Chapter 5 discusses the importance of community in education. There are many types of community that were discussed, and how each one relates, or does not relate to school. In the school setting, the importance of relationships to the community was discussed, rather than the importance of organization. There are five contributors to community: connections, coherence, capacity, commitment, and collaboration.
Given the importance of community, and keeping the five contributors in mind, how does your school measure up to these hallmarks? What can be done to increase the sense of connections, neighborliness, and collegiality among the faculty of your school?
In the schools where I have worked, we have been successful with the connections and commitment aspects. By far, the biggest challenge has been with collaboration - at least from a co-teaching standpoint. Even after planning together, the majority of teachers would close their doors, preventing us from learning from each other by seeing good instruction in action. Without co-teaching in some form, co-planning can be reduced to being "on the same page at the same time." That makes it much more difficult to build capacity.
Even for a trusting, established faculty community, unless the principal makes co-teaching a priority (arranging schedules, covering classes, etc.) it will not spread throughout a school.
I think some of the solution rests in getting everyone to share the same vision for the school. In the "real world" teachers can get so bogged down in trying to reach their own goals for their own clas and their own SOL scores. This can lead to missed opportunities to share ideas, strategies and thoughts that could significantly add value and effectiveness to their teaching and classroom.
One way to improve the school community is to set and measure academic successfulness at grade level and school level, not just classroom level. With a strong background in special education, I get sick and tired of hearing teachers view students with IEP's as a burden to have in the classroom. Yet, I understand that part of this is that it can effect their SOL scores and ultimately it seems to reflect on their teaching (in the newspapers and board meetings). However, if we were measured more on a grade level scale, than a classroom scale it would be less of an issue and more of a shared responsibility. This would cause all teachers to share ideas and communicate more because it is everyone's responsibility to help all kids be successful!
At my school, in the state hospital, we recently implemented a shared planning period. One day a week we focus this time on technology, but the other 4 days teachers are strongly encouraged to work together, share ideas and plan for students. So far, this has been a great opportunity and it seems our teachers find it helpful.
Both of these ideas would contribute to a stronger sense of connection, neighborliness, and collegiality among faculty.
I agree with Jonathon and the importance of collaboration and it usually just involved of having everyone on the same page. What I have heard of and would like to implement if I am ever an instructional leader is to have teachers once a month go and watch another teacher instruct and write a reflection about what they saw and maybe could use in their classroom. I find the most difficult collaboration comes from the different grades levels. They might learn a technique in second grade for example that they use to count and add money. If the second grade teacher doesn't share this with the new teachers the students have to start from step one. My principal has talked about the importance of collaborating through the grade levels but has never set up the time for us to communicate between the grade levels.
Being a special ed teacher, I have had many opportunities to collaborate with other teachers, both in the classroom and out of the classroom. I have had some wonderful experiences co-teaching, and some not so wonderful experiences. I think one of the key differences I have noticed is teachers who have been teaching for a longer time are more hesitant to co-teach, where newer and younger teachers are more willing to work with others. I find it very important to set regular meeting times with the teachers that need to collaborate, whether it be department meetings, grade level meetings, team meetings, etc. It can be done, but it may take a little bit more time to get to a point where every teacher is on board with collaborative teaching. Having administrators who support co-teaching and collaboration is also a VERY big key to this being successful.
I am fortunate to be in a small school system.The ability to connect and collaborate are definitely encouraged. We have an extremely caring faculty who is willing to assist and help each other in any way. There is a tremendous amount of sharing within our community. I do sometimes wonder about the committment from some of the staff. Often we seem to depend on a core group to "get the job done". As a leader, I would think of innovative ways to change that mindset.
I work in the oldest school in our county, we have needed a new school for a while now but the community ties are so strong that it inhibits the building of a new school. It was a high school for awhile, then an elementary, and now has been a middle school since that concept began. The community loves our school and supports it fully. I think in the last two to three years we have become a school that collaborates and works for the success of every student. We are committed to that concept and hopefully all students who pass through our classrooms and leave our school will leave as a well rounded student. Aware of their educational responsibilities as well as their civic duty.
I work in an elementary school of close to 700 students. With 6 kindergarten teachers it is hard to collaborate sometimes. We have a grade group meeting weekly but we usually have other things to take care of. We tried having the same lesson plans one year but people got mad because others wouldn't do their part or wouldn't share the good stuff they had. It would be nice if we could work together more. Not only within the grade level, but with other grades.
