It turns out that the nomenclature of "lead teacher" and "teaching fellow" was already leading some people to conceptualize the idea as a "one teacher's in charge and the other follows" deal. No!! I spoke with a few teachers who came to me concerned that this mindset was already developing, so we talked about different names for the program. I'm now moving toward this:
MENTOR TEACHER: More experienced teacher (might be more experienced in total years taught, though in a couple of cases it might be simply more experience teaching at IDEA)
PARTNER TEACHER: The less experienced teacher partnered with a mentor teacher. They are most definitely full-time professional certified teachers, but are in an intense apprenticeship with less demanding planning responsibilities at the beginning and with high levels of support & instructional coaching feedback throughout the year. However, we expect them to be equal partners in the planning of the classroom environment, culture, and instruction--supported by their mentor teacher.
LEAD TEACHER: Both would be lead teachers...just for different halves of the day (depending on the language of instruction). When one member of the team is lead teaching, the other is assisting/supporting.
I'm sure my thinking will continue to change and develop, but that's where I am for today!
Teaching Fellow Program Overview
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Teaching Fellows
At our last dual language committee meeting, I shared the following proposal for a Teaching Fellows program in Kinder. I've also decided we'll likely pilot it in first grade next year too. Here's a quick overview...
Next year each Kinder & 1st Grade classroom will be self-contained. There will be 2 certified teachers teaching the class—1 English dominant, 1 Spanish dominant. One of those teachers (with at least 1 year experience) will be what we’ll call the "lead teacher." Basically this means he/she is the more experienced of the two. The other will be called the "teaching fellow." This will likely be a certified 1st year teacher who will teach for half the day but in an intense “apprenticeship” with their other partner teacher. They'll be able to collaborate around every aspect of teaching and receive valuable real-time feedback from their lead teacher. Teaching fellows will be on a professional salary schedule but it will be a slightly lower-paying schedule than the regular teaching salary as fellows will not have to create lesson plans from scratch at the beginning--they will simply tailor lesson plans created by lead teachers for the first couple of months.
Each classroom will have 28 – 30 children. This increased enrollment will help pay for the program. With 2 teachers it will move classrooms from the current 1:24 (or 1:27 in first grade this year!) teacher to student ratio to a 1:14 or 1:15 ratio. Huge difference.
Some additional details:
Not only will this (most importantly) have a positive impact on children academically, linguistically, and socially (due to dramatic improvements that can be made in classroom culture), but it will launch what I believe can be a very powerful first-year teaching apprenticeship program, helping first year teachers work in a highly supportive environment that sets them up for career success in the years to follow. I've struggled with the fact that first year teachers have such a tough time at IDEA (we really expect a LOT) and I sometimes wonder if IDEA is a good place for 1st year teachers....while also considering the fact that there probably couldn't be a better place for teachers to learn to teach--we might as well learn the right way first!! (Presumptuous of me to say, I know, but I really do believe that IDEA's focus on intensive instructional coaching is the best thing brand new teachers could have!)
I got the green light on the Teaching Fellows program from my manager, so now I'm just waiting for HR to create an official salary schedule and for my budget to be readjusted accordingly. Luzdivina and I are heading up to KIPP SHINE in Houston, an elementary charter school that gave us the idea to begin with. We'll meet with Teaching Fellows there, talk with admins, observe in classrooms, etc, and hopefully come back ready to launch our own version of the program!
Next year each Kinder & 1st Grade classroom will be self-contained. There will be 2 certified teachers teaching the class—1 English dominant, 1 Spanish dominant. One of those teachers (with at least 1 year experience) will be what we’ll call the "lead teacher." Basically this means he/she is the more experienced of the two. The other will be called the "teaching fellow." This will likely be a certified 1st year teacher who will teach for half the day but in an intense “apprenticeship” with their other partner teacher. They'll be able to collaborate around every aspect of teaching and receive valuable real-time feedback from their lead teacher. Teaching fellows will be on a professional salary schedule but it will be a slightly lower-paying schedule than the regular teaching salary as fellows will not have to create lesson plans from scratch at the beginning--they will simply tailor lesson plans created by lead teachers for the first couple of months.
