
Me after teaching all day! (Image source: ghonie.blogspot.com/)
When I was teaching, my friends would always ask me what it was like to be a teacher. I always had a hard time capturing it, but over the years the conversations evolved into something like this:
Friend, “Ian, what’s it like being a teacher?”
Reply, “It’s like this. Everything is calm in the morning. I get my materials ready, run through all of my plans one more time, shoot off a few emails, you know. Then the kids come. 23 little people ready to learn and grow. I make about a million decisions each and every day, constantly check the progress of my students, retune my lessons all day long, get them to lunch, get them to music, get them ready to go home, get them out the door safely, and then I collapse.”
Friend, “What did you have for lunch?”
Reply, I shake my head and laugh.
The point that I illustrate with my story is that teaching is an incredibly complex and demanding field. Teachers need to be on their toes, up to date, and dynamic like no one else in the world. They are skilled at so many things across so many domains and it takes a high degree of focus and energy to execute with skill each and every day in the classroom. Further complicating matters for teachers is the pace at which the days, weeks, and years move.
The pace and complexity I describe create a situation in which high levels of professional success and satisfaction depend, more than ever, upon collaboration amongst colleagues. Sharing ideas, methods, and resources is critical. Developing curriculum, generating common assessments, and looking at student work as a team are essential practices that lead to success. In theory, collaboration is key; in practice, time rules the day.
Daily 40 minute planning periods are enough to catch your breath, respond to a phone call or e-mail, go to the bathroom, and get back to your class. These periods do not provide the kind of time teachers need to collaborate meaningfully on topics and issues that matter and improve teaching and learning. For many reasons, the ability to provide collaborative time for teachers that goes beyond the 40 minutes daily model has eluded me. I have wrestled with this issue over the course of my career as both a teacher and administrator.This year things changed.
During a faculty meeting a few months ago, I was engaged in a conversation with our faculty about common assessments and looking at student work. Many teachers expressed their desire to engage in this work while simultaneously expressing the fact that there just wasn’t time in the day. After the conversation ended and we concluded the meeting, one of my fourth grade teachers approached and suggested that me and my assistant principal, Ben Gatto, take each grade level for half a day so that teams of teachers could collaborate for substantial periods of time. As soon as she said it, the lightbulb went on and I knew we had the answer.
It took a few weeks, but Ben and I figured out the scheduling and planned a morning full of activities that we could do with the various grade levels. Over the past two weeks we have executed a release day for both our 3rd and 4th grade teams. K, 1, and 2 will follow in the coming weeks. The response from everyone involved so far has been really positive. Our teachers are excited to have collaborative time built into their days. The students are having a blast getting special time with the principal and assistant principal. Ben and I are feeling like satisfied leaders because we are getting quality time with our students and freeing up our teachers to work with their teams, support one another, and, ultimately, support high levels of student learning and growth.
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