We have good relations within our community. We work closely with Emory and Henry college, so we have lots of tutors. We have a few parent volunteers that work a couple times a week. But I think some of the parents need to be more involved. The only time some will come to the school for meetings is if their children are in a program. It would be great if we could connect more with them.
I have always bragged that our school faculty gets along really well, I know know why...we really don't communicate. There isn't much room for conflict without communication. Although we get along and help each other out, we don't work "together" in the instructional sense. Our departments don't collaborate as much as they should, and honestly they are often being stingy about their work because they want the glory of doing well and having passing scores. Our departments don't want to be successfull as a group, they want individual recognition, sad huh?
When I think of community as it pertains to school, I don't think of the external community as much as the internal community of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. We are a community joined for the sole purpose of successfully educating our children. I noticed some people blogged about what I would call the external community. I honestly, don't put too much thought into those people. I know they are important and I know we heavily rely on those people for support. Is this chapter focusing on both types of communities, because I only pictured and considered what I am calling the internal community as I read.
I can strongly agree with Lara Beth's comment of "getting along, but not really working together." At my school, especially within my grade level, we do a great job of complaining about problems, but rarely do we discuss things of importance like instruction and collaboration.
We need to be much more stuctured to be more successful. The way we meet is we get together during planning and talk. We don't plan ahead and tackle the real problems that need to be solved in a structured way. For the most part, we need to reevaluate the way that we work together and set guidelines for meetings so that our meetings are more beneficial.
I agree with earlier comments about "getting along", but not necessarily "working together". We have a great school that many describe as a family, however there is little time for collaboration with other teachers beyond a quick conversation in the hall between classes. Principals could possibly help by covering recess or teaching a class or two each week to allow teachers the much needed collaboration time.
At the beginning of the year, we were informed that we must meet weekly during our planning period w/our grade level to discuss the students' progress, behavior, and lesson plans - essentially to improve grade level collaboration. The school, as a whole, did a very good job with meeting this expectation. However, the meetings began taking place during lunch, recess, or not at all. Therefore, at our last faculty meeting, our principal informed the faculty that it was a high priority that we meet every Thursday to discuss the students' progress and upcoming SOLs. Our principal has started doing Thursday Checks to ensure that each grade is meeting and having appropriate discussions.
After talking with Terri regarding collaboration, I think that our principal needs to create an agenda each week. This agenda would definitely improve communication and insure that each team was discussing what needed to be discussed.
I think that our principal does a wonderful job with promoting community relations. She is very involved with after school activities and our school holds many events where the community is in attendance - Veterans Day Celebration, Senior Citizens' Parties, Mother's Day/Father's Day/Grandparents' Day breakfast, etc.
adam Joyce said... I'm having trouble reading about these folks who don't get to spend much time together. I've never been a big believer in the system of "pods," like those that my school usues. But, it obviously forced us to get together nearly everyday because we have "Team planning." This would be the time we spend planning and discussing our day. Something that it sounds like few people have the luxury of doing. Maybe I should re-think my attitude towards pods...
I think a shard vision of why everyone is there must be a the spearhead of everytning that is done in schools. A sense of community must be, in part, built on purpose and a shared vision toward that purpose. It is my experience that people let human interests and a lack of focus on purpose tear down any community in my school. In my mind, community doesn't have to mean I buy everyone a christmas present. It means I respect eveyone's contribution to the attainment of a common goal, student success.
I am also fortunate to be in a small school setting where community is very important. Our staff is a close knit staff which gives us a family atmosphere at the school. We do for each other just as we would for one of our own family members. The students are also close knit in that we do not have the clicks that are present at the larger schools. I do believe that the commitment of some of the faculty is questionable and that most of the extra duties are done by a few dedicated faculty members. Over the last few years, our staff average age has reduced drastically by hiring new teachers to replace retiring ones. This has changed the connections to some degree but overall, it is still a close knit faculty where teachers help each other out in whatever area they might need help. I am fortunate in that I do team teach with the other teacher in my area on numerous occasions. I have worked in schools where the community feel is not as prevelant as it is where I am now and that causes the children to suffer in my opinion. I believe community is very important.
