TLN Teacher Voices

A Succinct Rationale for Individualized Learning

Wasting Minds: Why Our Education System is Failing and What We Can Do About It
by Ronald A. Wolk
(ASCD, 2011)

Reviewed by Renee Moore, NBCT
Teacher Leaders Network

In a wonderfully well-timed blessing, I received a copy of Ronald Wolk's new book, Wasting Minds. Wolk is the founder and former, longtime editor of Education Week. His well-grounded and thoughtful reflections on the conditions and, more important, on the future of U.S. education echo those of many others looking at the future of education. This growing consensus, small though it is at present, bodes well for our nation and our children. Without a vision, the people perish.

Wolk's contribution to this discussion is particularly helpful because it is so succinctly and directly stated. He divides the book into two parts: faulty assumptions and new visions. He begins with a highly accurate analysis of the problems with our current systems of education, based on his long history of documenting education reform efforts. Wolk rightly notes that because of our tendency to switch too quickly from one reform attempt to the next, we have very little longitudinal information on the outcomes of these prior efforts.

His primary assertion, and one with which I strongly agree, is that "we will make real progress only when we realize our problem in education is not mainly one of performance but one of design" (p. 25). In the current education reform push, we are trying to put better "parts" into an archaic machine engineered to produce what is no longer needed.

Furthermore, education inequality is not just a byproduct of this system but is, in fact embedded, into its very structure. Failure to recognize this has led us to this dangerously circular reasoning: That we can close achievement gaps or significantly improve the quality of education for historically underserved populations of students without completely redesigning the school systems that serve them.

Wolk cites numerous court cases from around the country and the Supreme Court that have declared, "If students are required to meet high academic standards to be promoted or to graduate, then public schools are obligated to provide them with an education that is adequate for them to accomplish that" (p. 89).

Wolk also points out that as we have pushed further and further into reliance on standardized testing, we have moved farther from what knowledge students actually need to succeed in modern life. Employers, as well as colleges, are increasingly pointing out that the skills they need public school graduates to have are not the ones we are measuring in the current state standardized testing. What the expanding role of testing has done is suck tremendous amounts of much-needed resources from school systems. Wolk cites two major studies that put that cost nationally between $500 million and $22 billion.

Wolk's bold questioning extends to another almost religiously held view in today's reform conversation: putting a highly qualified teacher in every classroom. He calls this goal good but impossible. His logic is that in a field as large as teaching, there will continue to be a range of quality, and although we should work harder to eliminate those who clearly do not belong in a classroom, the rest should not only be distributed across schools but, more important, receive ongoing support toward continuous improvement.

Despite misconceptions about the reach of collective bargaining agreements, Wolk correctly observes that teachers actually have very little control over most of the key aspects of our classroom work and school operations. He asks, "How can anyone believe that the goal of placing a 'good' teacher in every classroom can be achieved without changing the conditions in which teachers work—the way schools are structured and operated?" (p. 62). The sad truth is if we did have a highly qualified teacher right now to put in every classroom in the United States, many of them who don't quit or aren't run out for refusing to toe the standardized line may well end up burned out, frustrated, and mediocre.

Summarizing the paradox that has plagued teaching in the United States throughout its history, Wolk concludes, "Although we refer to teaching as a profession, not much about the job is professional. Professionals like doctors and lawyers set their own performance standards, hold their members accountable for meeting those standards, determine to a large degree . . . their own working conditions, and receive compensation perceived to be commensurate with their professional contributions to society" (p. 59). These professional characteristics are denied to the vast majority of U.S. schoolteachers.

Most impressive, however, are Wolk's suggestions about what we need to do to correct many of these problems, and primary on that list is a compelling argument to redesign education around more individualized student learning. This closely parallels the vision of my teacher leader colleagues in our book Teaching 2030 (see the related video and blog post). 

