Communication and Personal Effectiveness is what I focused on during this process. Because I knew that my delivery and passion somethings can be taken the wrong way within my department. I made sure I crafted my messages with thought and care. I planned what I wanted to say to each person using what I knew about them as a teacher to try and spark their input on student centered goals. I understood that I had to use different modes of communication. When it came to the administration and the counselors I have a great relationship with them so sitting down with them one on one was the best mode of communication. When it came to my department I knew I had to go about communicating with the members one by one but in a more conversational manner. I let them be a part of the discussion. I overcame adversity in my working environment to make it seem like it was the idea of all not just mine. I modeled resiliency and humility no matter how many times my department previously said “This won’t work and we tried that before.” I stayed positive and reacted as a leader and adjusted my behavior to build trust and credibility.
The reason these competencies were so important is because I have not been taken seriously all the time with my department. After TLI I knew I had to change my delivery in order to achieve my goal of helping all students. My idea was a great one and I had to understand that in order to get people on board it was my job to work on my communication and personal effectiveness. I wanted my department to look at the plan for what it was and not just say no because it was me who proposed it.
Collaborate purposefully. My entire goal for a peer tutoring program was designed to help narrow the gaps for lower income or less fortunate students. So my goal is to create learning environments for students to include and value all cultures and in our schools case socioeconomic status. For the last 18 years I thought I had to do this by trying to push my beliefs on other math teachers and I tried to help change the ways they taught in their classrooms. But I have learned that some teachers have limitations in their skills or practices that they cannot or will not change to help all students in their classroom. I have learned over the years that I cannot push my teaching methods onto other teachers. After teaching Geometry lab for two years I realized that my influence on students as a supplemental math like a tutor help changed their outlook on math. I needed to develop a tutoring program for more than just the students in my math lab.
Collaborate purposefully is so important for my challenge because I know in order for this tutoring program to work I needed to create and facilitate involvement for all the stakeholders from across all cultures in planning, data gathering, data analysis and decision making. I know all of my department want students to be successful in their classes. I know we have a problem of getting kids to graduate because of the 3 credits required for math. We have shared goals-students passing Algebra 2 and other upper level classes- we differ with our perception on how to get these kids to pass. I need to collaborate purposefully and recognize not all people feel the same way about lower level and lower income students. So my idea of peer tutoring is a way I can help these kids even though they are not in my class.
Coaching and mentoring. I am really working with my administration and counselors as well as the department members that are willing to assist in the process but I am also working with the senior and junior students that are willing to tutor. I have many of these students in my College Algebra/Statistics class so I am going to coach and mentor them to help them be the best tutor they can be. I know many of these students are going to pursue teaching in college so what better way to influence soon to be teachers. When school starts I will ask all NHS students as well as my students who are planning to go into the teaching profession. Those students will be the ones I will focus on to coach and mentor them. We have a need for extra help in upper level math classes and this tutoring program will build a community based on needs. I am hoping to help these tutors that are going into the teaching field improve their practices for teaching math even before they graduate from high school. If the tutors are not going into education this process will hopefully help them grow as a math student. I will talk to some of my students that are not necessarily the best students and see if they will volunteer to tutor students in algebra 2. What a great way to help all involved.
I am going to have to be the coach and mentor for this program to work. I want to help as many students at CHS as possible and I am only one person. So my goal is focused on the fact I need to help others learn to help others. I have always given my time (prep, lunch, before school) to students that were in classes I do no teach because I have a relationship with them from previous years and I would never tell a student no. Well I was getting burned out. Not because I didn’t enjoy helping but I have 130 students of my own and I felt I was not able to help everyone. So this idea came from how I teach. I know I have great seniors and juniors in my college algebra classes that are great tutors. Why not use them to help students not in my classes. We have a need and I am going to use my connection with my students to help coach and mentor them to help their fellow CHS students. NHS students need volunteer hours and my students that may not be in NHS will gain hours which will in turn help their grade. It is a win win for all math students at CHS.
I work with administration, NHS advisor, and algebra 2 teachers. Administration will help with the logistics and help me with the scheduling. NHS adviser will help with giving me a list of possible tutors. Algebra 2 teachers will help spread the word, telling their students where they can go to find student tutors.
As stated above I teach 4 senior/junior dual credit classes so I will recruit tutors from my classes. I am going to offer extra credit for volunteering to this tutoring program. I teach college classes at a high school level, so I am going to use this fact to gain tutors. When in college students are going to take a lab or use study groups to be successful in their college classes. So what a great way to introduce this process to my 100+ seniors and juniors.
I have the support of our counselors and administration. Every school is faced with graduation rates and after last year failure rate data the administration and counselors know that this program will benefit many. Every year each employee has to have a professional development plan in order to achieve their pay increase next year. I will do this as my PCAP plan and I am going to recruit 3 of the math lab teachers to help and be part of the PCAP. Every teacher has to do a PCAP but teachers can combine and work together for the PCAP this will be a great way to get additional teacher leaders to serve as coaches and mentors based on their strengths and needs. These two teachers teach algebra 1 math lab so they have the connections with these students as freshmen so they can help them understand that there will be help for them as they go through their math career at CHS.
I will need a place for the tutoring program and I will need a list of students needing help and a list of students willing to tutor.
I am on the MBI team at my school and I have total support from the lead administrator of MBI. We have a new NHS adviser and is young and ready to help out. They knows that every year students struggling obtaining all the volunteer hours they need for NHS. So this will help those students be able to give back to their school and fulfill their volunteer hours needed.