An educational platform would not be complete without sharing my perspectives about some of the foundational features of school operations. I have chosen to provide some insight regarding my beliefs and experiences concerning:
I feel that these views, in conjunction with the previously stated beliefs on education, shape who I am presently and who I hope to become, as an educator. My learning is never finished. Regarding Curriculum and instruction: I believe instruction needs to be student centered, grounded in research-based strategies, and address the needs of the whole child. The best way to ensure this happens is by giving educators the opportunity to collaborate. I believe this because children are more apt to retain instruction when they have actively participated in the construction of their knowledge. Teachers need dedicated time to plan for these learning experiences. A curriculum program needs to be selected by a group of educators who have explored and tested (with students) a variety of options. It needs to provide a framework for instruction using the California Common Core State Standards (CCSS), yet be flexibly enough for teachers to use their professional judgement to ensure all standards are taught in the most effective and efficient way. I feel strongly that when teachers collaborate together, they will be able to develop rich, meaningful learning opportunities for their students. As a team, teachers can take the one-dimensional curriculum and bring it to fruition in a four-dimensional experience that teaches the whole child and stretches across content areas. There are hurdles to navigate when looking at balancing adopted curriculum with teacher designed curriculum. First, we must adopt curriculum approved by the State Board of Education (SBE). Curriculum should be adopted every 8 years, though in 2009 this law was suspended until the 2013-14 school year. Second, it is critical to look at how a prospective curriculum will meet the needs of a district’s students. To balance these two factors it is critical to have a range of teacher and administrator review before an adoption is made. Many times, teachers develop supplemental lessons or units that align with content standards and the themes outlined in adopted curriculum. Third, I believe teachers will produce better learning experiences when they are given time to collaborate on teaching strategies to address learner needs- not just academic needs, but social and emotional needs too. The life lessons woven in between the content standards will weave the tapestry that will provide our students with skills they need to become successful members of our society. I would like to highlight a strategy for developing curriculum cycles through Professional Learning Communities. In 2011, I was involved in the development of implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLC) in my district. Along with a team of administrators and teachers we reviewed a way to carve out time in the teachers’ workdays to specifically focus on curriculum and instruction. We developed a modified student schedule allowing for 90 minutes each week for teacher collaboration, curriculum development, reviewing of student data, and a revolving plan-teach-assess-reteach plan. This was first implemented in the 2012-13 school year. Now, three years later, our staff and school board still see the benefit PLCs have on our instruction and students. We have utilized this time to dive deep into the CCCS and create focus standards for each grade-level, develop behavior plans for students in need of support, and collaborate on ways to modify the adopted curriculum to allow for collaborative, technology rich lessons. These plans were outlined by a committee made up of teachers and administrators. In the coming years, we hope to give school sites more autonomy in deciding areas of focus for PLC time that best support the needs of their communities, while still moving towards achieving district goals and visions. Parent and Community Involvement I believe parents and the community are valuable resources in education and should be involved in conversations around their local school whenever possible. I believe this because our sphere of influence, as educators, must include the people who we directly and indirectly impact. We directly impact our students and their families with our daily work in schools. Our work in school becomes more meaningful to our students when we make connections to their community. This causes an indirect impact on the community because it involves community members in the education of our children and their families. When parents and the community have a partnership with our schools, rather than an “us vs them” view, we have a wider range of people supporting students and learning. I’d like to highlight a program our school has participated in for the past 2 years called School Smarts. School Smarts is a program for families The School Smarts Parent Engagement Program is a model for creating meaningful and diverse parent involvement. It brings parents from all backgrounds together in support of their common interest: helping their children and schools succeed. One night a week families come together to eat dinner and participate in activities together that build positive parent-child relationships. Then the children transition to a classroom with a leader to work on social skills and art projects. The parents participate in a workshop with a different focus each week. Topics include knowing how to navigate the school systems and various programs from tutoring to Special Education, learning about community resources and how to access them, meeting and learning about the functions of our school board, learning how to talk to teachers about concerns, and helping parents understand the CCCS. We have had waiting lists of parents who want to participate and even parents who have graduated from the program want to return the following school year. We have seen the number of parent volunteers increase on campus and our PTA membership has also risen. This program has helped us build a critical partnership with our parents in the education of their children. Discipline and School Climate/Culture I believe it is everyone's responsibility to promote a positive school climate and uphold the culture of a school. Similarly, it is the leader's responsibility to guide this process and support the staff and parents in implementing desired changes. I believe this because a school is a community created (or torn down) by those who pass through its halls each day. The adults on a campus must set the standard expectation with their everyday actions. Students are always watching and our actions speak far louder than our words. How do we handle conflicts between