Teachers will more and more become what Wolk calls "advisors who guide students in educating themselves" (p. 101). On the surface, this seems like a radical, and to some even irresponsible, conception of teachers' work. In reality, students and their families are already rapidly moving toward a much more personalized approach to shaping their own learning. Certainly, the incredible growth and influence of social media tools is one driving force in that shift. Another is the growing realization that children do not learn all things at the same pace and in the same way, and that we do them a great disservice when we try to force them into such fast-food-style learning patterns.

Of all Wolk's recommendations, the idea of letting students (and their parents) direct their own learning is the one that may make some in education and policy most uncomfortable. An important aspect of system redesign that would support this is greater use of performance-based assessments. He lists several of the most common reasons more schools and districts have not embraced such assessments. Curiously, two that he does not mention are the higher cost and the more insidious philosophical view that education really should be indoctrination (and that view is held on the left and the right of the political spectrum); therefore, assessment should simply be regurgitation.

In line with his vision of the future, Wolk argues as I have, that we need to do away with the practice of dividing children by age into grade levels, making our learning systems truly integrated and seamless from prekindergarten through college.

Ronald Wolk may prove to be one of many prophets crying in the wilderness of education reform, but as Barnett Berry notes in his prologue to Teaching 2030, "We cannot create what we cannot imagine."

Renee Moore is a member of the Teacher Leaders Network, a coauthor of Teaching 2030, a Milken winnter and a former Carnegie Fellow & Mississippi Teacher of the Year. She blogs at Teach Moore.

[NOTE: Monday, March 21 at 2 p.m. EDT, talk with Wasting Minds author Ron Wolk in a live Education Week chat on preparing students for success in the 21st century. Register for the chat.]

Once again, the Elephant

Becoming a Great High School: Six Strategies and One Attitude that Make a Difference
By Tim R. Westerberg
ASCD (2009)

Reviewed by Mary Tedrow, NBCT
High School English/journalism (N. Va.)

Becoming a Great High School: Six Strategies and One Attitude that Make a Difference is full of familiar information since, as a classroom teacher, I have been on the receiving end of many of the innovations cited by Tim Westerberg as means to move a high school from “good to great.”
 
Westerberg’s thin text (i.e., “a quick read for busy administrators”) outlines methods to change the attitude of the professionals in the building to a we-can-do-it mindset as the professional team moves schools from okay to wowser. Westerberg leans heavily on the business management text Good to Great that was making the rounds in my system in 2000. Westerberg’s text is essentially a roadmap for where to drive the building-level bus of reform, in Jim Collins' Good to Great terminology.

Citing Robert Marzano as the wellspring of his ideas, Westerberg employs another education buzz-term, the writing standards mnemonic 6+1, to outline what a school can and should do to move a high school to greatness: Follow the six strategies and couple them with a can-do attitude, the plus-one aspect of the formula.

Many of Marzano’s points are incorporated here:  Too many standards are taught. Focus on the Power Standards. Administer frequent common formative assessments to assess student learning.  Encourage collaborative work among the professionals to create standards of teaching and learning.  Define rigorous teaching to encourage a culture of success and foster the mood that “what we do here is important” to the student body at large.

What about the elephant?

There is little to argue with in this text as it sets clear guidelines for professional improvement in a building where the success of each child is paramount — also my classroom goal. I agree we need alignment from top to bottom.

The book outlines the role of administrators in this framework. Rather than just read it, I can imagine an administrator referring to it from time to time to check in on where and how the strategizing is going.

I’ve no beef with the content.

I do have a beef with the elephant in the room.

Westerberg gives only a nod to the need for the professionalization of teachers in his afterward, where he references the work of the Center for Teaching Quality and its 2008 TeacherSolutions report about the teachers’ role in improving the nation’s schools (Measuring what Matters: The effects of National Board Certification on advancing 21st Century teaching and learning) on page 112 of 114 pages.  He acknowledges that teacher leadership is the next step in reform.

It should be the first.

The outline for effective teaching and learning ignores two essentials that would make such a plan truly great: empowerment of both students and teachers through ownership of goal setting and self-evaluation and assessment, along with the time to do so.

