Jennifer's Prompt # 3: To borrow Ellin's subtitle on page 17: In what ways can we live our adult lives as intellectually curious leaders for our students and for our colleagues?
I can't tell you how many nights I stayed up thinking - why didn't my teachers get it? Why don't they want to help their students - to move them beyond the expected curriculum and into differentiation and individualization and understanding? Why they didn't have an internal drive and motivation to replicate what Ellin and Debbie and everyone was writing about and modeling in their books? I modeled the ideas and goals at faculty meetings and in our weekly newsletters by both taking pictures of the activities and usage of the strategies in classes and including snapshots and ideas from the books themselves. But I could not motivate the teachers who were in the "been there done that" mode. They made fun of the teachers who were taking leaps. They got extremely cliquey. It was just so depressing! What kept me going was the fact that I knew what I was writing/talking/modeling was right for both the teacher and the students. So....to answer the question - by modeling, blogging, dicsussing, showing how to never stop learning...our actions speak louder than words. The sad thing is that there are so many of us who are isolated islands of application. The good thing is that there are places like this where the isolated islands can find refuge, mentorship, and relief. But how to be there for our colleagues? I think they have to be ready first. I obviously never figured out the answer to that one! -Lori Lori has captured my sentiments perfectly. I wish we worked in the same building! – MJ You say you haven't figured out what to do with colleagues? To me it sounds like you are doing all the right things! :-) This is a tough issue....and one that I continue to struggle with. Part of my role is to work with teachers as well as students. I am so passionate about teaching comprehension and the nature of understanding and it is so hard sometimes to relate to the teachers that won't change...but I know that we have to be persistent in order to achieve our vision for kids! I keep reminding myself that most teachers really do, down in their deepest heart of hearts, want to do the right thing for kids. Sometimes though, there is a disconnect between what they think is the right thing... and what you think is the right thing. What has to happen is that you have to find the commonalities in what you all want for kids and then decide together how to get there. Easier said than done, I know....but when we have made deliberate attempts to do that, we have found that the changes are a bit easier to achieve. :-) I can share how my thinking has evolved over the past few years and what I am trying to learn to do to help bring teachers on board. I have been spending a lot of time recently studying teacher leadership and professional learning communities. My goal is to move more of my colleagues forward. (It is part and parcel of my interest in lesson study and this listserv...that idea of teachers learning from each other is a powerful interest to me.) Each of these tactics/strategies have helped us move our staff forward in degrees and it is a long process. We are much further along the continuum at my school than we were when I started in this role 10 years ago, but we still have some distance to travel. 1. Real change has to come from the teachers...not from us. This is where the power of PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) come in. What I learned is that my vision isn't neccessarily their vision. What we have had to do is craft together what our common beliefs were. Then we as leaders have to be the steward of that vision and hold people's feet to the fire. We said "X" is what we want for kids. Is "Y" getting us "X"? If not, what do we need to learn/do to get us "X"? It has really helped me to read up on professional learning communities (Try the books by Eaker and DuFour). Even trying small pieces of their recommendations have really helped. 2. It takes more than one leader to create real change. I am lucky because I have some visionary administrators, deep support from both administration and some colleagues...but it wasn't always like that as far as the colleagues go. The colleagues' support grew gradually...over time...because as new staff came on, we deliberately worked to support them in their learning. It sounds like you have some folks buying in. I think that you can work with the folks that are in to it. Celebrate your success...even the small ones...and support them so that they can continue to act as leaders for the others. Continue to take pictures, and keep data (hard and soft) about how well your kids are learning. Bring the interested colleagues on to the listserv for more support. Even one leader though can start the ball rolling...it is just your job to create MORE leaders for the real change to happen. 3. One thing that has helped at my school has been coteaching. (Which by the way, people hated when it started seven years ago and now is a way of life!) I teach side by side with several teachers for an hour a day for a whole year...and sometimes two or three years. When you plan and teach side by side every day, a close relationship develops, teacher learning (both my colleagues learning and mine) is supported and changes "stick." 3. Some people are always "late adopters." and some never do adopt new practices. A few will never be "ready." Sometimes you just have to get the wrong people off the bus. 4. If you read up on the change process...there are ALWAYS rough periods. It makes it easier to take when you know that this always happens when you try to change things. - Jennifer Palmer I hate reverting to politicism when I know people tire of it and would rather be forward-looking and visionary and proactive and all the things that I'd certainly rather be. But...let's look at the case of what you are both talking about. It's what our teachers face every single day as teachers. It's what we face every day as the teacher of teachers (okay, some poetic license there) and that's TEST ANXIETY. And it has nothing to do with us taking tests. It has everything to do with the testing/standards/accountability/NCLB, etcetera mania that is choking the lives out of us. I have a feeling none of us (represented in this post) would be impatient and stressed about change and where different teachers are in the process if we weren't half crazed over test scores. We're not hyperactive-guinea-pig-acting naturally. We would remember that things take time and that Rome wasn't built