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:

• 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) 

That's the idea in a nutshell.  It aims to combine all the benefits of a self-contained classroom with the benefits of a language team-teaching approach.  If it works as well as I think it will and proves to be cost-effective and sustainable, then I'll expand it to 2nd grade and make this our K - 2 approach.  3 - 5 can then be team taught in 2 separate 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!