A bulleted list on pages 57-58 outlines eight ways to find time for teachers to do the essential work of collaboration.  Many items on the list have been promised to those of us who yearn for collaboration with peers (but never considered in my working experience is bullet #1, a huge insult to professionalism: eliminate duty periods). Only one suggestion has been acted upon in my workplace: provide substitutes so teachers can work together.

This has happened twice in the past year.

Meanwhile, directives based on Marzano have added a burden to already burdened teachers who must delay their “own work,” in the form of lesson planning and assessment, to do the work of the building.  This creates a resentment that places any improvement program at risk. 

Unwillingness to comply with change is often dealt with in high school reform books in a chapter titled “Dealing with Difficult Teachers.” (Though, thankfully, Westerberg has not included that chapter.) Yet, as each new directive comes from above, teachers are tasked with building the plane while flying it, and recently this has been occurring in shorter and shorter time frames.
 
It is exhausting.

Veterans get good at fending off the change-du-jour. Teachers learn to shrug, shut the door, or risk getting worked to death over every new initiative.

Great schools will be a fact of life when great working conditions are standard and teachers are provided with time and resources to enact deep and lasting reform. Piling more work on already over-worked teachers continues to thwart the best intentions.
  
Westerberg’s plus-one attitude adjustment at the building level comes from celebrating success. But whose success is being celebrated?  No matter how noble, celebrating your goals is not the same as setting and reaching my own. Neither is it the same as the sense of pride and self-satisfaction when the self-identified work achieves measurable change.

Thus does corporate partying make cynics of us all.

Both Marzano and Westerberg would do much for the education field if they first wrote the book on acknowledging and providing space and time for teacher knowledge and growth, rather than on how to manage change in a non-conducive environment.
 
That would be revolutionary.

Top 5 Reasons Teachers Don't Get Involved in Education Policy

Teacher Ariel Sacks blogs at the TLN website under the banner "On the Shoulders of Giants." In a recent post she identifies the top five reasons teachers avoid contact with education policy -- and refutes each one. Here's the first:

* * * * *

Recently on the Teacher Leaders Network, I landed in a discussion about the many great teachers we know who, for a variety of reasons, stay far away from education policy.  In this post, I'm trying to respond to what I see as the top five reasons teachers tend not to get involved.

One: It's not my job to be involved in education policy.  

My Response: While it's not in our job description to be involved in education policy, it is in our best interest to voice our perspectives, because policies directly affect the conditions of our work, our ability to do our best for our students, and our willingness to stay in teaching. 

Historically, teachers have been the recipients of policies written by outsiders, higher up on the ladder than we are. We experience the results of decisions and usually have plenty to say about how they play out in our schools.  How many times have you issued some choice words about the latest education legislation at lunch with a group of colleagues?  Why not hone that message and share it with a wider audience?  Also, if the policy makers are at the top of the education pyramid, who does that leave at the bottom?  Students and parents.  And that's just not right.  We need to challenge the current hierarchy so that the people who matter most in American public education, students, parents, and teachers, have a bigger voice. Teachers, especially, who are most directly responsible for the' education of students, need to be heard on the issues. 

via teacherleaders.typepad.com

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A Useful How-To Guide for K12 Teacher Leaders

Other Duties as Assigned: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Expert Teacher Leadership
By Jan Burgess with Donna Bates
(ASCD, 2009)

Reviewed by Ernie Rambo, NBCT
Middle School Teacher and Mentor (NV)

Teacher Leaders Network

The term “leadership” is often used when discussing a school’s administration. More often these days, we’re hearing about the “teacher leaders” in our schools, those who may or may not seek to be administrators but have an interest in more than standard classroom duties.

This book serves as a “how-to” guide for teacher leaders in K-12 schools. Providing possible scenarios of the challenges that teacher leaders might face as they complete their tasks, the book includes ready-to-use resources for organizing, goal-setting, and reflection. I found Other Duties as Assigned to be a useful reference for both novice and experienced leaders.