Our schools do well with collaboration. Being a middle school, we have frequent grade level meetings. I think our school's weakness would be connections. Most of the students and parents are not connected to the school and its goals. Teachers are pressured because of the rigorous demands of SOLs, and often time is limited and personalization of students is neglected as a result. Judy Willis
I have the wonderful opportunity like several previous comments to work in a small school. We are very close as a faculty. Unfortunately we have not had time and do not make time to collaborate with each other. In most grades we only have one teacher. The grades that have two seem to collaborate among themselves but this doesn't happen much cross grade levels. This has been hard for me to adjust to after leaving a school where we were forced to meet regularly with our team and at least once a month with other grades.
I also work in a very small school (6 faculty members). The faculty is very connected, however, our students are not as connected to the school as they could be. They have no motivation. No one in our school teaches the same thing, so we have no opportunity to collaborate. We do talk to each other about what is being covered in other classes so we can build off the subject.
I do not see how collaboration could be improved with such a small faculty. I do think that we need to work on commitment. We have several older faculty that will say they are tired of teaching. They are not concerned about SOLs. To improve commitment, the principal could spend more time working with these teachers. They need to be observed frequently and possibly motivated by a required SOL pass rate.
In my current school, the faculty enjoys a good sense of collegiality, and is very involved in the community--particularly industry--because it is a CTE (vocational) school. I think the collegiality stems from the fact that most of the teachers are tradespeople and share that bond. In previous schools, however, I have witnessed faculties in which the teachers formed cliques and were critical of other teams and/or groups. As a special ed teacher, I've experienced the most difficulty with collaboration in those schools. Some teachers buy into it and are very receptive to such concepts as co-teaching and team teaching. Others are very resistant and uncooperative. Some of that may stem from a lack of common planning time in which teachers can not only work on plans, but get to know one another. I think that another problem in that area is that special ed teachers are trained in collaborative education models as a prerequisite for licensure, while general education teachers are not. I believe that teacher prep coursework should require this of all teacher candidates. That could make a huge difference in the success of collaboration within faculties in the future.
I started teaching 16 years ago when special education classes were in the closet behind the gym. Now things have changed and all my classes are inclusion. The teachers in my school couldn't do a better job of working with me to provide a wonderful learning environment for the students. We have worked together so long now that it is like clock work. When one of us find something new we can't wait to share with the rest of the team. I feel we are very strong in this area.
I work in a fairly small high school of approximately 415 students. As a small school, I think we have been fairly successful in the connection aspect of community because everyone knows each other (students, teachers, administrators and other staff)and has a sense of belonging to the school community. Furthermore, I think our commitment is strong. Most of our staff are veterans and several have been in the school for 20-35 years, despite opportunities to go elswhere. I think we don't measure up as well in the areas of coherence and collaboration. There is not a lot of coordination across different grade levels and there is a great deal of variety in the expectations of teachers in the same grade areas. Additionally, there is very little collaboration. Even though we know each other very well, most teachers feel isolated in their classrooms and there is no structure that facilitates or encourages teachers to plan and work together. As a social studies teacher, I would love to do interdisciplinary units with the English teachers in my grade levels. However, we so rarely see one another or have the opportunity to work together that it seldom happens. Thus, I agree with those of you who have stated that the principal must set the expectation of collaboration and create a structural framework that allows it to happen.
My school is fortunate to have a principal who devotes considerable time and effort to scheduling common planning times for each grade level. When I asked her about developing a master schedule, my administrator expressed the intricacy involved in scheduling an entire school with the ultimate goal of teacher collaboration. Each grade level must meet twice weekly during the planning time. While I value these days of collaboration, there are other times I would like to have for personal planning. I’m sure there are some teachers who would not take advantage of the grade level planning if we weren’t made to meet, but it would be worth a try to allow teachers to collaborate at their need and discretion.
My principal goes above and beyond in establishing relationships both within and outside of the school. Faculty and staff, students, and community members are offered multiple opportunities to connect with our school.
Considering the location of where our school is, the community ties are quite strong. Our school is a county school but is located only about 5 miles from the city line which can make having community involvement a difficult task. There are some students in our school that drive 30 minutes to get there while some students that live 5-10 minutes away go to school in the city. That is why sometimes getting community involvement can be so difficult. Our staff does does a great job to collaborate well with each other with the time that we have. Everyone has the same goal which is the success of every student. Everyone knows what their responsibilities are and what needs to be accomplished. One thing that can be hard at times however is just finding the time to be able to collaborate more often. With many of our teachers there is just not enough time in the day.
