This week was the week that I was able to make the most connections and found myself most inspired to step up and share my thoughts on the change process in my work environment.
Chapter Reflection and Connections: "Chapter 6: Instructional Leadership: Improving Student and Teacher Achievement" from How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader, really hit home this week as being timely and relevant. So many of topics discussed resonated with me. As this week marked history in Wisconsin as the Republican's underhandedly took away worker's rights to collectively bargain and passed the Budget Despair Bill, the reality of the huge hit to education has begun to set in. Word circulated at school yesterday that teachers are facing a salary loss of $20,000 to $30,000 annually. I love my profession...but...If we need to fill our classrooms with quality teachers in order to drive student achievement and shape our future, what QUALITY is going to be attracted by a hill of beans? If "student achievement begins and ends with the quality of the teacher" as Gabriel says, why are so many blind to the negative effects to come from this legislation? On Friday, staff received a letter from our school board president, forwarded to us via e-mail by our district administrator. The letter essentially communicated that our school will be run like a well-oiled business and an equitable teacher evaluation process will be put into place. NEVER, in my eleven years of teaching, have I seen a school board member walk through my classroom..."If your teachers do not respect you instructionally, you will find it difficult to succeed as a leader" (p. 25, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader). The letter/e-mail succeeding in offending rather than inspiring; it angered rather than encouraged. I fully realize that change is going to happen, but it is difficult to "survive" change with poor leadership.
I found Gabriel's discussion of department heads/leaders to be interesting. He referred to the position as "an overwhelming charge." If it's such an overwhelming charge, why aren't department heads, in my school, held more accountable? Are there schools where department heads are truly department heads and not message deliverers or go-betweens with administration? Are there districts where there is a legitimate process for hiring or recruiting department heads? At one point I was English department head. I received a phone call during the summer from an administrator asking me if I'd be the English department head because the other person that was interested in the position was not who administration would prefer to have the position...They'd be so appreciative if I'd take the position...I did so, as I was excited at the prospect of having a hand in what we did as a department in the middle school although I did feel terrible about the manner in which I gained the position.
Another thing from Chapter 6 that I identified with was the discussion of curriculum mapping. As I've participated in oodles of curriculum writing and alignment activities, I found the question "What are the essential questions that will guide our focus and enhance student interest and inquiry?" (p.130). The last time we rewrote and aligned curriculum, the person leading the process told us we could ignore writing essential questions and add those "later" if need be. Shouldn't we have been inserviced on how to write essential questions, their importance to curriculum and student learning? As we move into rewriting curriculum again next year, I intend to be adamant about the importance of writing these questions and adding them to our units. I'm happy, though, that our curriculum maps offer a chart for our literature and English courses, outlines the essential knowledge for each grade level, offers activities, and plan for how to organize the year. We need to add differentiated lesson ideas as well as enrichment activities.
The Consider Creative Scheduling portion of Chapter 6 inspired me to propose an idea to my teammates for running a creative schedule once a week or every other week to allow "ketchup" time, enrichment time, etc. for students. We could offer remediation, peer tutoring, reteaching, study group, etc. opportunities. We do weekly drawings in each of our five classes for students to meet their external motivation needs (25 winners per Friday).
Reflection on and Connections with the Change Game: The Change Game was a quite a learning experience! We finally got on mojo on in year 3. I was surprised and frustrated by the extreme resistance to change and experienced the train moving forward even if everyone's not ready...they jumped aboard once the change began to take hold. I was also frustrated by our inability to be more successful. It was interesting to see the importance of data collection, talking and talking again, as well as surveying in the process of successful change. I think this is where our district falls short in making change successful. I'm hoping as future changes occur in our district, I am able to apply and share the strategies for addressing resistance with colleagues and leaders alike: building relationships, learning to talk about positives and negatives, data collection, planning for needs and concerns, sharing a vision, and high expectations across the bo
ard. The components of successful change hit home as I can more clearly pinpoint right where our district's shortcomings lie.Moving Forward: Do I want to participate in Commencement? (Maybe.) Am I ready to dive into my Capstone project? (No.) What are my plans after grad school classes aren't eating up hours and hours of time each week? What will I do with myself? I may take a hiatus from technology...:)