Teacher leaders can include department or grade level chairpersons, team leaders, and heads of committees. Teacher leaders might be the educators at your school who organize professional learning communities, write grant proposals, or develop action research projects. Whether you are asked to lead or volunteer to do so, teacher leadership can be rewarding -- but it can also be challenging depending on the faculty’s perception of the roles of teacher leaders in their building.

Other Duties as Assigned presents effective strategies to help a teacher lead effectively while still maintaining positive relationships with one’s colleagues. Jan Burgess and Donna Bates provide a framework for any leader, new or experienced, to take charge of a project or duty without being perceived as taking over the task.

The authors develop a bridge to connect current academic research about school leadership and realistic faculty relationships, maintaining both a collegial and professional voice. In each chapter, Burgess and Bates combine the examples of three fictional teacher leaders, using different metaphors to describe the work that might be required of leaders. In one chapter, leadership is compared to river-rafting, in another chapter it’s rubber bands or real estate. Each metaphor serves its purpose, demonstrating the importance of trusting in the leader, being flexible yet strong, or building relationships.

Questions provided in the book’s margins prompt the reader to reflect upon their own leadership characteristics. Each chapter also includes a “Dear Donna” section where Bates provides suggestions for handling typical situations that a teacher leader might confront.
   
Other Duties as Assigned does not offer groundbreaking information about leadership. That’s not its purpose. Instead, it serves as a conduit between established research and leadership applications and becomes a one-stop resource for learning, recalling, and applying strategies that will help every school leader keep focused on project goals. You’ll find protocols for getting a team organized and for making decisions, and the appendix includes a “Teacher Leader’s Toolkit” with exercises and templates for reflection, goal-setting, meeting agendas, and evaluations. The publisher also tells us how to access an interactive version of the toolkit at no extra charge through their website.
   
Other Duties as Assigned can be useful to all team leaders, novice or experienced, because the chapters examine how to develop team unity while strengthening the professional growth of the faculty. For the teacher who is not sure if leadership is the next step in their career, reading this book provides ample information to inform them of what skills and tasks are expected of a teacher leader. For more experienced teacher leaders, reading Other Duties as Assigned can serve as a reference for how to solve problems in situations when things are not going as smoothly as anticipated.

If a guiding reference book is needed for a book study on the topic of leadership, Other Duties as Assigned would be a useful choice. Each chapter invites teacher reflection and examines topics that easily lend themselves to discussion.

Should you say yes the next time your principal walks up to you and asks you if you can do “just one more thing,” you might want to add: “As soon as I’ve read this book….”

Ernie Rambo chairs the electives department at Walter Johnson Junior High in the Clark County (NV) School District, where she also serves as a new-teacher mentor. She’s active in the Southern Nevada Writing Project and a National Board Certified Teacher.

Inside NBC's Teacher Town Hall

Elizabeth Stein, a special education teacher from Long Island NY, was invited to attend NBC’s Teacher Town Hall on Sept. 26. Stein, who is also National Board certified in literacy, shared this report with colleagues in the Teacher Leaders Network. (For another TLN account, see this blog post by Ariel Sacks.)

I consider myself lucky to have been one of the teachers in the crowd yesterday at the Teacher Town Hall. I’m still trying to make sense of the experience.

I actually experienced a full range of emotions. It was exciting to be around so many educators with a mission. It was exciting to speak with many teachers and get involved in some meaningful discussions. And I have to say, the energy in the place was riveting. However, frustration wins as my emotional theme for the day. I went in energized…and left even more so…
 
Interested and curious, I entered the makeshift studio of the NBC Teacher Town Hall (on the spot of the actual skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza). I had no idea what to expect.  According to the invitation, the Education Nation website, and all of the advertising leading up to the moment, there was that hint of hope that teachers would have a chance to make their voices heard.  

