.
The conference which was mainly run by the teacher leaders featured in the videos, gave teaching teams the chance to focus in on their individual and collective leadership. Further, the research shared demonstrated how developing teacher leadership truly does empower schools and students in ways that matter. When students are led by teachers that lead, those students do better and have mentors to inspire and direct their leadership too.
One aspect of the day included the opportunity to focus on a problem of practice with a team of teacher leaders. One colleague and I focused on the problem of how to deepen the math learning/teaching curriculum in ways that meet current research and include greater student-centered, project-based learning. We received tremendous advice from the teachers who used the worthy problem of practice approach to support us. The process used was exceptional. It was a process similar to ECET2's colleague circles, and a process that would be very helpful for school teams to use when working to better what they can do.
We also had the chance to create an action plan related to a specific goal we have for our practice. Together our team looked at the goal of deepening our collaboration with all members of the teaching team in an effort to teach each child with greater skill, focus, and result. In a sense, we're looking at how we can further develop our inclusion efforts for the benefit of students. Again we used a good goal setting process that starts with focus/vision and then moves on to the actual steps needed to meet the goal/vision. Our team had the chance to work with a dynamic team from Revere Public schools that provided us with some invaluable ideas and perspectives. We were also able to share our plan with other participants through a gallery walk, and received more good consult. I'm sure we'll continue to work on this plan and the implementation steps in the days to come.
Heidi Guarino, Emily Weiss, and Chad Rubalcaba did an exceptional job organizing and leading this teacher leadership event. In addition to learning about and interacting with many processes related to teacher leadership, we were also led with modern ways to backchannel, share notes, and utilize other aspects of blended learning/teaching to learn together. This approach coupled with the state-of-the-art Microsoft presentation center gave us a top-notch educational event, one that we can replicate with our students and colleagues.
There's lots to think about as I continue to reflect on the day's learning, and if you read this and engaged in the event with me, please feel free to add other takeaways in the comments section. If you were not at the event, and have questions, please feel free to ask. In summary, Teacher Leadership in Action was the kind of professional learning event I seek to forward my practice, and I'm so happy that my teammates and I were able to take advantage of this terrific endeavor.
Friday, December 01, 2017
Friday Musings: The First Day in December, 2017
Yesterday I had the chance to attend the Teacher Collaborative's inaugural event on Newbury Street in Boston. It was a terrific opportunity to connect and share with wonderful educators who represent many aspects of the education field including university personnel, consultants, educators, and advocates. The meeting confirmed for me again that there is much to be proud of as a Massachusetts educator since we have so many dedicated educators and outside agencies ready and willing to work to improve education in the state.
Join the Teacher Collaborative
I recommend that you join the Teacher Collaborative and its virtual network as one way to develop your craft and connect to the many opportunities that exist to develop your education practice and opportunities.
Use Professional Learning Events to Develop Practice and Strengthen Team
Today our fifth grade teaching team will meet with educators across the state at a teacher leadership conference sponsored by Education First. We'll use the day to look for ways to develop our collaborative teaching model in ways that make a difference for students, their families, and colleagues. During the meeting, I'll share a problem of practice with colleagues from my school system and other systems around the state. The problem I'll share is my quest to deepen math teaching/learning in ways that make math more interdisciplinary, culturally proficient, collaborative, relevant, and meaningful. Essentially I want to deepen math learning in ways that the researcher Jo Boaler has noted as more successful ways to teach and learn math. I'll be interested in what colleagues have to say in this regard. I'm looking forward to the ways we'll utilize the resources, information, and share at this conference to impact our current teaching model in positive ways.
Multiplication
Next week students will practice the area model, partial product algorithm, and traditional algorithms to multiply with proficiency and skill. To learn this simply takes lots of practice. As students master this, they'll then have the opportunity to practice many math concepts and skills that are easy to learn and somewhat enjoyable to practice. Essentially it's a back-to-basics, nuts-and-bolts math week.
Good Character Campaign
Last week students spent time talking about the developmental stages of students in K-5. Later they divided up into groups and took perspective of each grade's developmental stage as they created posters to inspire good character for that grade level. The project was led by a talented intern, and as students created they continually conversed about good character. Next week we'll discuss the teamwork needed to make these posters, complete the posters, and figure out how we'll advertise and forward the Good Character campaign we've started.