us or between students. Do we act in a calm proactive way or are we reactive? It is the adults that must lead by example. We must take the time to directly teach students about choice words and ways they can support their peers through their successes and missteps. Ideally, the students, staff and administrator on a campus would work together to create a standard expectation for school behavior. Then the administrator would support staff as they help to develop these outcomes in their students. An administrator may provide support personally or provide opportunities for professional development. The leaders of the campus are ultimately responsible for providing clear and consistent boundaries which allow students to develop an understanding of how they can appropriately interact with their community. I’d like to highlight a unit of study I found highly effective. At the beginning of the past two school year all teachers have been provided with mini lessons for directly teaching campus expected behaviors. For example, on Monday all teachers did a lesson on how to behave while at the lunch tables. The mini lessons included group discussions/brainstorming, role playing, and reflection on how lunch time went after lunch that day. Since all students were receiving the same information using the same expectation, and all the adults on campus were reinforcing this positive behavior as they saw it at lunch, the students then began to understand that this is part of our school culture. The reinforcement of this expectation continues on all year. It doesn’t just stop after the lesson is over. We provided similar minilessons about walking in the hall, how to ask for help in class, how to say no to a peer without causing an argument, etc. The critical part of this is that all the adults on campus are supporting these lessons through their actions in and out of the classroom. While this is just the beginning of developing our culture on campus consistency is a key component of its success. Technology I believe technology is a vehicle for creating amazing learning opportunities, yet it is developing very rapidly. We need to continue to support teachers in developing new teaching skills with technology as a major presence and design curriculum and policy that promotes best practices. We need to provide students to opportunity to develop digital literacy and critical thinking skills that will help them to be successful as our technology ever grows and changes. I believe this because the resources at our students fingertips are far beyond our wildest dreams just 8 years ago. In 2007, the first iPod touch was released. This device began to change the face of our classrooms with the subsequential development of iPads and other tablets. It became possible to easily have one-to-one devices in classrooms. A majority of teachers have been teaching with strategies that were developed when iPads were not even a possibility. While this does not invalidate these strategies, many teachers need to develop a new skill set for teaching with this type of technology readily available. Professional development on best practices and laws involving technology and student privacy are imperative for the success of our teachers and in turn the students. It is in a district’s best interest to support the professional development in these areas. Privacy and confidentiality of data is a paramount issue, in and outside of K-12 education. I’d like to highlight the SAMR model for designing technology rich lessons. Teachers can use SAMR to reflect upon how they are integrating technology into their classrooms. SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. Several years ago our TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment) provided an inservice on using the SAMR model when planning lessons with technology. They outlined each area and gave clear examples of what each level of integration might look like in our classrooms. Teachers were then given time to develop a lesson using technology and referring to the SAMR model for guidance. Since then, when I create lesson plans, or look for lesson ideas, the SAMR model is always one of the lenses I look though as I analyze the content. Using google docs to collaborate on revising my students’ writing with my students in real-time is a good example of technology completely redefining the learning process. It was incredible to be able to view 8 students’ writing at once, be able to provide feedback, and then view their work in real-time. Once my class became comfortable using this method for review writing, I was able to partner up students to do a similar revision process with their peers. This type of collaboration would not be possible without our one-to-one iPads and the capabilities of Google Drive. As a further extension, students can create interactive books using an the App called BookCreator. This allows them to put their writing into a digital book, add sound, graphics, and then share it in a format that preserves these features. Using the SAMR model to help design these types of lessons allows me to purposefully utilize technology to support and extend students’ understanding and ownership of their work. Technology has become so interwoven into our daily routine in classrooms it is a slippery slope to just substitute pencil paper tasks with technology. The SAMR model is a good reminder that even in a technology rich environment teachers and expertise planning are needed to bring learning and technology together in a meaningful way. Resources 1. (2010). Instructional Materials Evaluation and Adoption - California ... Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/cefimadoptprocess.asp. 2. (2015). School Smarts | The California State PTA. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://capta.org/programs-events/school-smarts/. 3. (2011). Apple - Products - iPod History. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from https://www.apple.com/pr/products/ipodhistory/. 4. (2014). Keeping Student Data Private -- THE Journal. