Please respond to the following questions:
1. Are our teachers organized into teams whose members work interdependently to achieve common goals? How might our teachers be organized into teams that focus thier efforts on student learning?
2. What resources could you examine during this process of collective inquiry?
3. What steps have we taken to provide teachers time to collaborate on a regular basis during the school day? What additional steps could be taken?
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30 comments:
There are so many teams I would love to be a part of ... English, History, Technology, Student Leadership and Motivation, and so on. But if we are part of too many it will be difficult to focus on implementing all of the strategies from each team. So I will work wherever I'm put.
I think it would be very helpful to create a wiki or blog for each team to talk to each other about specific issues discussed in face to face meetings. It is so hard to find time to talk and solve problems, that one of these devices could help us talk when we have time - either at school or at home. This way we can fully utilize the prof dev time we can scrap together during the regular school day.
I agree with Mrs. Barnett. Since I am the Media Specialist I would like to be a part of several different teams. I am interested in learning how to "blog" and move my technology skills forward.
I would love to serve on all academic teams so I could stay up on all information that pertains to the children I support with Special needs
I think it is a great idea to organize teachers into teams according to their subject/speciality. They can learn from each and better serve our students. I have already benefitted this year from our professional development meeting on Tues., Jan. 2 from discussions with the other business education teachers in the county. Steps already taken are our prof. dev. meetings, this blog, staff meeting and training sessions.
I agree with you all also. I would like to be a part of other elem. teams. I find that I get a wealth of information at the lunch table or other times that we as a faculty can sit and chat.
I think it would be great if we could come up with more time for teachers to collaborate. As a new teacher to this school I really appreciate any additional support or help I can get. I would also like to be apart of an elementary team that focuses on student learning.
We must set the stage for integrating learning. In order to do this there must be a driving force. Every school has specific needs and goals and the focus must be on them. Providing quality instead of quantity ways of meeting these needs and goals is the answer.
1.I would love to have a team to work on developing some curriculum maps for our school, expecially in elementary. I realize that the county has done this to a certain degree, but I think we need to go a little further and make our own. We need more building on each other from grade to grade instead of everyone doing his/her own thing. For example, what could we focus on in 1st and 2nd grades to add to in 3rd grade, and so on, in order to have better writers by the time they reach 6th grade. If everyone is trying to get a 5 paragraph essay down, but they never get the majority of the students doing good paragraphs, then what's the point? Maybe this makes sense. I am with Sandy on the fact that we need quality, not quantity. I believe that we have been stuck on quantity for years now, and it is time to shift our focus. (O.K., that's my soap box!)
2. The team could examine the curr. maps already created and actually meet with grade level teachers to discuss things that need to be focused on before the students reach that grade. Get collaborative opinions on what the sequence of things needs to be. If 3rd does the phases of the moon, then 4th can still do them, but build on what 3rd did. This is where 4th needs to know exactly what 3rd did. We are the ones that know our students.
3. Well, I think this is obviously the 1st step. We haven't done this a lot in the past. We attempt to do it, but it always falls through the cracks.
I think that elem. teachers already work as grade level teams, however, it would be nice to have time to discuss problems, achievements, and roadblocks with other teachers from various elem. grade levels. However, I think we would all agree that finding the time to get together is where things get sticky.
I would love to have time to meet with my fellow teachers in fourth and fifth grade. We talk a little here and there, but it is really difficult to find time to discuss instruction and student achievement in depth. We have a really special arrangement that allows us to have different perspectives on each student.
I would also like to have to talk with the middle and high school science teacher. I gained so much insight on the big picture of student learning in science during out outdoor classroom workshop.
One last area is would like to collaborate on is in reading. Even though I have been teaching reading for many years and am part of an ARI school, I still need someone to talk to about what I have learned. Centers and guided reading are always a challenge.
I use a variety of resources. We can use the courses of study and curriculum maps. We also can research online and share what we already have.
We need to look at scheduling to see if we can find time to meet. I found it very beneficial meeting with the 21st century team for half a day. Yes, I was out of the classroom for a few hours, but I feel my students reaped the benefits of what I learned during this time. I tend to feel more excited about what my students are learning if I feel more on top of things!
I would like to serve on academic teams at the elementary level so that I can keep informed and maybe give some input concerning special needs students.
I would love the opportunity to meet with my fellow fourth and fifth grade teachers. We have interesting ideas and want to do a good job in the classroom. "Time" (or the lack of time) is a major obstacle that we, as educators, face day to day.