I agree with Sherry's (Greer) statement. but I think before we can motivate everyone to share the same vision for the school we first have to lead them to acknowledge that the students are the focus of that vision. Unfortunately, as Sherry pointed out, our vision gets lost in individual agendas that must be met and many are tied into content and the SOLs. At this time of year especially, we tend to place the product--a score--over the process--differentiated instruction that promotes life-long learning and will incidentally lead to a good score. I agree that this can lead to missed opportunities to strengthen our personal instruction by sharing strategies and resources that could not only enhance our teaching but provide motivation when it is needed most.
Like a lot of people have said already, time is an issue in terms of collaboration. This is an issue that I have experienced, but I certainly value it. I have also experienced an ownership issue involving excellent activities in the field of Social Studies where the teacher's inventor does not want anyone else in the department to use his/her own strategies. I suppose this case is not the only one, but I'm sure that complying with collaboration would be on my priority list to increase, so I would happily share any successful activities I use.
My school also has the problem of collaboration. None of our teacehrs have common plannning time for group/team meetings, nor are we even on teams. Many teachers try to contact others about the progress of students to see if the same problems are occuring over and over, but this is done by email and lunch intead of a team meeting. We are trying to go to a schedule more like a modifird block, with math classes being 2 periods of an eight period day and reading/English being for 1 and 1/2 periods per day. This would allow some teachers to have common planning, but I still dont think the team concept would exist. However, the same group of teachers would have the same students throughout the day in most cases. Now if we could only get that common planning, we might be reaching the middle school concept and the important team meetings.
As a whole the faculty at my school seems to get along really well. There are approximately 70 full and part-time members and our principal really ties to make sure that we are collaborating both within each specific department and also as a faculty as a whole. For example, he just finished meeting with each department individually to listen to concern and/or suggestions that we might have to improve. However, there are improvements that could be made. The use of conference periods could definately improve within each department. Also, most of the individual department meeting take place via email, so we could do a better job of communicating face-to-face to improve our instructional techniques.
I think our school has been forced to increase collaboration in the math department due to our PASS coach's intiatives and our Corrective Action Plan. Our math teachers are working closer than ever before, and they are truly more of a community now.
My principal arranged our schedule so grade level subject teachers have common planning times. Teachers get together to discuss curriculm, successes, problems, and sometimes it is a venting session. I often learn something I can use from this collaboration. With SOL's fast approaching, we are sharing review ideas and other ways to engage the students during such a stressful time.
I am fortunate to work in a school that has a very close knit faculty and staff. This has been evident in the past couple of years when tragedies have struck several of "our own". It has been refreshing to see how we reach out to one another in times of need. Another example of community is our transition to schoolwide Title I. Our Title I teachers have "pushed in" to the classroom. As a Title I teacher, I found the transition to be trying in the first year, but not because the general education teachers did not want us in their rooms. It was just a matter of finding our way. This year has gone much more smoothly, however, we still have a need for more common planning time for collaboration. Luckily, our administration has witnessed and acknowledged this need. We are looking at changing next year's schedule to accomplish this goal.
As a special education teacher teaching in the inclusion setting it is imperative that there be a great deal of collaboration as that is the goal of collaborative teaching. I am fortunate to be in a small school that allows for a community like feel, our principal also contributes to this feeling because he is able to get around and speak with teachers on a personal level.
My school is all about collaboration and community. However, I feel like their are still barriers between grade levels. It seems that each grade level is their own "click." It is almost like we are different entities living in the same building. I wish we could do more together as a faculty. Not necessarily BBQ's and picnics but cross-grade level meetings where we share ideas. It doesn't require alot of effort to share ideas with one another. Lesia Harris
I agree with many of my colleagues here that say collaboration is the key. In school, integrated units, team meetings that help to develop ways to improve student achievement, book clubs, social functions outside of school, planning field trips that incorporate many disciplines are all ways to help bring colleagues together.
My school measures up in some arenas well - team meetings to develop ways to help students, outside social events, and field trips. Overall, however, because most teachers are overwhelmed with the load of the job it is had to make time to commit to lots of times of collaboration. Without this philosophy in place, it could create an environment where separatism occurs and relationships fail causing low morale and high turnover. Issues that all administrators want to avoid.