To register, participants were asked to think about and be ready to “brainstorm” what works in the classroom and what are the challenges in education today. In addition, teachers who registered for the online chat were asked to submit a brief (about 100-200 word) response to identify “one change you think could help to transform education in America.” I still was not sure how the actual experience would pan out. But I was ready. I was in the moment.

Just to be in a room with fellow educators was really a gratifying experience. And as Brian Williams came out five minutes before we were to go on air, I was still hopeful that we would have a chance to have our voices heard. And many did. Yet, as it unfolded I found, too often, that my hope got swept up in the messy swirl of frustration. What I thought would be a coming together of the minds turned into teachers sharing the challenges—with no opportunities for brainstorming and seeking solutions. (Ok, so I tend to be a tad idealistic at times.)

The best part was when Brian Williams introduced the “lightning” mode. He tried to allow the long line of teachers who stood waiting for their turn at the microphone,the opportunity to fit in whatever they could say in 15 seconds or less. I couldn’t help but wonder, what was the purpose? It seemed to be just to appease the teachers as if to say, "see you had your chance for your voice to be heard." Yet, I couldn't help but think, "sure these teachers are being heard...but who's really listening?"

It also seemed to me that the teachers who were able to share just validated points that we are all aware of. Or they shared personal stories that served to make them feel better for the moment. That's fine, but I continue to wonder, what about some real solutions?
 
Brian Williams definitely had a pre-determined list of topics that he was determined to mention. These topics included teaching with passion (teaching as a calling), recruitment and retention, low income schools, summer school, STEM, and teacher evaluations. Yet that’s all it seemed to be — fragmented mentions. Each teacher who was able to find his or her way to the microphone had a chance to mention whatever was on his or her mind. It was all just so fragmented. From where I sat, it felt like a venting session… some valid thoughts, but with no solutions in sight. And no one to really listen anyway.
 
I'd love to return to what the registration form claimed we'd discuss, but never really did.
 
What is one major change you think could help to transform education in America?
 
I'm still ready to discuss...and dare I say, hopeful?

Review: In Difficult Times, a Positive Message for Teachers

Finding Mrs. Warnecke: The Difference Teachers Make
by Cindi Rigsbee
(Jossey-Bass, 2010)

Reviewed by Gail Tillery, NBCT
High School English & Literacy (GA)
Teacher Leaders Network

Every day in this country, it seems that teachers are being bashed somewhere. Budget cuts are affecting every school system in the country. A Georgia leader was recently quoted as saying, “Teachers will have to make the sacrifice” as the state legislature fought to balance the budget. Entire faculties are being fired in the name of not achieving “adequate yearly progress.” Across the nation, it seems that teachers are being blamed for all the ills of public education. As a result, morale is hitting an all-time low as we struggle to maintain our positive attitude and continue to persevere and do what’s best for kids. Increasingly, we feel powerless—as if our voices are going unheard and our needs and those of our students are being ignored.

In the midst of the angst, a refreshing book has arrived which reminds its readers of the true power and magic of what we do every day. Cindi Rigsbee’s new memoir, Finding Mrs. Warnecke, is a lovely little book which sends a message of the positive power which every teacher can tap into—if only we can learn to find it.

Rigsbee’s story reads like a movie. She went from scoring at “below standard” on an early teacher evaluation to becoming a finalist for National Teacher of the Year in 2009. As a child, after a dismal beginning in first grade, she was rescued from a cold, militant teacher when the principal removed her and several other children from the classroom, one month into the school year. She and her classmates followed her principal to a dank, dark, basement classroom, where she met Mrs. Warnecke, the teacher who would transform her life and inspire her for years to come.

Besides describing her “magical” year with Mrs. Warnecke, Rigsbee also recounts her early career as a teacher. In her first school, she was given five class preparations and three coaching/sponsoring assignments. While this should not surprise any veteran teacher, it still qualifies as teacher abuse. At the end of that year, facing a forced transfer, she resigned and did not return to teaching for seven years. When she did return as a sub, her first class literally left the room and ran away. When she got her own classroom in February, she was the fourth teacher in that position in a year’s time. It would be an understatement to say that she got off to a rough start.