Secondly, I would love to meet with Language Arts teachers at different grade levels in order to make sure we are teaching the curriculum effectively. I feel that teachers have a lot to offer one another and that working collaboratively with one another will ensure student success at F.H.S.
Time to collaborate with other teachers would be great. Time to collaborate with 4th and 5th grade teachers would be terrific. More planning time would be priceless!
I completely agree with Simpson. I would also like to meet with other Social Studies teachers from various grade levels.
During grade level team meetings we could focus on student performance in each of our classes. We would have the opportunity to discuss our objectives so that we might integrate as much as possible. That would help the students make connections instead of simply isolating facts or skills to one subject
To make this possible, we could hire subs, provide classes with other activities, and seek parent, and community help.
I am very excited that so many of you are interested in being a part of multiple teams.
We do know the need for more "planning time." However, I want us to begin thinking in terms of more collaboration time with one another.
I believe that we collaborate together as much as we can. Many of us use our "planning time" in order to collaborate....wouldn't it be nice if we had more time though? We meet before school and then throughout the day and pull ideas from our grade level counterparts but it would be a wonderful thing if we knew what other grades were doing. I think if there were some way to integrate grade levels in collaboration with each other, we could pull ideas from each other and not overlap on certain issues.
I think more time to collaborate with fellow grade level teachers is a must. I don't think sacrificing teaching time is a good idea, but it is so hard to find the time to get together. I think inservice would be a good time (but obviously not going to be frequent enough) with the teachers of each group determining the itinerary.
I spent 45 minutes typing responses to this, and now I can't find what happened to them. It doesn't make me very happy that we are doing things like this.
When I created by blogger account everything was erased!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and for some reason it says that I am responding at 4:49 p.m. It is actually 6:50 p.m. and I haven't made it home yet!
I believe that collaboration with our peer teachers is part of the foundation of a successful "team". I depend greatly on the other third grade teachers. I feel that it would greatly enhance our program if we could collaborate more with other grades. For example, I would love to have more time to discuss strengths and weaknesses with the fourth grade teachers. I think it would help us focus our instruction more in the direction it needs to go.
It seems to me that everyone wants to collaborate. For elementary common planning times would be great. If we could have some say in when we have art, music and P.E., we could coordinate time together at least every other week. (art week)
I don't know if all of our teachers work collaborativly. Speaking for myself though, I already feel that I am part of an informal team. This has been a positive experience for me and I am sure that other grade levels that collaborate feel the same way.
I think teachers could benefit from resources that we are already using like instructional calendars, common cumulative exams, state standards etc. I don't think that new resources are what is needed. Instead, just more time to plan with what we have.
I agree with Mrs. Shaw about common planning times. We have done this in the past and I was very greatful for the time given where I was able to plan with and learn from my colleges.
I think having more time to plan and work together is crucial. There are so many times when we want to help each other, but getting everyone together seems to be the issue. I would love to be a part of any teams related to reading.
I believe that educators need an opportuntity to work in teams, not only as a local school, but also on a county level. Blogs, are fine for some things, but I prefer face-to-face interaction.
As counselor, there are so many teams that I could be a part of when it comes to students' academics and well-being, but from a planning perspective, I would like to be on a team with Robbie Stewart. She and I share many of the same objectives that must be taught in career tech. therefore I would like more collaboration time developing a guidance curriculum that would meet the objectives in both areas.
In my opinion, the county should work-in professional development days throughout the year instead of pulling teachers away from their instructional time. Meeting once a month would be much more beneficial than meeting for 5 days prior to school starting.
As a parent, I'm excited that the teachers of Fayetteville School are truly interested and committed to making FHS the best it can be.
I may be old fashioned, but I think the face to face meetings we have are very beneficial. It takes a lot of time and effort for me to read everything that people post. I'm very auditory and like to hear people. This is about the seventh time I've tried this and I consider myself computer literate. Maybe it will work this time.
I agree with Straughn, the most beneficial "professional development" I've received is from my colleagues in open discussion. I like being able to discuss among ourselves and get feedback immediately.
Creative scheduling would be an answer to common time to share among grades and help us collaborate more.
Testing 1, 2, 3, Testing 1, 2, 3,
Testing 1,2,3. Testing 1, 2, 3.
I would love to collaborate with the English and History teachers. So much of what I teach in general music classes could compliment the lessons they are learning in these other courses. The problem that I've encountered with this is finding time to collaborate with the other teachers. I agree with Mandy that we should try to schedule some time to work together.
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