33 comments:
Chapter 5 discusses the importance of community in education. There are many types of community that were discussed, and how each one relates, or does not relate to school. In the school setting, the importance of relationships to the community was discussed, rather than the importance of organization. There are five contributors to community: connections, coherence, capacity, commitment, and collaboration.
Given the importance of community, and keeping the five contributors in mind, how does your school measure up to these hallmarks? What can be done to increase the sense of connections, neighborliness, and collegiality among the faculty of your school?
In the schools where I have worked, we have been successful with the connections and commitment aspects. By far, the biggest challenge has been with collaboration - at least from a co-teaching standpoint. Even after planning together, the majority of teachers would close their doors, preventing us from learning from each other by seeing good instruction in action. Without co-teaching in some form, co-planning can be reduced to being "on the same page at the same time." That makes it much more difficult to build capacity.
Even for a trusting, established faculty community, unless the principal makes co-teaching a priority (arranging schedules, covering classes, etc.) it will not spread throughout a school.
I think some of the solution rests in getting everyone to share the same vision for the school. In the "real world" teachers can get so bogged down in trying to reach their own goals for their own clas and their own SOL scores. This can lead to missed opportunities to share ideas, strategies and thoughts that could significantly add value and effectiveness to their teaching and classroom.
One way to improve the school community is to set and measure academic successfulness at grade level and school level, not just classroom level. With a strong background in special education, I get sick and tired of hearing teachers view students with IEP's as a burden to have in the classroom. Yet, I understand that part of this is that it can effect their SOL scores and ultimately it seems to reflect on their teaching (in the newspapers and board meetings). However, if we were measured more on a grade level scale, than a classroom scale it would be less of an issue and more of a shared responsibility. This would cause all teachers to share ideas and communicate more because it is everyone's responsibility to help all kids be successful!
At my school, in the state hospital, we recently implemented a shared planning period. One day a week we focus this time on technology, but the other 4 days teachers are strongly encouraged to work together, share ideas and plan for students. So far, this has been a great opportunity and it seems our teachers find it helpful.
Both of these ideas would contribute to a stronger sense of connection, neighborliness, and collegiality among faculty.
I agree with Jonathon and the importance of collaboration and it usually just involved of having everyone on the same page. What I have heard of and would like to implement if I am ever an instructional leader is to have teachers once a month go and watch another teacher instruct and write a reflection about what they saw and maybe could use in their classroom. I find the most difficult collaboration comes from the different grades levels. They might learn a technique in second grade for example that they use to count and add money. If the second grade teacher doesn't share this with the new teachers the students have to start from step one. My principal has talked about the importance of collaborating through the grade levels but has never set up the time for us to communicate between the grade levels.
Being a special ed teacher, I have had many opportunities to collaborate with other teachers, both in the classroom and out of the classroom. I have had some wonderful experiences co-teaching, and some not so wonderful experiences. I think one of the key differences I have noticed is teachers who have been teaching for a longer time are more hesitant to co-teach, where newer and younger teachers are more willing to work with others. I find it very important to set regular meeting times with the teachers that need to collaborate, whether it be department meetings, grade level meetings, team meetings, etc. It can be done, but it may take a little bit more time to get to a point where every teacher is on board with collaborative teaching. Having administrators who support co-teaching and collaboration is also a VERY big key to this being successful.
I am fortunate to be in a small school system.The ability to connect and collaborate are definitely encouraged. We have an extremely caring faculty who is willing to assist and help each other in any way. There is a tremendous amount of sharing within our community. I do sometimes wonder about the committment from some of the staff. Often we seem to depend on a core group to "get the job done".
As a leader, I would think of innovative ways to change that mindset.
I work in the oldest school in our county, we have needed a new school for a while now but the community ties are so strong that it inhibits the building of a new school. It was a high school for awhile, then an elementary, and now has been a middle school since that concept began. The community loves our school and supports it fully. I think in the last two to three years we have become a school that collaborates and works for the success of every student. We are committed to that concept and hopefully all students who pass through our classrooms and leave our school will leave as a well rounded student. Aware of their educational responsibilities as well as their civic duty.
Sherry Looney
I work in an elementary school of close to 700 students. With 6 kindergarten teachers it is hard to collaborate sometimes. We have a grade group meeting weekly but we usually have other things to take care of. We tried having the same lesson plans one year but people got mad because others wouldn't do their part or wouldn't share the good stuff they had. It would be nice if we could work together more. Not only within the grade level, but with other grades.