Each classroom will have 28 – 30 children. This increased enrollment will help pay for the program. With 2 teachers it will move classrooms from the current 1:24 (or 1:27 in first grade this year!) teacher to student ratio to a 1:14 or 1:15 ratio. Huge difference.
Some additional details:
- Is the main teacher for half the day (opposite language of lead teacher), with lead teacher present & working with high-priority sts (1-on-1; small groups)
- Lead Teacher & Teaching Fellow both maintain their assigned language at all times
- Later in year, Teaching Fellow writes lesson plans for one content area
- Allows for a 1:14 certified teacher/student ratio (total 28 - 30 students in room; 2 certified teachers)
- Two certified teachers lead guided reading groups during centers, ensuring every child receives about 20 min of guided reading every day in their dominant language
- Plans collaboratively with Lead Teacher, other same-language teachers, and entire grade level
- Both teachers take additional personal planning during partner teacher's LWS block
- Teaching Fellow is evaluated by Lead Teacher & Manager together
- Lead Teachers are developed around key instructional coaching basics
- Teaching Fellows receive real-time feedback from Lead Teacher as well as from manager
- Ensures 2 adults in early childhood classrooms at almost all times (critical for extreme misbehavior, bathroom accidents, etc)
- Eliminates the many transitions our students previously experienced with team teaching while still ensuring language separation by teacher (key element of our model)
- Potential to dramatically reduce misbehavior & increase student achievement in Kinder given the low teacher to student ratio (without needing additional classrooms)
Not only will this (most importantly) have a positive impact on children academically, linguistically, and socially (due to dramatic improvements that can be made in classroom culture), but it will launch what I believe can be a very powerful first-year teaching apprenticeship program, helping first year teachers work in a highly supportive environment that sets them up for career success in the years to follow. I've struggled with the fact that first year teachers have such a tough time at IDEA (we really expect a LOT) and I sometimes wonder if IDEA is a good place for 1st year teachers....while also considering the fact that there probably couldn't be a better place for teachers to learn to teach--we might as well learn the right way first!! (Presumptuous of me to say, I know, but I really do believe that IDEA's focus on intensive instructional coaching is the best thing brand new teachers could have!)
I got the green light on the Teaching Fellows program from my manager, so now I'm just waiting for HR to create an official salary schedule and for my budget to be readjusted accordingly. Luzdivina and I are heading up to KIPP SHINE in Houston, an elementary charter school that gave us the idea to begin with. We'll meet with Teaching Fellows there, talk with admins, observe in classrooms, etc, and hopefully come back ready to launch our own version of the program!
Dual Language Revision Committee
I knew I needed to engage teachers in every step of the "revision" process as we made changes for the 2010 - 11 school year. I also knew that different teachers want to be involved to varying degrees. So, I decided to set up a Dual Language Revision Committee that would meet at least 3 times after school and have as much input as they wanted on changes I would be proposing for the coming school year. Anyone could join--I had two takers: Blanca (1st grade) and Christine (Kinder). My assistant principal, Luzdivina, also wanted to be involved but hasn't been able to attend either meeting so far due to after school duties/incidents. Hopefully she'll be able to attend this final meeting.
So far we've discussed revisions to our model and daily schedule. Our district has mandated some big changes by eliminating our weekly early release day (for staff development) and requiring that school instructional hours are neither more nor less than 7:45 AM - 3:45 PM. This was incredibly hard for me to swallow at first as it meant shortening our regular full day schedule (already packed to the max due to the extra time demands inherent in a dual language schedule) AS WELL AS eliminating our weekly 2-hr block of staff development...another critical element of dual language launch, particularly those first couple of years. I'll admit that I freaked out at first, then got angry and went into protest mode, and finally have come to accept that it is what it is and I'd better find a way to make it work. (Ah...the grieving process in miniature). Interestingly, I'm actually really pleased with the results and believe we've really found some great ways to make it work. Should I admit that I might even like our new ideas better than what we're currently doing this year? Humble pie. Eating lots of it.
