Imagine that you would become a better teacher, just by virtue of being on the staff of a particular school...just from that fact alone (Fullan & German, 2006).
On January 9th, Damaris Cortes, Gloria King, and Denise Reynolds met with New Teachers at Campbell High School to facilitate a reflective session on classroom management skills that worked and did not work first semester. Each teacher described successful situations from experiences during the first semester in their classroom. They also discussed situation in their classrooms that were not successsful.
After discussing what worked and did not work for first semester, the group of teachers worked collaboratively on determining strategies that they will continue to implement in their practice during the second half of the year. Strategies that were sussessful shared by colleagues, teachers decided to add to their "bag of tricks."
Some of the successful strategies shared by teachers were: eye contact, conference with students on -on- one, communicating with parents by phone or e-mail, stop-silence-wait for attention, etc.
Strategies that teachers felt were not effective with student discipline problem were: raising your voice, ignoring students when they missbehave, sending students out in the hallway, and In-School-Suspension (ISS).
As a result of the reflections on classroom management, teachers agreed that some of the things they would do different second semester would be:
- have more one-on-one conferencing with student
- parent involvement in disciplinary actions
- developing a relationship with their students
Collaborative cultures facilitate committment to change and improvement (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991). The ALTs also shared the Learning Pyramid to demonstrate the levels of engagement that student will experience, as they are involved in various learning activities. Effective collaboration between teachers is linked to gains in student achievement (Little, 1990).
Submitted by: Damaris Cortes and Denise Reynold
References:
Fullan, M. & German, C. (2006) Learning places: A field guide for improving the context of schooling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Fullan, M., & Hargreaves, A. (1991). What's worth fighting for: Working together for your school. Ontario, CAN: Ontario Public Schools Teachers' Federation
Little, J.W. (1990). The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers' professional relations. Teachers College Records, 91(4), 509-536.