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/04/10/keeping-student-data-private.aspx. 5. (2014). Introduction to the SAMR Model - Common Sense Media. Retrieved March 9, 2015, from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/introduction-to-the-samr-model. As I reread my previous posts and this week's readings in Practicing the Art of Leadership I began to see the shadow of my leadership style. I connected with the point Dr. Pumpian made in his lecture about people claiming they could be a different type of leader in different situations. Of course, this happens. Every situation doesn't call for a blanket strategy that will solve every problem. For example, I know that when I'm working with my 3 year old she needs to have a choice A and a choice B when it comes to picking out clothing to wear. However, when it is time to clean up her toys, there is no option A or option B. The only acceptable choice is to put the toys back in their proper places. In both situations she is still accomplishing our goal, but I'm leading differently out of necessity. When I think about how this applies to my leadership style, I acknowledge different situations require a different style of leadership. My main source for leadership, though, comes from a democratic stand point with a hint of laissez-faire. I have seen first hand how a staff responds to an authoritarian leader- on the surface it seems the organization is running well, but bubbling underneath are employees and students who feel unheard and not valued. This is not a style I'm comfortable being lead by nor leading with. I have also seen the impact of leaders who take a laissez-faire approach. This strategy works well for groups of people who are self-motivated and driven, but for the majority it is not enough structure. I believe in the power of our collective voice. I also believe that those individuals who are self-driven should be given the space to act in this way as long as it moves the group towards the goal. This is why I think a mostly democratic approach is a good fit for me. I believe that for new programs, ideas, protocols, or expectations to truly take hold they need to have buy-in from the stakeholders. Communication is key to building a relationship of trust and respect with staff members. Their voices matter and must be a part of every possible decision. I see the value in a shared leadership approach. Resources: Green, R. (2013). Practicing the art of leadership: A problem-based approach to implementing the ISLLC standards (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson. Non-negotiables are ideas, actions, and expectations that I feel are imperative to the success of an organization. I believe in keeping things as simple as possible. So, my list is short. However, each item is manifested in many ways throughout the course of a school year.
Do what is best for kids- ALWAYS. Many times adults make a decisions based upon what is the easiest solution or the least expensive fix, or the fastest to implement. These are all valid points to consider when decisions arise; however, the leading question that must be answered with a resounding "YES!" is "Is this what is best for kids?" What's best for kids doesn't always mean doing what is popular or common. Sometimes it means going against the grain. Be respectful. This seems like a given. When I say be respectful though, I mean that everyone in the organization must show respect for each other. This includes students, teachers, support staff, parents and leaders. We are a team building the best educational experience for our students, the least we can do is build that foundation upon respect and trust. This sets the tone and expectation for our students. If we want their respect we also have to give them our respect. Model integrity. If you say you're going to do something- do it. At the school I work at, the harsh reality is that many of our students have adults in their lives who do not follow through. They see adults blaming others for their actions/situations, making irresponsible choices, and placing adult problems at the feet of their children. We cannot control these outside factors. What we can control is the example we set at school. When we model taking ownership for our actions and words we show students that integrity matters. Be honest with yourself and your colleagues. While it can take time for colleagues to gain each other's trust I believe this working relationship is critical to improving our craft. Being honest with ourselves about the effectiveness of a lesson, or the action we took that may have escalated a behavior rather than deescalated it is key to making growth as an educator. One of the best resources are our colleagues, when we are comfortable enough to reach out and ask for insight or tap into expertise great things can happen in classrooms. For the past eight years, I have been privileged to work as an elementary multiple subject school teacher. I was initially hired to teach Early Admission to Kindergarten (EAK). I believe I was selected for this position, not just based upon my beliefs and outlook on education, but for my years of experience in early childhood education. Prior to obtaining my multiple subject teaching credential, I worked in a preschool. This understanding and training in child development was a great strength in teaching a program that, at the time, had no set curriculum. In the years to follow I was rehired to teach Kindergarten, then first grade and presently third grade.
In this time, I began to take on new duties and responsibilities outside my classroom. My adjunct duties have included: Site technology trainer, SmartBoard coach, Illuminate trainer, Imagine Learning English program site lead, PTA Board Member: Programs VP and Yearbook coordinator, Title 3 tutoring, and our site Professional Learning Community team rep. Another role I play in my district began when I was elected as a site rep for our teachers association. After several years of serving members in this capacity I was elected as Vice-President and I currently hold this position. I appreciate this duty as I have been able to develop professional working relationships with administrators that positively impact our district. We work very hard to have a good working relationship with our district and my duties include assisting the association president in various duties as assigned, attend all school board meetings, attend California Teachers Association (CTA) workshops and conferences, run unit meetings in the absence of the president, and support our members by maintaining an open line of communication with administration. Before I began my teaching career, I was a barista for 8 years. This job not only put me through college, but gave me the opportunity to develop critical leadership skills. I cared a lot about the craft of making a high quality beverage and working in an efficient and orderly cafe. I made friendships that have lasted over 10 years and lead to my meeting my husband. The wonderful people (and even those not so great employees) I worked with taught me a lot about working as a team, how to lead, and when to follow. I also make a mean extra dry, quad cappuccino. In my previous post, I reflected upon what I believe about education. In this post, I hope to give some insight to where these beliefs came from. In order to paint this picture, I think it is best to go back to my experiences with education as a child leading up to my decision to enter the teaching profession.