So I went to work trying to figure out how to maximize a shorter school day and how to fit in substantive professional development without having to spend thousands of dollars for substitutes to provide release planning/PD time. Some things had to go, unfortunately. Right now we have a daily assembly or class meeting time. Next year we'll only be able to have school assembly once a week and an extended (20 min) class meeting once a week. I also had to eliminate our 30 min daily intervention block and, instead, add 20 minutes to centers time to allow for pull-out/push-in interventions for struggling students during that time. Saves 10 minutes without having to do away with it altogether. I created a special planning time schedule (STEPP Days...stands for Staff Time for Evaluating a Problem of Practice) :) where one grade level a week will have a 2 hour period without students (kids will be in an extended enrichment rotation in PE, Art, etc...) during which we'll engage in intensive PD activities. Got that idea from Sharon at Quest. However, it will only be tri-weekly for each team (1 team per week) instead of the current weekly PD time. Better than nothing. Also, it won't be the entire school together--it will only be by grade level. Again, better than nothing. Download Proposed Master Schedule
Blanca & Christine provided valuable input during meeting 1 and then came back with additional thoughts from other teachers during meeting 2. That's when I shared with them a very new idea I'd hatched for Kinder and 1st grade--a Teaching Fellows program. I'll give further details in a post dedicated just to this idea.
Here's my plan for meeting 3 (this is the email I sent yesterday):
Hi Ladies,
For some reason I’d calendared Tuesday 3/23 as the final dual language revision committee meeting date. Instead it will be the following Tuesday (3/30) at 4:15 PM. I’d like your feedback on the following two things:
1) Unit Planning Template
I’m attaching a unit planning template for next year that I’d like feedback on. Download Proposed Unit Planning Template I’m also attaching an “overview” help sheet that includes questions to think about at each stage of the planning process. The template I’ve created is based primarily on the Understanding by Design (UbD) backwards planning model (something I’ll be developing you all on at the beginning of the school year and throughout) and will allow us to “beef up” the tremendous work that’s already been done in planning our units. I anticipate this document going onto Google Docs so that all grade level team members could access them simultaneously and collaboratively and use the template to together create a detailed plan for each unit of inquiry. While you’ll see that it’s primarily UbD, I’ve also tweaked/revised it to ensure it includes critical aspects of our dual language planning expectations as well as some key pieces of IB’s PYP unit planning process (particularly the stage 4 post-unit reflection...this isn’t a part of the UbD framework). If you want to find out more about UbD’s planning framework to help you better understand the template’s organization, you can learn more (as well as see sample unit plans for different grade levels) at: UbD on Google Books. It’s actually a pretty fascinating read. :) After participating in a book study of this text, I used UbD as my primary unit planning approach as a teacher and found that it really pushed me to think very critically about how I planned, taught, and assessed units of study.
2) Website: Teaching & Learning Central
I’d also like you to take a look at a (VERY rough) draft of a website I’ve been working on to better organize & streamline all the information we need to access as well as our collaborative planning documents. I’ve invited you each to view: https://sites.google.com/site/ideaprimary/. The invitation was sent to the gmail accounts you use to access Google Docs. Some of the links on the website are “live” and accessible, many are not, so just play around for a few minutes and see what you think. I’d love questions, ideas, & critical feedback.
Ultimately, this final meeting will be the time to provide final feedback on any of our committee discussions:
Thanks!
Bethany
So far we've discussed revisions to our model and daily schedule. Our district has mandated some big changes by eliminating our weekly early release day (for staff development) and requiring that school instructional hours are neither more nor less than 7:45 AM - 3:45 PM. This was incredibly hard for me to swallow at first as it meant shortening our regular full day schedule (already packed to the max due to the extra time demands inherent in a dual language schedule) AS WELL AS eliminating our weekly 2-hr block of staff development...another critical element of dual language launch, particularly those first couple of years. I'll admit that I freaked out at first, then got angry and went into protest mode, and finally have come to accept that it is what it is and I'd better find a way to make it work. (Ah...the grieving process in miniature). Interestingly, I'm actually really pleased with the results and believe we've really found some great ways to make it work. Should I admit that I might even like our new ideas better than what we're currently doing this year? Humble pie. Eating lots of it.