We have good relations within our community. We work closely with Emory and Henry college, so we have lots of tutors. We have a few parent volunteers that work a couple times a week. But I think some of the parents need to be more involved. The only time some will come to the school for meetings is if their children are in a program. It would be great if we could connect more with them.
I have always bragged that our school faculty gets along really well, I know know why...we really don't communicate. There isn't much room for conflict without communication. Although we get along and help each other out, we don't work "together" in the instructional sense. Our departments don't collaborate as much as they should, and honestly they are often being stingy about their work because they want the glory of doing well and having passing scores. Our departments don't want to be successfull as a group, they want individual recognition, sad huh?
When I think of community as it pertains to school, I don't think of the external community as much as the internal community of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. We are a community joined for the sole purpose of successfully educating our children. I noticed some people blogged about what I would call the external community. I honestly, don't put too much thought into those people. I know they are important and I know we heavily rely on those people for support. Is this chapter focusing on both types of communities, because I only pictured and considered what I am calling the internal community as I read.
I can strongly agree with Lara Beth's comment of "getting along, but not really working together." At my school, especially within my grade level, we do a great job of complaining about problems, but rarely do we discuss things of importance like instruction and collaboration.
We need to be much more stuctured to be more successful. The way we meet is we get together during planning and talk. We don't plan ahead and tackle the real problems that need to be solved in a structured way. For the most part, we need to reevaluate the way that we work together and set guidelines for meetings so that our meetings are more beneficial.
I agree with earlier comments about "getting along", but not necessarily "working together". We have a great school that many describe as a family, however there is little time for collaboration with other teachers beyond a quick conversation in the hall between classes. Principals could possibly help by covering recess or teaching a class or two each week to allow teachers the much needed collaboration time.
At the beginning of the year, we were informed that we must meet weekly during our planning period w/our grade level to discuss the students' progress, behavior, and lesson plans - essentially to improve grade level collaboration. The school, as a whole, did a very good job with meeting this expectation. However, the meetings began taking place during lunch, recess, or not at all. Therefore, at our last faculty meeting, our principal informed the faculty that it was a high priority that we meet every Thursday to discuss the students' progress and upcoming SOLs. Our principal has started doing Thursday Checks to ensure that each grade is meeting and having appropriate discussions.
After talking with Terri regarding collaboration, I think that our principal needs to create an agenda each week. This agenda would definitely improve communication and insure that each team was discussing what needed to be discussed.
I think that our principal does a wonderful job with promoting community relations. She is very involved with after school activities and our school holds many events where the community is in attendance - Veterans Day Celebration, Senior Citizens' Parties, Mother's Day/Father's Day/Grandparents' Day breakfast, etc.
adam Joyce said...
I'm having trouble reading about these folks who don't get to spend much time together. I've never been a big believer in the system of "pods," like those that my school usues. But, it obviously forced us to get together nearly everyday because we have "Team planning." This would be the time we spend planning and discussing our day. Something that it sounds like few people have the luxury of doing. Maybe I should re-think my attitude towards pods...
I think a shard vision of why everyone is there must be a the spearhead of everytning that is done in schools. A sense of community must be, in part, built on purpose and a shared vision toward that purpose. It is my experience that people let human interests and a lack of focus on purpose tear down any community in my school. In my mind, community doesn't have to mean I buy everyone a christmas present. It means I respect eveyone's contribution to the attainment of a common goal, student success.
I am also fortunate to be in a small school setting where community is very important. Our staff is a close knit staff which gives us a family atmosphere at the school. We do for each other just as we would for one of our own family members. The students are also close knit in that we do not have the clicks that are present at the larger schools. I do believe that the commitment of some of the faculty is questionable and that most of the extra duties are done by a few dedicated faculty members. Over the last few years, our staff average age has reduced drastically by hiring new teachers to replace retiring ones. This has changed the connections to some degree but overall, it is still a close knit faculty where teachers help each other out in whatever area they might need help. I am fortunate in that I do team teach with the other teacher in my area on numerous occasions. I have worked in schools where the community feel is not as prevelant as it is where I am now and that causes the children to suffer in my opinion. I believe community is very important.
Our schools do well with collaboration. Being a middle school, we have frequent grade level meetings. I think our school's weakness would be connections. Most of the students and parents are not connected to the school and its goals. Teachers are pressured because of the rigorous demands of SOLs, and often time is limited and personalization of students is neglected as a result.