This began for me long before I was old enough to attend school. My mom is a Montessori teacher and director of Montessori Discovery School. My grandmother was a Montessori teacher, a special education assistant, an immigrant, and a med student 2 courses short of becoming an MD (that's another story)! My aunt is a kindergarten teacher. My dad has worked for the Salk Institute for over 40 years and he is a talent musician. My grandfather also worked for the Salk Institute after immigrating to the US from Northern Ireland. He was a talented carpenter and craftsman. I start with this information to give you insight on with whom I spent my childhood. These 5 people greatly influenced my outlook on education, leadership, and my place in this world. If you are like me and grew up in a family of teachers you know what it is like. Vacations are always educational (and fun) and well organized. Learning was woven into every interaction they had with my brother and me. The foundations of Montessori education greatly influenced their interactions with us as well. In my school experience, before my first time attending public school as a 1st grader, I attended Montessori preschool and kindergarten programs. Learning was driven by my curiosity and guided by the teachers' understanding of my developmental needs. From a child's perspective it didn't "feel like learning" it just felt natural and fun. At home, I spent a majority of my time playing outside or making and constructing things. Even as teenagers my brother and I spent more time outdoors, playing sports, performing in plays, or dancing than in front of a TV. So the idea of learning happening through real-life experiences was a message that my family lived each day and the adults in my life intentionally gave us opportunities to discover this truth for ourselves. My grandfather and dad taught me how to use real tools to design and build things from scrap wood as young child. The critical thinking skills they pushed me to develop at a young age have supported me my entire life. The value of personal relationships was modeled so clearly to me as I grew older and more aware of how kind and selfless these adults were with their colleagues, friends, and complete strangers. I noticed how others looked up to them for guidance in personal and professional situations. This became extremely evident 6 years ago after my grandfather passed away and the brilliant people he had known through his job spoke of how touched they were by his character- his "true north". When I was 17, I began working as an assistant at the preschool/kindergarten which my mom owns, directs, and teaches. This experience greatly shaped my vision of myself as an educator. I attended multiple conferences for early childhood education and hours of Montessori professional development workshops over the 6 years I was an official employee. I now was experiencing facilitating that student centered learning I had enjoyed as a young child. I was privileged to see that sparkle in a child's eye when she finally "got it" again and again. I began to understand why my mom, grandmother, and aunt chose to become teachers. I knew that education was the career I wanted to pursue. I didn't know if I wanted to work in the private or public setting though. This is when my aunt became a guiding light. Like me, she too had worked at Montessori Discovery School and had much training in Montessori methods. Through many conversations and time in her kindergarten classroom I came to the conclusion that I wanted to work in public schools. Not because I agreed fully with the model of public education, but because I felt there was a need for other methods of teaching to be available for all children not just those whose parents can afford private elementary school. I felt that my almost innate feeling about guiding learning rather than dictating it needed to have a place in public education. Now, I do not pretend that my beliefs are unique. There are literally thousands of people and lots of research and now even the CA Common Core Standards that put great value on student centered, collaborative learning. I wanted to add my voice to that song. I teach because I've experience the power of authentic learning opportunities and I want my students to also have this foundation in their lives. The values and ideals my family has modeled for me speaks louder than any words they've spoken. It for this reason I believe the statements about education and learning that I made in my previous post. The posts in this section of my 610 blog will relate to my evolving convictions on why I am an educator. I acknowledge that these ideas may change over the course of my career, but the below statements, I feel, are the core undercurrents of my educational leadership platform.
I believe all students and teachers must be supported in achieving high standards. I believe teachers are facilitators of learning. I believe classrooms need to be centered around students' needs and these needs will change year to year. I believe learning needs to be developmentally appropriate and that this looks different for each child since children develop differently. I believe all students should be equipped with the skills needed to choose their own path in this world. I believe that learning looks different for each student and for each concept of focus. I believe students need teachers to support, not just their academic learning, but their social-emotional learning as well. I teach because I enjoy helping students realize and actualize their own potential. I teach because I enjoy empowering students to take an active role in their education. I teach because I have an opinion on what I believe high-quality education looks like in public schools. I teach because I want to instill curiosity and inquisitiveness in my students. I teach because it is in my blood. |
Author: Kerry StrongEducator. Student. Mom. Wife. Traveler. Archives
March 2015
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