So I went to work trying to figure out how to maximize a shorter school day and how to fit in substantive professional development without having to spend thousands of dollars for substitutes to provide release planning/PD time. Some things had to go, unfortunately. Right now we have a daily assembly or class meeting time. Next year we'll only be able to have school assembly once a week and an extended (20 min) class meeting once a week. I also had to eliminate our 30 min daily intervention block and, instead, add 20 minutes to centers time to allow for pull-out/push-in interventions for struggling students during that time. Saves 10 minutes without having to do away with it altogether. I created a special planning time schedule (STEPP Days...stands for Staff Time for Evaluating a Problem of Practice) :) where one grade level a week will have a 2 hour period without students (kids will be in an extended enrichment rotation in PE, Art, etc...) during which we'll engage in intensive PD activities. Got that idea from Sharon at Quest. However, it will only be tri-weekly for each team (1 team per week) instead of the current weekly PD time. Better than nothing. Also, it won't be the entire school together--it will only be by grade level. Again, better than nothing. Download Proposed Master Schedule
Blanca & Christine provided valuable input during meeting 1 and then came back with additional thoughts from other teachers during meeting 2. That's when I shared with them a very new idea I'd hatched for Kinder and 1st grade--a Teaching Fellows program. I'll give further details in a post dedicated just to this idea.
Here's my plan for meeting 3 (this is the email I sent yesterday):
Hi Ladies,
For some reason I’d calendared Tuesday 3/23 as the final dual language revision committee meeting date. Instead it will be the following Tuesday (3/30) at 4:15 PM. I’d like your feedback on the following two things:
1) Unit Planning Template
I’m attaching a unit planning template for next year that I’d like feedback on. Download Proposed Unit Planning Template I’m also attaching an “overview” help sheet that includes questions to think about at each stage of the planning process. The template I’ve created is based primarily on the Understanding by Design (UbD) backwards planning model (something I’ll be developing you all on at the beginning of the school year and throughout) and will allow us to “beef up” the tremendous work that’s already been done in planning our units. I anticipate this document going onto Google Docs so that all grade level team members could access them simultaneously and collaboratively and use the template to together create a detailed plan for each unit of inquiry. While you’ll see that it’s primarily UbD, I’ve also tweaked/revised it to ensure it includes critical aspects of our dual language planning expectations as well as some key pieces of IB’s PYP unit planning process (particularly the stage 4 post-unit reflection...this isn’t a part of the UbD framework). If you want to find out more about UbD’s planning framework to help you better understand the template’s organization, you can learn more (as well as see sample unit plans for different grade levels) at: UbD on Google Books. It’s actually a pretty fascinating read. :) After participating in a book study of this text, I used UbD as my primary unit planning approach as a teacher and found that it really pushed me to think very critically about how I planned, taught, and assessed units of study.
2) Website: Teaching & Learning Central
I’d also like you to take a look at a (VERY rough) draft of a website I’ve been working on to better organize & streamline all the information we need to access as well as our collaborative planning documents. I’ve invited you each to view: https://sites.google.com/site/ideaprimary/. The invitation was sent to the gmail accounts you use to access Google Docs. Some of the links on the website are “live” and accessible, many are not, so just play around for a few minutes and see what you think. I’d love questions, ideas, & critical feedback.
Ultimately, this final meeting will be the time to provide final feedback on any of our committee discussions:
- Next year’s proposed model
- Next year’s proposed schedules
- Teaching Fellows proposal
- Unit Planning approach
- Improving our use of Google Apps (website)
- Any other aspects of dual language planning you want me to take into consideration
Thanks!
Bethany
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)