Teacher Leadership Today

Dear Teacher: Thanks for all the test prep...

Dear Teacher,

I just want to take a moment to thank you for all that you did for me when I was in your class. Now that I’m out of high school, I really appreciate it even more. When I started your English class, I knew that my test scores were kind of low, and I was really committed to improving my performance on two of the subtests. You saw that potential in me, and even more. 

So begins a Swiftean post by high school English teacher David B. Cohen at InterACT, a new group blog sponsored by the Accomplished California Teachers organization.

By providing me with chances to read anthologized literary excerpts and random workplace documents, all followed by multiple choice assessments, you showed a commitment to my learning, and my test scores that spring really proved how far I had come. I was totally comfortable dealing with any readings chosen for me, and comfortable choosing the answers to other people’s questions. I also remember that you showed us how to answer the questions without even doing most of the reading, and that sure did help on the test!

Cohen's dark satire continues:

I don’t know if you heard, but I’ve taken a break from school. I tried it for a year, but none of the instructors cared as much as you did, so it was hard to connect. A lot of times they assigned us really long readings and didn’t even give us any points for doing all that homework. Then, we had to write essays on these ridiculously hard questions where you couldn’t even find the answer in the books. I did my best and put together my five paragraphs and everything, and I still got low grades...It’s just too bad that all those skills we practiced in your class don’t even seem to matter in college....

David is one of several TLN members involved in the launch of ACT. The group has received start-up support from the Stuart Foundation and will be housed under the umbrella of the School of Education at Stanford University.  "Our mission," says the blog's About page, "is to amplify teacher voice in educational policy and research, while providing our members with resources and support to become more effective leaders at every level—from their department or school right on up to state and national initiatives."

Rumor has it that ACT will soon release its first policy report, on the timely topic of teacher evaluation.

Inside a Great Elementary School: A Talk with Dayle Timmons

Twelve years ago, Chets Creek Elementary School joined the then-popular systemic reform initiative called "America's Choice" — with the goal to turn "a good school into a great school." The K-5 elementary in Jacksonville FL reached that goal, and long after the school's contract expired and America's Choice drifted into the wake of a tsunami called No Child Left Behind, Chets Creek continues to be a great place to teach and learn.

In this interview with TeachersCount, former Florida teacher of the year Dayle Timmons, now a literacy coach and looping K-1 teacher, describes the embedded professional development program developed during the Choice years that continues to make Chets Creek such a successful school. Timmons tells TeachersCount that

We offer job-embedded, teacher driven professional development. To me job embedded professional development means that training is offered on the clock as part of the regular teaching day. It is directly applicable to what a teacher is teaching. Teacher driven means that the training is directly related to what individual teachers need and want. The training is differentiated, depending on the needs and interests of the teacher.

She goes on to describe the school's Teacher Meeting strategy, a gathering where you will never find a "discussion about the holiday party or what food items we are suppose to bring to the Teacher of the Year Breakfast or problems with bus students. This is a time for professional development, for teaching and learning."

The best thing about this interview is the detail Timmons offers in describing how teachers themselves have led and continue to lead Chets Creek to high performance. The next best thing is the link to her school blog, The Timmons Times, where she documents the daily life of Chets Creek and the professional work of its teachers. It's a compelling and reflective journal of practice — and while it is of interest to all school and teacher leaders looking for authentic examples of fully embedded PD, it's a gold mine for folks in the primary grades.

Dayle is, of course, a member of the Teacher Leaders Network!

Tough Talk about Teacher Expectations

The latest TLN blogger to post commentary on the new MetLife Survey of the American Teacher is frankly outraged by a survey finding that "Only 36% of teachers and 51% of principals believe that all of their students have the ability to succeed academically."

Renee Moore, who blogs at TeachMoore, is a former Mississippi Teacher of the Year and Milken Award winner who lives and teaches in the Delta. She writes in part:

Not only do a lower percentage of secondary teachers believe setting high expectations for all students would help improve their performance, but distressingly few (62%) believed that addressing individual needs of diverse learners would help; and even fewer (57%) saw the value of collaboration among teachers and school leaders.

...if fully 64% of us think at least some (maybe quite a few) of the students for whom we are responsible don't even have the ability to succeed, then we have just excused ourselves from anything close to our best efforts on their behalf. Sadly, I've had more than a few conversations with teachers who feel exactly that way....

Read Renee's complete post, "Yes They Can".

Live in New York - Teaching & Learning!

I've been dying to attend the WNET Teaching & Learning gala since I first heard about it and checked out the rich agendas offered at this "Not Your Mother's Ed Acronym Conference." I still haven't made it, but the next best thing this year has been the live blog coverage by Anthony Rebora, managing editor of Teacher Magazine. There was lots of content, lots of kids, lots of Notable Persons. Bobby McFerrin, Arne Duncan, and Queen Latifah. Now there's a sandwich.

There was also much-needed celebration of teaching at a time when some leaders seem ready to throw up guillotines in schoolyards. Anthony backgrounds the annual conference and this year's highlights in this post.

Engaging Parents in Inner-City Schools

From a recent interview with teacher-author and popular blogger Larry Ferlazzo about his recent book Building Parent Engagement in Schools:

"As a teacher in a challenging inner-city high school, I can understand how many teachers and administrators feel that engaging with parents in a substantial way is just one more thing that they might not have time to do. I wrote the book to illustrate that, in fact, it can be done with less time that they think and get a bigger "pay-off" — for the parents, teachers, and students — than they could imagine."

Read the complete interview and find out why Larry, a member of the Teacher Leaders Network, favors parent "engagement" over parent "involvement.