Book Group
Our book group completed their first book, Swindle, which was an action packed story. At our last meeting we watched a small part of the film that was created based on the book. it was enjoyable to discuss how the movie clip was both similar and different than the book, and how the movie's depictions of the characters were similar and different than we imagined as we read. We'll begin a new book next week, and as we begin reading the new book, we'll discuss how we can use a story elements framework, our imaginations, and attention to fully understand and enjoy a story.
School Concerts
There are many evening and a daytime concert planned for next week so that will bring a lot of excitement and some tired students the days following the concerts.
Faculty Meeting
We have an ambitious hour-long faculty meeting next week which will focus on how to best teach students who face trauma issues, the creation of a book stop that focuses on books celebrating diversity, grant opportunities, and details related to a peaceful, healthy, and happy school.
Extra Help Homework Club
Students are invited to come for extra help on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings at 8am. These extra help sessions have allowed students to complete their homework at their best learning time in the morning. Plus there's help available. I believe these sessions have been a help to students, families, and teachers since, for some, there's less frustration, more practice, and more help. This has been a win-win endeavor.
Math RTI
Students will practice computation, study divisibility rules, and play games in the two weeks of math RTI to come. I'll use that time to catch up with a number of students with one-to-one math meetings as a way to learn about the way they are learning in math with greater detail and potential.
To think ahead about the week to come, is to be prepared for the week ahead and to make space for the weekend fun ahead. Onward.
Join the Teacher Collaborative
I recommend that you join the Teacher Collaborative and its virtual network as one way to develop your craft and connect to the many opportunities that exist to develop your education practice and opportunities.
Use Professional Learning Events to Develop Practice and Strengthen Team
Today our fifth grade teaching team will meet with educators across the state at a teacher leadership conference sponsored by Education First. We'll use the day to look for ways to develop our collaborative teaching model in ways that make a difference for students, their families, and colleagues. During the meeting, I'll share a problem of practice with colleagues from my school system and other systems around the state. The problem I'll share is my quest to deepen math teaching/learning in ways that make math more interdisciplinary, culturally proficient, collaborative, relevant, and meaningful. Essentially I want to deepen math learning in ways that the researcher Jo Boaler has noted as more successful ways to teach and learn math. I'll be interested in what colleagues have to say in this regard. I'm looking forward to the ways we'll utilize the resources, information, and share at this conference to impact our current teaching model in positive ways.
Multiplication
Next week students will practice the area model, partial product algorithm, and traditional algorithms to multiply with proficiency and skill. To learn this simply takes lots of practice. As students master this, they'll then have the opportunity to practice many math concepts and skills that are easy to learn and somewhat enjoyable to practice. Essentially it's a back-to-basics, nuts-and-bolts math week.
Good Character Campaign
Last week students spent time talking about the developmental stages of students in K-5. Later they divided up into groups and took perspective of each grade's developmental stage as they created posters to inspire good character for that grade level. The project was led by a talented intern, and as students created they continually conversed about good character. Next week we'll discuss the teamwork needed to make these posters, complete the posters, and figure out how we'll advertise and forward the Good Character campaign we've started.
Book Group
Our book group completed their first book, Swindle, which was an action packed story. At our last meeting we watched a small part of the film that was created based on the book. it was enjoyable to discuss how the movie clip was both similar and different than the book, and how the movie's depictions of the characters were similar and different than we imagined as we read. We'll begin a new book next week, and as we begin reading the new book, we'll discuss how we can use a story elements framework, our imaginations, and attention to fully understand and enjoy a story.
School Concerts
There are many evening and a daytime concert planned for next week so that will bring a lot of excitement and some tired students the days following the concerts.
Faculty Meeting
We have an ambitious hour-long faculty meeting next week which will focus on how to best teach students who face trauma issues, the creation of a book stop that focuses on books celebrating diversity, grant opportunities, and details related to a peaceful, healthy, and happy school.
Extra Help Homework Club
Students are invited to come for extra help on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings at 8am. These extra help sessions have allowed students to complete their homework at their best learning time in the morning. Plus there's help available. I believe these sessions have been a help to students, families, and teachers since, for some, there's less frustration, more practice, and more help. This has been a win-win endeavor.
Math RTI
Students will practice computation, study divisibility rules, and play games in the two weeks of math RTI to come. I'll use that time to catch up with a number of students with one-to-one math meetings as a way to learn about the way they are learning in math with greater detail and potential.
To think ahead about the week to come, is to be prepared for the week ahead and to make space for the weekend fun ahead. Onward.
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