Judy Willis
I have the wonderful opportunity like several previous comments to work in a small school. We are very close as a faculty. Unfortunately we have not had time and do not make time to collaborate with each other. In most grades we only have one teacher. The grades that have two seem to collaborate among themselves but this doesn't happen much cross grade levels. This has been hard for me to adjust to after leaving a school where we were forced to meet regularly with our team and at least once a month with other grades.
I also work in a very small school (6 faculty members). The faculty is very connected, however, our students are not as connected to the school as they could be. They have no motivation. No one in our school teaches the same thing, so we have no opportunity to collaborate. We do talk to each other about what is being covered in other classes so we can build off the subject.
I do not see how collaboration could be improved with such a small faculty. I do think that we need to work on commitment. We have several older faculty that will say they are tired of teaching. They are not concerned about SOLs. To improve commitment, the principal could spend more time working with these teachers. They need to be observed frequently and possibly motivated by a required SOL pass rate.
In my current school, the faculty enjoys a good sense of collegiality, and is very involved in the community--particularly industry--because it is a CTE (vocational) school. I think the collegiality stems from the fact that most of the teachers are tradespeople and share that bond. In previous schools, however, I have witnessed faculties in which the teachers formed cliques and were critical of other teams and/or groups. As a special ed teacher, I've experienced the most difficulty with collaboration in those schools. Some teachers buy into it and are very receptive to such concepts as co-teaching and team teaching. Others are very resistant and uncooperative. Some of that may stem from a lack of common planning time in which teachers can not only work on plans, but get to know one another. I think that another problem in that area is that special ed teachers are trained in collaborative education models as a prerequisite for licensure, while general education teachers are not. I believe that teacher prep coursework should require this of all teacher candidates. That could make a huge difference in the success of collaboration within faculties in the future.
I started teaching 16 years ago when special education classes were in the closet behind the gym. Now things have changed and all my classes are inclusion. The teachers in my school couldn't do a better job of working with me to provide a wonderful learning environment for the students. We have worked together so long now that it is like clock work. When one of us find something new we can't wait to share with the rest of the team. I feel we are very strong in this area.
I work in a fairly small high school of approximately 415 students. As a small school, I think we have been fairly successful in the connection aspect of community because everyone knows each other (students, teachers, administrators and other staff)and has a sense of belonging to the school community. Furthermore, I think our commitment is strong. Most of our staff are veterans and several have been in the school for 20-35 years, despite opportunities to go elswhere. I think we don't measure up as well in the areas of coherence and collaboration. There is not a lot of coordination across different grade levels and there is a great deal of variety in the expectations of teachers in the same grade areas. Additionally, there is very little collaboration. Even though we know each other very well, most teachers feel isolated in their classrooms and there is no structure that facilitates or encourages teachers to plan and work together. As a social studies teacher, I would love to do interdisciplinary units with the English teachers in my grade levels. However, we so rarely see one another or have the opportunity to work together that it seldom happens. Thus, I agree with those of you who have stated that the principal must set the expectation of collaboration and create a structural framework that allows it to happen.
My school is fortunate to have a principal who devotes considerable time and effort to scheduling common planning times for each grade level. When I asked her about developing a master schedule, my administrator expressed the intricacy involved in scheduling an entire school with the ultimate goal of teacher collaboration. Each grade level must meet twice weekly during the planning time. While I value these days of collaboration, there are other times I would like to have for personal planning. I’m sure there are some teachers who would not take advantage of the grade level planning if we weren’t made to meet, but it would be worth a try to allow teachers to collaborate at their need and discretion.
My principal goes above and beyond in establishing relationships both within and outside of the school. Faculty and staff, students, and community members are offered multiple opportunities to connect with our school.
Amber Lam
Considering the location of where our school is, the community ties are quite strong. Our school is a county school but is located only about 5 miles from the city line which can make having community involvement a difficult task. There are some students in our school that drive 30 minutes to get there while some students that live 5-10 minutes away go to school in the city. That is why sometimes getting community involvement can be so difficult. Our staff does does a great job to collaborate well with each other with the time that we have. Everyone has the same goal which is the success of every student. Everyone knows what their responsibilities are and what needs to be accomplished. One thing that can be hard at times however is just finding the time to be able to collaborate more often. With many of our teachers there is just not enough time in the day.
