Dreaming and Doing
In this PITP, we had the opportunity to dream about our ideal school and talk to students and colleagues about their ideal school, then we took a small step in the direction of that dream.
Dream big, a common saying, but how often do we really do this? I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity given to us to imagine our perfect schools. Mine was one where students became experts in topics beyond the standard curriculum into areas like dance and cooking. Classrooms were open and flowed into other spaces, including functional outdoor spaces for play and work. The teachers at my dream school planned together and projects went across content areas and grade levels. There was time within the day that teachers could create and plan together designing engaging projects with choice and activity.
A student from my class also had big dreams. He wanted opportunities for choice, a soccer team, and teachers who are, “100% awesome.” Technology and building played a significant role at his dream school and classes that were devoted to learning to use new technologies was important. He also wanted a time and space to just chill out after lunch and read.
The director of my school pictured a school where boundaries were blurred. Students were in combined age classes that pushed teachers beyond thinking about what kindergartners need to know towards more individualized thinking about what each child needs to know. Teachers planned in teams that included experts in performing arts and engineering. The school would develop imagination, curiosity, wonder and a sense of play.
While there were many areas of common ground in my vision and the dreams of students and colleagues, the one that struck me was a desire for teachers to collaborate. In schools, teachers spend all day mere feet away from each other, but we often don't take the time to see what's happening just next door. I have had the unique opportunity to share a fifth grade classroom with a teaching partner this year. The extremely collaborative nature of the partnership has helped me grow significantly as an educator. Ideas grew and became refined through conversations, decisions were thought out and made together, classroom management became easily manageable, and much more. I want the experiences I’ve had working in a partnership to extend to all of the staff so that we can all improve in our teaching and, hopefully, feel more confident in our work.
The small step I decided to take towards the goal of creating a more collaborative environment was to organize classroom visits. In my classroom visit experiences, I’ve always gotten more out of it when I’ve visited classrooms with another teacher who I can share thoughts with during and after the visit. With more eyes in the classroom, it is easier to catch more. So, I decided to assign partnerships for classroom visits. I spent a long time looking at the Explorer pull-out schedule to find common planning times. I also knew that I wanted the partnerships to be from different grade levels. I was able to find each staff member a partner who shared some common planning time during the week where they could visit at least a few classrooms of their choosing.
The protocol I chose was “First Classroom Visits” from the School Reform Initiative. The protocol asks teachers to go into a classroom with a question about their own practice. I thought this was a good starting place because it seemed less threatening for teachers to go in for their own benefit avoiding anything that could feel evaluative.
I presented the idea at a staff meeting and received a positive response. I was a bit worried because I knew I was asking teachers to put one more thing on their already full plates, but I also knew that people had mentioned a desire for more time to work together and support each other. I told teachers this was in no way evaluative, but instead, an opportunity to improve our own practice through looking for solutions in other classrooms. Being the new kid at school, I am wary to take leadership roles. I was surprised by the pleasant response to the idea and teachers’ willingness to take time out of their prep to observe and to be open to visitors in their rooms.
I spoke with my classroom visit partner and we decided a day to do our classroom visit. We wandered the hallway peeking in windows and discussing what we were looking for. We both were interested in student voice in the classroom and how we could create more equity for students. We spent time in a fourth grade classroom and in the science classroom. Initially entering the classrooms, the teachers were a bit flustered, but pleased to have colleagues watch them teach. We took away several new ideas for ways for students to participate, as well as ideas for displaying work and information in the classroom. The teachers we visited sought us out after wanting feedback from the visit.
Moving forward, I will organize a debrief of the process for our next staff meeting once everyone has completed classroom visits, probably using a protocol (once I find the right one). I cannot predict peoples' experiences, but I hope that teachers will be open to at least one more round of observations using the same or a similar protocol for the observations.
My lingering question is how can we continue to grow these practices and avoid it feeling overwhelming or forced?
National School Reform Faculty First Classroom Visits Protocol
Dream big, a common saying, but how often do we really do this? I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity given to us to imagine our perfect schools. Mine was one where students became experts in topics beyond the standard curriculum into areas like dance and cooking. Classrooms were open and flowed into other spaces, including functional outdoor spaces for play and work. The teachers at my dream school planned together and projects went across content areas and grade levels. There was time within the day that teachers could create and plan together designing engaging projects with choice and activity.
A student from my class also had big dreams. He wanted opportunities for choice, a soccer team, and teachers who are, “100% awesome.” Technology and building played a significant role at his dream school and classes that were devoted to learning to use new technologies was important. He also wanted a time and space to just chill out after lunch and read.
The director of my school pictured a school where boundaries were blurred. Students were in combined age classes that pushed teachers beyond thinking about what kindergartners need to know towards more individualized thinking about what each child needs to know. Teachers planned in teams that included experts in performing arts and engineering. The school would develop imagination, curiosity, wonder and a sense of play.
While there were many areas of common ground in my vision and the dreams of students and colleagues, the one that struck me was a desire for teachers to collaborate. In schools, teachers spend all day mere feet away from each other, but we often don't take the time to see what's happening just next door. I have had the unique opportunity to share a fifth grade classroom with a teaching partner this year. The extremely collaborative nature of the partnership has helped me grow significantly as an educator. Ideas grew and became refined through conversations, decisions were thought out and made together, classroom management became easily manageable, and much more. I want the experiences I’ve had working in a partnership to extend to all of the staff so that we can all improve in our teaching and, hopefully, feel more confident in our work.
The small step I decided to take towards the goal of creating a more collaborative environment was to organize classroom visits. In my classroom visit experiences, I’ve always gotten more out of it when I’ve visited classrooms with another teacher who I can share thoughts with during and after the visit. With more eyes in the classroom, it is easier to catch more. So, I decided to assign partnerships for classroom visits. I spent a long time looking at the Explorer pull-out schedule to find common planning times. I also knew that I wanted the partnerships to be from different grade levels. I was able to find each staff member a partner who shared some common planning time during the week where they could visit at least a few classrooms of their choosing.
The protocol I chose was “First Classroom Visits” from the School Reform Initiative. The protocol asks teachers to go into a classroom with a question about their own practice. I thought this was a good starting place because it seemed less threatening for teachers to go in for their own benefit avoiding anything that could feel evaluative.
I presented the idea at a staff meeting and received a positive response. I was a bit worried because I knew I was asking teachers to put one more thing on their already full plates, but I also knew that people had mentioned a desire for more time to work together and support each other. I told teachers this was in no way evaluative, but instead, an opportunity to improve our own practice through looking for solutions in other classrooms. Being the new kid at school, I am wary to take leadership roles. I was surprised by the pleasant response to the idea and teachers’ willingness to take time out of their prep to observe and to be open to visitors in their rooms.
I spoke with my classroom visit partner and we decided a day to do our classroom visit. We wandered the hallway peeking in windows and discussing what we were looking for. We both were interested in student voice in the classroom and how we could create more equity for students. We spent time in a fourth grade classroom and in the science classroom. Initially entering the classrooms, the teachers were a bit flustered, but pleased to have colleagues watch them teach. We took away several new ideas for ways for students to participate, as well as ideas for displaying work and information in the classroom. The teachers we visited sought us out after wanting feedback from the visit.
Moving forward, I will organize a debrief of the process for our next staff meeting once everyone has completed classroom visits, probably using a protocol (once I find the right one). I cannot predict peoples' experiences, but I hope that teachers will be open to at least one more round of observations using the same or a similar protocol for the observations.
My lingering question is how can we continue to grow these practices and avoid it feeling overwhelming or forced?
National School Reform Faculty First Classroom Visits Protocol