in a day and things bloom in their own time and we're just here to support you and just take baby steps and.... But, in the schools I know, things are at such a frantic, frenetic pace to make everyone above average!! I teach in a school where 70% of our children receive free and reduced lunch and there are many other factors that might discourage us. I don't mind at all what child walks in our doors, as long as he can get himself in or we can help her get in. They're all welcome. But then we're told that they have to ___________ and to _________ and to __________ and they have to do it tomorrow or "the state will take over the school." Do you think that makes me patient and accepting of our less-developed teachers when I know there's a better mousetrap out there that would help them catch more mice--more humanely--and they just don't want to know about it yet? Even though I know that "change is thrilling and exhilerating if you're doing it yourself, but terrifying if it's being done to you"? Even if I know it's better to go slower, think deeper, and take it one step at a time? And then let's pass that on down. Do you think those very teachers are ready to experiment with doing something new or take a risk or change a leaf when all they hear is AYP threats? And then how accepting are they of their little ones which are doing the best they can, but that's not better than 70% of the kids across America so their progress is marginalized? Now...Jennifer's response is the thoughtful response that belongs here and that Lori needs and wants. And I can justify all this rant only by saying it's not fun walking in any of our Birkenstocks these days, whether they're tiny pink ones or well-worn brown. But here's why I'm writing it: We are in the position where if it's to be, it's up to...us. And while we need to do all the things Jennifer recommended, maybe what we need at the core is to understand that NOONE LEARNS IN FEAR--including soccer teachers in mini-vans. There's only so long that warm fuzzies are appropriate, but I think it helps my impatience when I can put myself in others' shoes, which I certainly can in this Blame Game we live in in education today. Our teachers are sometimes just scared to take chances. Okay, that's enough for me today. Sometimes we do have to just hold hands and sing Kumbaya. –Bev You are absolutely right, of course. No one said any of this is easy. What has happened up to this point, is that so often we teachers just shut our doors and do what is right for our kids but we never try to go beyond that point. We ARE all scared...and angry. It is time to be brave...and that courage will look different depending on our own personalities. Some of us could mentor a new teacher. Others could create study groups on Ellin's new book... still others may aspire to take on an administrative role...Once we reach a critical mass...teachers leading and taking responsibility for their own profession, then can you imagine what we could do? We just can't shut our doors and take care of just our own students anymore. There is too much at risk. Ellin wants us to teach for depth and for understanding. Kids who grow up with this kind of teaching will not only be productive, but thoughtful. Isn't this what democracy...what our country requires of us? Isn't this worth fighting for...working through and past our own fear and uncertainty to try to make a real difference? Could we fail? Sure. But, you only miss 100% of the shots you never take. I know this is more than we bargained for as teachers. We already fight to see that our students in our classroom get the learning they need and of course we love them. We put in hours and hours on lesson plans and paper work. We spend our own money on classroom materials and that should be enough. But it isn't anymore. That is why first and formost, I believe that real change and real leadership needs to come from US. Leadership has to not only be at the school level or the district level as I talked about in our earlier post. Some of us, perhaps all of us, need to learn to talk to policy makers..and advocate on behalf of our children. I have had the chance to do some of this since I live near Washington DC...and believe me it is hard. I didn't really know what I was doing and I am pretty sure that 90 percent of the time I was just "yessed" along. BUT a few times, a few precious times, I did feel I was listened to. And you know what? It is our cumulative voice that matters. There have been many voices crying out against the unfair portions of NCLB...and I think that voice is being heard. How do I know this??? My principal is on the executive board for the National Association of Elementary Principals. She has had many opportunities over the past few years to meet with officials in Washington and she has more experience doing so than I have. She is sure that change is in the air. Suddenly she is being asked for her opinion on changes to NCLB. She doesn't have to knock on doors...they are coming to her. After the election is over...watch and see. I bet we will see change. We, as educators, need to be at that table...insisting on input on how that change will look. We must be persistant...step out of our comfort zone and speak up.There are ways to email our congressmen. We must do so. Our kids depend on us. In the meantime, I am convinced that little things like professional learning communities and coteaching can make a difference. If you help even one colleague develop better teaching practices, you have doubled the amount of students whose lives you have improved. Oh, Bev... I am an optimist. I can't help it. If I didn't believe that things could change and that we can play a part in making that happen, I couldn't go to work each day. -Jennifer I agree. Change is coming. In NC a person from DPI told a group of Pre-K and K teachers that change for a more developmentally appropriate K is on the way as well as better ideas for/ in leiu of testing. Our principal heard the same ideas about testing at a principal's meeting in Chapel Hill just this week. He stated that a Blue Ribbon committee? is coming around to hear from teachers about the good, bad and ugly of testing. He has challenged us to teach and not worry about the test. He wants to take our school in the direction of what works for our kids and being innovative. NC also throughout the writing test this year and we are doing portfolios. Thought I would share some of the good news that it out there. - Kendra _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list Understand@literacyworkshop.org http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
