Lori
You say you haven't figured out what to do with colleagues? To me it sounds
like you are doing all the right things! :-)
This is a tough issue....and one that I continue to struggle with. Part of my
role is to work with teachers as well as students. I am so passionate about
teaching comprehension and the nature of understanding and it is so hard
sometimes to relate to the teachers that won't change...but I know that we have
to be persistent in order to acheive our vision for kids! I keep reminding
myself that most teachers really do, down in their deepest heart of hearts,
want to do the right thing for kids. Sometimes though, there is a disconnect
between what they think is the right thing... and what you think is the right
thing. What has to happen is that you have to find the commonalities in what
you all want for kids and then decide together how to get there. Easier said
than done, I know....but when we have made deliberate attempts to do that, we
have found that the changes are a bit easier to achieve. :-)
I can share how my thinking has evolved over the past few years and what I am
trying to learn to do to help bring teachers on board. I have been spending a
lot of time recently studying teacher leadership and professional learning
communities. My goal is to move more of my colleagues forward. (It is part and
parcel of my interest in lesson study and this listserv...that idea of teachers
learning from each other is a powerful interest to me.) Each of these
tactics/strategies have helped us move our staff forward in degrees and it is a
long process. We are much further along the continuum at my school than we
were when I started in this role 10 years ago, but we still have some distance
to travel.
1. Real change has to come from the teachers...not from us. This is where the
power of PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) come in. What I learned is
that my vision isn't neccessarily their vision. What we have had to do is craft
together what our common beliefs were. Then we as leaders have to be the
steward of that vision and hold people's feet to the fire. We said "X" is what
we want for kids. Is "Y" getting us "X"? If not, what do we need to learn/do to
get us "X"? It has really helped me to read up on professional learning
communities (Try the books by Eaker and DuFour). Even trying small pieces of
their recommendations have really helped.
2. It takes more than one leader to create real change. I am lucky because I
have some visionary administrators, deep support from both administration and
some colleagues...but it wasn't always like that as far as the colleagues go.
The colleagues' support grew gradually...over time...because as new staff came
on, we deliberately worked to support them in their learning. It sounds like
you have some folks buying in. I think that you can work with the folks that
are in to it. Celebrate your success...even the small ones...and support them
so that they can continue to act as leaders for the others. Continue to take
pictures, and keep data (hard and soft) about how well your kids are learning.
Bring the interested colleagues on to the listserv for more support. Even one
leader though can start the ball rolling...it is just your job to create MORE
leaders for the real change to happen.
3. One thing that has helped at my school has been coteaching. (Which by the
way, people hated when it started seven years ago and now is a way of life!) I
teach side by side with several teachers for an hour a day for a whole
year...and sometimes two or three years. When you plan and teach side by side
every day, a close relationship develops, teacher learning (both my colleagues
learning and mine) is supported and changes "stick."
3. Some people are always "late adopters." and some never do adopt new
practices. A few will never be "ready." Sometimes you just have to get the
wrong people off the bus.
4. If you read up on the change process...there are ALWAYS rough periods. It
makes it easier to take when you know that this always happens when you try to
change things.
Jennifer Palmer
Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher
FLES- Lead the discovery, Live the learning, Love the adventure.
"Children grow into the intellectual life around them."
-Vygots
.
<<....In what ways can we live our adult lives as intellectually curious
leaders
for our students and for our colleagues?
I can't tell you how many nights I stayed up thinking - why didn't my teachers
get it? Why don't they want to help their students - to move them beyond the
expected curriculum and into differentiation and individualization and
understanding? Why they didn't have an internal drive and motivation to
replicate what Ellin and Debbie and everyone was writing about and modeling in
their books? I modeled the ideas and goals at faculty meetings and in our
weekly newsletters by both taking pictures of the activities and usage of the
strategies in classes and including snapshots and ideas from the books
themselves.
But I could not motivate the teachers who were in the "been there done that"
mode.>>
But how to be there for our colleagues? I think they have to be ready first.
I obviously never figured out the answer to that one!
Lori
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