Rigsbee’s determination and perseverance, however, proved invaluable. She writes more than once, “I asked for help.” She tried different methods and lesson plans; she looked for ways to connect with her students, and over time her practice began to bloom. She began to receive accolades (she was twice named a regional North Carolina Teacher of the Year), and she continued to work with students to help them achieve their full potential.

Rigsbee is at her strongest when she writes about her love for kids. The theme that permeates her work is to build strong connections and relationships with all students. She writes about the importance of making the kids feel as if everyone is on the same side. She realizes that making kids the enemy will cause her to lose. She has learned that connecting with students keeps her classroom from being a battlefield, and it is obvious that her students over the years have responded to her unconditional love and care for every one of them.

Expert Advice about Parent Engagement: An Interview with Larry Ferlazzo

The ever-resourceful Larry Ferlazzo joined the Teacher Leaders Network in 2008, to our great benefit. Larry was already well-established as a leading edu-blogger, widely known for his daily outpouring of useful (most often web-based) teaching ideas and resources. Larry entered the blogging arena with a tight focus on English Language Learners – a focus he still maintains – but gradually broadened his output to include many other topics, including one close to his heart: parent and community relationships.

Larry’s “first career” as a community organizer in the labor arena has made him not only a passionate but an authoritative advocate for school programs that work to ENGAGE rather than simply INVOLVE families. His long-time interest led to the publication of his first book, Building Parent Engagement In Schools, co-authored by Lorie Hammond, a former middle school ESL teacher with a special interest in school-community gardens, who is now a professor at California State University-Sacramento.

In support of their book, Larry has developed a new blogging site focused specifically on engaging parents in schools. He teaches Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced English Language Learners (as well as native English speakers) at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. In this interview, we talk about his parent engagement ideas and also learn about his upcoming books — one on teaching strategies that work with English language learners, and another (smiling) on everything else.

— John Norton, TLN co-founder and moderator

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Larry, it's fairly rare in my experience to find a teacher writing a book about working closely with parents. More often I've seen this kind of advocacy coming from reformers in the outside community who believe schools haven't been responsive enough to parents and families. Why did you feel compelled to write it?

Part of the reason I wrote it is because during my 19-year community organizing career prior to becoming a teacher my primary work with schools was through parents — parents who were working to improve their neighborhoods and their local schools. That experience grounded me in believing that "no school is an island" — that in order for schools to be successful they need to be connected to local residents, and for a neighborhood to be successful, it needs to be connected to the local 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.

How did your background shape your own parent interactions as a teacher?

My current perspectives come out of my direct experience as a teacher participating in the initiatives discussed in the book. After doing thousands of home visits as a community organizer, when I changed careers I naturally gravitated to making home visits to parents of my students. While I was doing them, I was able to use my organizing experience to connect to parents and help them use their energy to initiate projects that benefited everybody. For example, in one of my visits with a recent Hmong immigrant family, the father explained how impressed he was with our use of computers to help teach his daughter, and how he wished they could have a computer and the Internet at their home so he could use it to learn English, too. He shared that he couldn't get a drivers license because he needed to read English in order to pass the test, and the local bus system was not very good so it was difficult to attend adult school. 

I asked him if he thought other parents would share the same concern and, if so, would he be willing to organize a meeting. He agreed, and out of that we were able to develop a family literacy project that provides computers and home internet access to immigrant families so the entire household can improve their English.  Students in the program have averaged improvements in English assessments that are four times greater than those in a control group, and the project was named by the International Reading Association two years ago as the best example of using technology to teach reading — in the entire world.

This whole effort came out of the organizing process of listening to stories; helping people connect to others with the same story; helping them to develop a different interpretation of it and developing a plan to respond to it; and then putting it into action.
 
Who do you imagine to be good audiences for the book?

I think parents, administrators, teachers, and teachers-in-training might find this book useful. It's designed as a book very busy people can read quickly. I also think the framework of parent involvement versus parent engagement can easily be adapted to other aspects of community, school, and organization work.
 
