Standards 6 & 7 Meta-Reflection: Communication & Collaboration

Standard 6 Communication: Communicates regularly and effectively with colleagues, parents and students through a variety of mediums.

Standard 7 Collaboration: Cooperates with other professionals to bridge gaps between schools and community and between departments/disciplines within schools.

The first artifact for these standards are two action plans I developed to increase communication and collaboration. The first action plan is to institute a quarterly email newsletter to be sent out to parents and guardians. Information such as important due dates, descriptions of projects and assignments, how to contact the teacher and how the parent can help their student succeed will all be included in the newsletter. The goal is to include parents in the daily activities of the clasrsoom so they can ask informed questions at night and assist students with their work. Paper newsletters and translated versions will be offered to those households who do not speak English or have access to the internet.

Artifact: Parent Email Action Plan

The second action plan focuses on collaboration within and between departments. Many teachers and departments teach in isolation and best practices are rarely shared. As a physics teacher, I could benefit from problem story strategies from the math department and vocabulary strategies from the English department. Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) seeks to provide a place and protocol for teachers to have difficult discussions in a safe environment. In our high school, 9th and 10th graders are put into smaller learning communities called PODs which consist of an English teacher, social studies teacher and science teacher. These three teachers would meet on a regular basis to discuss student work with the goal of improving the quality while promoting communication and collaboration between departments.

Artifact: CFG Action Plan

The third and final artifact is another way to seek communication and input from parents regarding their students. I developed a parent and student survey to gain information about students and open the lines of communication. This survey is sent home with students the first week of school and they are awarded points for returning it. I work hard to make sure I receive a survey back from every student and follow up on questions I may have. These surveys influence how I group students for projects and seating arrangements, how I differentiate instruction and how to interact with them in the classroom. They also provide me with information about how their parents see the student.

Artifact: Parent/Student Survey

I analyzed the context of my school given the community it is in. Using state published data on test scores, demographics and other information, I provided a snapshot of the school’s student population. Utilizing OSPI’s nine characteristics of good schools, I evaluated the school pointing out areas where it excelled and areas it was deficient. This analysis determined the focus for my two action plans.

Artifact: Action Plan Context

What I Learned About European Educational Ideas

The European educational ideas introduced in the lecture this week had meaning for me because they reminded me how important he periods of the Renaissance and Reformation were to science. “Once dogma and superstition of the Church came under serious scrutiny, a number of intellectuals began to examine the world of nature. New methods of science based upon observation and inquiry were characteristic of the period.” (Ellis 3) I do not spend enough time in class discussing the history of science with my students even though they are learning about this period in their social studies class. I would like to connect the curriculum in my class to the ideas introduced in social studies to help students make that connection. History can teach us about science and science can teach us about history. There are fascinating stories about scientists such as Gregor Mendel and Galileo which can make science come alive and be more relevant to students.

This lesson broadens my perspective on science and education because I tend to take the power of observation for granted. I forget at times that scientists operated under assumptions based upon what the Church believed and not what could be directly observed. This experience was enjoyable in other ways because it also confirmed the importance of educating the whole student in areas such as citizenship as the Greek scholars emphasized. I would like to pursue collaborating on the Reformation with the social studies teacher my student’s share in common. A project or even a joint lesson could make important connections.

Source: Ellis, A. Historical Perspectives: Education in the Old World (Part 2). Accessed from BlackBoard.

Action Plan

These are two action  I created for Kentridge High School to address areas of need in communication and collaboration. Some context is given about the school and it is evaluated using OSPI’s 9 Characteristics of Effective Schools. This is the culminating assignment for a class on collaboration and communication.

Ryan West- Action Plan

Teacher-Teacher Communication

A wise middle schooler once said, “communication is key in any relationship or game”. She was referring to a casual game of volleyball at the time but her statements is still profound. Communication is such an easy topic yet difficult to truly undertake. As the article this week said, true communication happens very often but when it does, student learning is greatly improved.

Throughout our class discussion this week, many examples of communication were cited. After school programs and teacher collaboration were two of the more hotly debated topics. Teacher collaboration is important but many times it is restricted to teachers within the same subject and never crosses over to different departments. Kentridge High School places most freshman and sophomores into “pods” which are groups of 90 students who have the same three teachers for the core subjects, english, science and social studies. This allows the teachers to communicate regarding students and work together with the counselor and parents to help the student succeed in their early high school years. Another way I have seen inter-departmental collaboration have a positive impact on student learning is when a coach approaches teachers regarding a failing athlete and together they develop a plan to get the student back on track.

High schools are renown for being these segregated places where teachers rarely talk to one another. As we have learned this week, when teachers go out of their way to communicate, students benefit and learning improves. The key is not just communication but authentic, real communication without prejudices, agendas or egos.