On page 84, it reads, “No school can offer an exemplary instructional program to its students without the devoted work of its teachers. Teacher leaders, by mobilizing the energy of their colleagues, have a significant influence on the quality of that program.”
My question to you -- in what ways are you, as teacher leaders, able (or not) to influence the quality of teaching and learning in our district? What are your reflections about that statement? Additional insights? Please feel free to respond to this prompt, or begin a new discussion on the topic of your choice.
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I am discovering that my passion as a teacher leader is helping 6th through 8th grade students survive middle school. Several years ago I joined the Anti-Bullying Task Force. Involvement on this committee has been very rewarding. The work we began at SMS has blossomed into a district wide commitment with a common language and a process for those being targeted, for bystanders, and bullies. I continue to be a member of this committee. I believe this work is extremely important.
ReplyDeleteI also recently began a course called “Race, Culture & Bias in Education: Culturally Proficient Teaching”. My goal is to take a person journey to improving my own cultural competence. After completing the course I would like to be able to help other teachers design instructional strategies and learning environments so that individual cultural differences are respected and valued. In the course description it states “this class will enable you to better understand the concept of White Privilege and its impact on education.”
I looked up some data about Sherwood. The estimated White population in the Sherwood community is 92.4%. The U.S. average is 75.10%. Sherwood can NOT be an easy place to grow-up as a minority. And…being a minority in middle school in the Sherwood School District????? It can’t be easy, what can we as teachers do? I want to make sure we are doing enough for our minorities even if we have “just one or two of them” in our classroom. My concern for minorities and racial justice began as a child. My parents searched for their 1st home in Cincinnati, Ohio based on racial make-up of the neighborhood. (By the way, they still live there.) The elementary school that I went to had a racial balance of 354 and 355. Does it matter which was black and which was white?
After graduating from high school, I attended Ohio State University (3% Black). There was a weekend orientation. I was with some girls (all white) in our lounge and a black girl walked by. One of the other girls said “I hope I never have to room with one of them”. Do you know what I said? NOTHING! I was 17 years old. I will not forget that I said nothing. I will continue to do something even if it is 25 years later. I want to empower middle school students. I want students to stand up to racial discrimination and bullying. I believe I can make a difference. Next year I would like to begin the school year facilitating a book club. I would like the first book to be Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School: 101 Stories of Life, Love, and Learning for Younger Teens.
I believe teacher leaders have a huge impact on the school environment. When you lead in a positive manner, others feel respected, heard, and valued.
ReplyDeleteEarly in the school year, this year, many elementary teachers were feeling overwhelmed with the transition to Common Core State Standards (myself included). Initially, I was so overwhelmed that I felt myself resisting this huge change. By about November, I found myself reassessing my attitude. I realized that my resistance was not only bad for me, but also bad for my co-workers. I changed my outlook and decided to embrace the CCSS and provide myself with the opportunity to grow with the change. I opened my mind and my attitude became positive. Ultimately, I became less overwhelmed and open to learning how to teach in this new way. It was during this time that I realized how my own feelings about change were impacting the other teachers at my school. When we all embrace change in a positive manner, it is not as scary and overwhelming. Everything is better when we work together. :) I believe that teacher leaders can help to create a positive environment during a major shift in education, just by embracing change in a positive manner.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a leadership class called ContinUO. During this class, I had a lot of time to reflect upon how teacher leaders can positively impact the school environment. Teacher leaders have a positive attitude, smile, support, and help. I am lucky because I work in a school where this happens all the time. Positive energy is contagious. If teacher leaders spread that positive energy, others will most likely be positive as well.
Teacher leaders definitely have the ability to positively alter the school environment.
During a recent MTI meeting, our team referenced a desire to invite SMS to repeat its presentation of the anti-bullying assembly for our students at Middleton. The positive message to support appropriate responses to bullying in the hope of breaking its insidious cycle is an example of a project, as described by Susan, which has become a scalable effort across the district to affect change for our community of learners. Our school is one of several who have benefited from the important work that was undoubtedly guided by teacher leaders, and we thank Susan and her colleagues and students.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Susan’s response to the prompt about how we are able, as teacher leaders, to have an impact on teaching and learning in our district, it is encouraging to think about the diversity of projects or programs that we have the potential to pursue—each with the goal to increase student outcomes in all aspects of their education: academics, functional, social, or behavioral. Many of my experiences have focused on improving educational programs for students in special education by accepting leadership opportunities that have allowed me to work to share and improve the services we provide across the district and in the community.
The opportunity to access collaborative grants this year was the impetus for a small group of learning specialists to serve as representative leaders over the summer to collaborate to more clearly define job and supervisory roles for special education instructional assistants working at all grade levels across the district. This has been an area of great interest to me over the years, especially since I once served in the same role for the district. On a building-level I have worked to provide, support, and advocate for important trainings to increase skills that lead to more rigorous instruction and expectations. As part of the staff development program in August, I had the opportunity to collaborate with two other learning specialists who share this interest, and we developed and presented a training module on the purpose and process of collecting data that can lead to more meaningful information with which to measure progress and inform educational decisions, and eventually lead to greater student growth. Like the anti-bullying committee, our goal was to take our individual desire to support the growth of paraprofessional expertise and make it scalable in a way that would support students throughout the district.
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Marian Wattman Oshima
Middleton Elementary School
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ReplyDeleteTwo years ago another opportunity arose to work with another learning specialist to represent Sherwood’s Special Programs Department at a Kindergarten Transition meeting with parents and the Director of the Tualatin Early Childhood Special Education program. Most of the children that have received early intervention services and have been identified at a young age as being eligible for special education supports come to Sherwood through this program. During each of the past two years, we have presented a PowerPoint to introduce the “faces” and process of special education services in the Sherwood School District to anxious parents in the audience who are preparing to send their children to kindergarten the following year. This has been a rewarding experience to help shape parent expectations and begin collaboration with parents and staff that can benefit student outcomes in the coming school year. Through our increased involvement in the ECSE program, the ECSE director has recently reached out to us as teacher leaders to request our input about curriculum decisions they are making, seeking our input about how it might align with curricula that we are using in the Sherwood School District. When reading Charlotte Danielson’s chapter on Communications and Community Relations in which she talks about professional partnerships between organizations in education, it made me think of this request by ECSE.
In my experience in Sherwood I have found many opportunities to become involved in projects that fit the teacher leader model. Our discussions in conjunction with reading Charlotte Danielson’s book have sparked many ideas in our group, and I am confident that there will be many inventive and productive applications across the district. I am wondering if we can somehow use our technology to communicate about these projects or programs as they emerge to expand opportunities for a diverse participation by the many teacher leaders!
Marian Wattman Oshima
Middleton Elementary School
I always feel very fortunate to teach in Sherwood, especially when I talk with teachers from other, larger districts. I have always found that there are many opportunities to get involved and be heard on many aspects of teaching, especially within my grade level and school. I think that the district has come a long way in the last year having grade level teams meet on CLT and Staff Development days. We have been able to share materials, collaborate on assessments and lessons, and just talk about what is and isn’t working in our classrooms. Just getting to know our counterparts at the other elementary schools has been instrumental. During my first few years in Sherwood I wouldn’t have been able to even tell the names of teachers at the other elementary schools!
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