If this is working, I finally figured out how to create an online space for my writing and observations where readers can interact in real time…an actual blog. This began as an email within my school district, editorializing about the positive things around me, but it turned into an “electronic snowball” of people sharing themselves and their positive energy.
In the summer of 2010, I was invited to take this work to the blog of a national education think tank, where it focused closer on school leadership and improvement. This was a great experience and may continue, but the real work of teaching is the human connections we make. That is the real work of our life here on the big round ball, so I am pleased to invite you, colleagues, students, parents, teachers, family, and friends, to share these chats with me and one another, when you have a few minutes to stop and reflect and appreciate life from the classroom to the world. Welcome!
I love the site Walt! Just wanted to respond to one of your thoughts about scheduling….with all the budget cuts it is really hard to do staff development during any part of the school day, because subs are expensive! Next year, basically once a semester, we are sending the children home at half day, and teachers will have the opportunity to collaborate and plan…our kids already go a bit longer than they are required to each day…so we are able to technically bank the minutes and provide teachers “time” on the clock! We did this about 10 years ago…and it seemed to work…not sure why we ever did away with it… I’ll let you know how it goes!
Joni – our district has made it habit to add a few minutes to the day so that about three Wednesdays a month the elementaries get out at 1:40 so staff has about 90 minutes a week for PD. Simultaneously, the secondary schools start late on Wednesday mornings so their staff has the same time. It seems to work out better at the upper levels because those departments already have collaborative organizations. Elementary is still learning how to use the time and the district is growing to allow more liberty in building-level structuring of that time for collaborative PD.
I’ve heard that parents don’t love it because it opens a window of either daycare needs or unsupervised time for their children…however, most understand how limited planning and collaborative time is for teachers, so it is graciously supported. I often query, how many other careers spend 6 hours of each day “presenting” and only get about 1-2 hours (paid) to plan for those presentations? In business and private industry, and in other countries, teachers have a better ratio of planning/reflecting time to instructional time. No wonder they get to teacher deeper, better.
I can’t believe this is my little 4th grader writing! WOW!!!! ..ok, back to the subject at hand…..one little perk, besides daily block planning, our principal provides a double block planning each grading period to give teachers a little extra time to plan together. As curriculum support, I try to pull as much information and as many materials as possible to lighten their load. Folks have NO idea what planning at the elementary level involves, unless they are in an elementary school!
Sounds like you are functioning as a coach and CD? We need this coaching thing to get legs everywhere simply because people don’t understand the effort required of elementary planning. If they did, it wouldn’t surprise them why our schools are not performing better overall.