You make a clear distinction in the book between what schools (and many PTO members) have traditionally called "parent involvement" and the more powerful descriptor "parent engagement." School leaders often complain about the difficulty in achieving "involvement." Might they have more success with "engagement" in your opinion?

Prior to becoming a community organizer, I ran soup kitchens and emergency shelters on Skid Rows. One day, as I was sweeping our front porch, a police officer pulled up and started yelling at me because we weren't controlling things too well — there were lot of complaints from neighbors.  One man who had passed out in front of our soup kitchen got up and told the policeman, "Officer, Larry tries. He tries hard. We just don't listen to him!"

We can continue to say what people should be doing (as I was doing back then) and feel frustrated about them not responding (as I often felt back then). In other words, we can continue to be "right."  Or, we can look at different ways of doing things and try them out. In other words, we could try to be "effective."

I explain in my response to your next question how I view involvement as different from engagement. I think using the engagement criteria can have far greater results than involvement, and it sure can't be any worse!
 

PLCs at Work: An Interview with Teacher-Author Bill Ferriter

Bill Ferriter’s participation in the Teacher Leaders Network began in March 2003, on the very first day of TLN’s existence. We kicked off TLN with an email conversation among 200 accomplished teachers, mostly from states in the southeast. The idea was to stage a series of 3-day chats exploring some key professional issues and then see who wanted to stick around and become the nucleus of a national virtual community of classroom educators.

By the end of the six-week startup, Bill’s provocative questioning and his willingness to reflect on his own professional practice — tarnish and all — made him a leader in our fledgling community. He’s gone on to serve as a TLN Senior Fellow, co-author of a major TLN TeacherSolutions report, and the internationally respected TLN blogger known as The Tempered Radical, whose lively mix of classroom practice, policy and politics, and digital learning topics attracts a broad audience and recently led to a monthly column, Digitally Speaking, in Educational Leadership magazine.

As it turns out, Bill’s willingness—compulsion, even—to bare his teaching soul makes him one heck of a book author, too. Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year, co-written with principal Parry Graham, grows out of a several-year struggle by Bill and a group of teacher colleagues at his North Carolina middle school to learn to collaborate in powerful ways. In this interview, Bill recounts some of the pain and gain of that trial by fire, and how he and Graham went about translating their own experiences into a practical primer for other educators who might be willing to set forth on a similar journey.

As a bonus, I've asked Bill to speak to fellow teachers who harbor their own desire to write a book from their teaching lives. Bill generously shares his secret to publishing success, but I’ll warn you in advance. It involves a lot of writing. – John Norton, co-founder and moderator, Teacher Leaders Network.

----------

What created the burn to write a book for teachers just beginning to explore PLCs? Give us some history.

Bill Ferriter: I think the burn to write a book for teachers just beginning their work with professional learning communities is a product of my own early struggles and successes with collaboration. About five years ago, I had the opportunity to open a new middle school being built as a PLC from the ground up—and I was paired on a learning team with five of the most intelligent and capable language arts and social studies teachers that I’d ever met.

The problem was that we had no real idea what it was that we were supposed to be doing with each other, and that led to early frustrations. Our initial meetings were rambling, unfocused affairs and we often felt like failures. We fought through personal conflicts and professional disagreements, though, and eventually found a working rhythm and synergy that made all of us better teachers. I wanted to try to make those early struggles transparent to other teachers, hoping that the lessons my team learned might sustain others when the inevitable challenges of collaboration arise.

Collaborative work can make any teacher more productive and professionally satisfied, but only when early efforts at collaboration are structured and meaningful. Parry and I believe that Building a Professional Learning Community at Work can provide some of that structure for learning teams at any stage of their professional work together.

Your book is filled with action-oriented subheads, reproducibles, practical recommendations — there's even an annotated chapter guide divided into seasons of the year. It has the feel of authors who have been there and done that. How much easier might things be for teacher teams who take your advice?

