A colleague publicly challenged me stating that even though I talk about, and try new ways of teaching, my scores are no better than anyone else's. Her colleague challenged me further to tell me that my students weren't partaking in a particular teaching strategy with strength due to my classroom management style. Ouch!
I'm sure that I've done the same at times, boldly making a statement that unintentionally causes pain. When we're working with many philosophies, varied experiences, and roles, there's bound to be uncomfortable moments of finger pointing and painful statements. Yet public humiliation is never a good thing, in fact the undesired weight it brings serves to undermine and hinder all the good work a team is able to do. Although I'd rather be at a table where people reach out to communicate with honest opinion, passion, and thought, than sit at a table where everyone is too afraid or uninterested to talk truthfully, share their point of view or debate.
In every statement, bold and painful as it may be, there could be truth. So I analyzed. Typically I do analyze my scores to see if I'm keeping up and over many years of many scores, as the teacher suggested, I come in with the pack--actually all teachers typically come in with the pack. Some years, some scores are better for one, and some years some scores are better for another. There's ways to share strengths and boost each other up, and there are times when the scores are low for reasons far beyond our control such as absenteeism, illness, botched schedules, and more. Yet, I also wonder if the new strategies and tools are aimed at the old goals, and should they be aimed at the old goals? Do we resist the temptation to try out new strategies for a new world because our scores might not live up to our colleague's scores? Is that a positive rationale?
Hence, further analysis. As I analyzed multiple scores after that, scores of many dedicated teachers and hard working students, I found that for some students, new strategies seemed to hit the scores out of the ballpark. Similarly I found that for some students old, tried and true strategies did the same thing. Across all classes there were some amazing gains, and some not so amazing gains--even some losses. And remember, this is only one small set of scores--a fraction of a year's effort and scores gained in a total of about 10 minutes altogether. My analysis demonstrated that steady effort towards worthy goals, does matter and in every class I looked at that steady effort was evident--the teachers I work with are dedicated, caring, and always go beyond the call of duty to serve students well.
Hence, what about scores in general. As we use data in schools, what does that mean for our work, teams, and effort? Who sees and judges the data, and who puts in the most time to reach for optimal student growth? How is the data analyzed? In the example above, that colleague sees my scores, but I don't see her's--what does that do with regard to a level playing field of judgement? Also, as the scores suggest, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for success for every student, yet we can work together to look for trends of success as we try out new technology and pedagogy for student gain.
Then the comment about management. I don't want to be the teacher that mandates one way or approach for children. My experience has demonstrated that typically when a child has tried something many times and still resists, it's not the right tool. With the multiple tools available today, I believe, and Hattie's research supports, that once we do a thorough assessment, and students still resist and show no growth, then it's time to find another method, tool, or approach to move the student forward. Children at the early levels are typically eager to learn, and will resist when a method is too difficult, frustrating, or uninteresting to them. I remember as a young girl, my teachers used an approach to build my reading fluency. The approach, a large screen quick reading approach, made me so dizzy and physically uncomfortable that I just gave up. Eventually they stopped using the tool and I was so relieved. I was an eager student, but that approach made me seasick thus unable to access.
Taking on the many challenges I face as I think deeply about schools in a blog has served to make me unpopular in many ways. Have I become a "Harriet the Spy" divulging the daily ups and downs of a school system? Is this blog a sort of reality show for school life? Have the posts caused undue disruption and discomfort? Why do this? as one leader asked.
First, while I want to work with the team in earnest, the truth remains we simply don't have much time at all to discuss the big issues facing schools today. Classroom teachers, like me, are mainly on task with large numbers of students most of the time each day. Our time for planning in comparison to our time teaching is about a 1:6 ratio. Our regular time for collaboration is about a 1:29 as we have about 29 active hours of teaching/planning each week, and one hour for collegial work. I can imagine that some think why not use the after hours time for that collaboration. The challenge with that is that professionals have a great diversity of other school commitments and personal schedules thus making after hours collaboration difficult. I know our administration is reviewing schedules and times to try to build in more common planning time and efforts, and at times hire substitutes to cover so we can have extended days for specific topics and initiatives.
As this post takes on the mood and motion of a rambling vine, I'll stop and make some final comments.
- First, I'll continue to blog as I journey to work with strength and success to teach children well.
- Next, I will continue to try new strategies and pedagogy, and analyze those approaches with colleagues to determine the best ways to use new learning approaches and tools to move students forward. It's essential that we prepare students for the world they are living in now and the world of the future. Also new tools and approaches are engaging.
- As I blog and analyze, I'll make a special effort not to single people out, name names, or point blame. We're all in this together as schools evolve, and we all share a common purpose--to teach children well.
- Finally, I'll continue to work towards a better balance of planning and teaching, collaborating and working alone, and traditional vs. new methods and strategies.
As I repeatedly state, I work in an optimal system. Children come to us prepared to learn. Teachers dedicate their days, nights, and weekends to the work. We have multiple new and old tools to forward our efforts. The community supports us, and our students do very well. Systems like ours can serve to lead the way when it comes to new practice, efforts, and growth; we have what it takes to be an innovation incubation lab of sorts--a "Googleplex" of schools where students are invited to work with engagement, empowerment, and direction towards worthy, wonderful goals.
As I've heard many fine educators state, good schools demand "conditions of excellence" to move students forward. Our system has those conditions, and that's something to be proud of, and something that we should advocate for with regard to every school in the country. Having what it takes to be excellent doesn't mean that we don't have to work at it, develop, and move forward--education is an evolving institution, and it's imperative that we continue to work together with strength to evolve too. Finding just right systems, communication, schedules, tools and efforts will assist our journey in this regard.
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