I agree with Sherry's (Greer) statement. but I think before we can motivate everyone to share the same vision for the school we first have to lead them to acknowledge that the students are the focus of that vision. Unfortunately, as Sherry pointed out, our vision gets lost in individual agendas that must be met and many are tied into content and the SOLs. At this time of year especially, we tend to place the product--a score--over the process--differentiated instruction that promotes life-long learning and will incidentally lead to a good score. I agree that this can lead to missed opportunities to strengthen our personal instruction by sharing strategies and resources that could not only enhance our teaching but provide motivation when it is needed most.
Like a lot of people have said already, time is an issue in terms of collaboration. This is an issue that I have experienced, but I certainly value it. I have also experienced an ownership issue involving excellent activities in the field of Social Studies where the teacher's inventor does not want anyone else in the department to use his/her own strategies. I suppose this case is not the only one, but I'm sure that complying with collaboration would be on my priority list to increase, so I would happily share any successful activities I use.
Michael Southee
My school also has the problem of collaboration. None of our teacehrs have common plannning time for group/team meetings, nor are we even on teams. Many teachers try to contact others about the progress of students to see if the same problems are occuring over and over, but this is done by email and lunch intead of a team meeting. We are trying to go to a schedule more like a modifird block, with math classes being 2 periods of an eight period day and reading/English being for 1 and 1/2 periods per day. This would allow some teachers to have common planning, but I still dont think the team concept would exist. However, the same group of teachers would have the same students throughout the day in most cases. Now if we could only get that common planning, we might be reaching the middle school concept and the important team meetings.
Paul Love
As a whole the faculty at my school seems to get along really well. There are approximately 70 full and part-time members and our principal really ties to make sure that we are collaborating both within each specific department and also as a faculty as a whole. For example, he just finished meeting with each department individually to listen to concern and/or suggestions that we might have to improve. However, there are improvements that could be made. The use of conference periods could definately improve within each department. Also, most of the individual department meeting take place via email, so we could do a better job of communicating face-to-face to improve our instructional techniques.
BJ Lasley
I think our school has been forced to increase collaboration in the math department due to our PASS coach's intiatives and our Corrective Action Plan. Our math teachers are working closer than ever before, and they are truly more of a community now.
My principal arranged our schedule so grade level subject teachers have common planning times. Teachers get together to discuss curriculm, successes, problems, and sometimes it is a venting session. I often learn something I can use from this collaboration. With SOL's fast approaching, we are sharing review ideas and other ways to engage the students during such a stressful time.
I am fortunate to work in a school that has a very close knit faculty and staff. This has been evident in the past couple of years when tragedies have struck several of "our own". It has been refreshing to see how we reach out to one another in times of need. Another example of community is our transition to schoolwide Title I. Our Title I teachers have "pushed in" to the classroom. As a Title I teacher, I found the transition to be trying in the first year, but not because the general education teachers did not want us in their rooms. It was just a matter of finding our way. This year has gone much more smoothly, however, we still have a need for more common planning time for collaboration. Luckily, our administration has witnessed and acknowledged this need. We are looking at changing next year's schedule to accomplish this goal.
As a special education teacher teaching in the inclusion setting it is imperative that there be a great deal of collaboration as that is the goal of collaborative teaching. I am fortunate to be in a small school that allows for a community like feel, our principal also contributes to this feeling because he is able to get around and speak with teachers on a personal level.
My school is all about collaboration and community. However, I feel like their are still barriers between grade levels. It seems that each grade level is their own "click." It is almost like we are different entities living in the same building. I wish we could do more together as a faculty. Not necessarily BBQ's and picnics but cross-grade level meetings where we share ideas. It doesn't require alot of effort to share ideas with one another. Lesia Harris
Cheryl Burrell-Graves
I agree with many of my colleagues here that say collaboration is the key. In school, integrated units, team meetings that help to develop ways to improve student achievement, book clubs, social functions outside of school, planning field trips that incorporate many disciplines are all ways to help bring colleagues together.
My school measures up in some arenas well - team meetings to develop ways to help students, outside social events, and field trips. Overall, however, because most teachers are overwhelmed with the load of the job it is had to make time to commit to lots of times of collaboration. Without this philosophy in place, it could create an environment where separatism occurs and relationships fail causing low morale and high turnover. Issues that all administrators want to avoid.
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