Bill Ferriter: I think the real strength of Building a Professional Learning Community at Work is that Parry and I are both full-time practitioners. I still meet with a learning team every week, trying to identify instructional practices that work and ensure the success of every child. Parry still works as a building principal, trying to create the systems that enable teachers and students to thrive.

That first-hand experience with the real work of learning teams is evident in every chapter, handout and subtitle in our text. Our suggestions, strategies, and materials are suggestions, strategies and materials that we’ve used successfully in our work—and the text is really nothing more than a public reflection of the learning that we’ve done as we’ve tried to make professional learning communities happen in our own schools.

Teachers as Senior Education Leaders

In a recent blog post at On the Shoulders of Giants, TLN member Ariel Sacks reflected on a new program planned by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, aimed at producing 21st century education leaders prepared with the business skills and the understanding of teaching and learning necessary to successfully lead schools.

Ariel cross-posted her blog entry in our TLN Forum discussion group. It sparked a LOT of conversation, some of which we share here. To get the most out of this dialog, read Ariel’s blog post first: Can Teachers Be ‘Senior Education Leaders’?

In her conclusion, Ariel writes:

…Coming from the opposite angle, could a classroom teacher--or group of classroom teachers--become a major force in education reform? I think yes…

I'd love to see a group of teachers enter Harvard's doctoral program and graduate having created and prepared themselves to take on hybrid roles--splitting their time between actual classroom teaching and working closely with senior "educational leaders" to help transform education.

If Harvard won't, can we create that program?

Anne replied:

That's an excellent suggestion, Ariel. I do some curriculum writing for middle schoolers. No matter how carefully and thoroughly I think it through, until I get in the classroom and teach it I don't know just how many changes I need to make! Nothing takes the place of the classroom reality check.

I especially like the idea of education reformers living and teaching the changes they recommend. Either that, or get out of the education reform business and let teacher leaders be in position drive the necessary changes. Actually, I like the last idea better, anyway!

Bob wrote:

Our educational system is yet to be widely structured in a way to tap into the leadership of classroom teachers or financially compensate classroom teacher leaders who remain in the classroom. I am unsure as to whether we are going to win over politicians and central office administrators in sufficient numbers unless some of us move into those positions while staying grounded to the experiences of the classroom.

I have a principal certification and am not tempted to use it right now because I love teaching. Financially it is a stupid move because I spent $15,000 for a second masters that did not increase my salary. I am not jumping in because when I went up to the front office and was a principal for short periods of time during my internship, I thought I was doing work that was far less rewarding than teaching. Part of the reason is that internships usually touch on discipline and procedures much more than instructional leadership.

I find far fewer administrators passionate about their job than teachers. Once exception is a principal I met by the pool at a San Diego principals' conference last year. He gave a passionate endorsement for becoming a principal. I remember his words clearly: "If you are a good teacher, ok that's something, but what does it amount to in the big picture? …But if you are the principal, you can really do anything. You can change a whole school. You want to teach a class, no problem. You’re the principal.”

Some experienced teachers need to become the prominent politicians, superintendents and principals in a way that they are still grounded to the classroom. Those that try will likely be criticized because it is not a common practice right now. I am looking forward to stepping into my classroom tomorrow morning. That is where it is at for me at this moment. So I do not know if we need to draw straws and have those that lose pursue the prominent positions, but we need more teacher perspective in those positions.

Ariel replied:

I keep thinking that principals are not really the education leaders that Harvard is thinking of--or many people think of when we say policy makers. I see principals as much closer to teachers because they are in schools every day and in contact with students every day. Superintendents probably do count as policy makers, but there are lots of other players in the game. Foundation people, leaders of organizations like TFA and New Leaders for New Schools, etc, and also politicians like Arne Duncan and Joel Klein and everyone who works for them. It would be very interesting to see how many have teaching experience and if they do--would they be interested in teaching in a public school classroom once a week, for example.

Chances are it would have to happen the other way, where teachers lead the way by moving into hybrid roles.