Instructional Challenge

Looking at instruction from a new perspective this past school year was interesting. I was able to see how much our educators are not collaborating. Also very evident was the fact that they didn't know what they were to be teaching, many had thrown the curriculum to the side and were teaching how they thought they needed to without understanding the standards, so there was no continuity throughout the elementary schools. The reflective practices were emerging; however, it took a lot of work and discussion to get them to the point where they would openly communicate what was working and what was not. I would walk into a classroom to observe, just strictly observe, and I felt condemned. The educators did not want me in their classroom because they felt as if they were being evaluated and judged. I felt awkward because I had to do my job and I remember the feeling of having someone else in my room to watch before I began my journey as a reflective educator and it was not comfortable. This was evidence of administration only focusing on management and evaluation, not instructional leadership. Overcoming the barrier of closed-door education, introducing instructional leadership, and getting teachers to collaborate as a collective, not just in their PLC teams has been the biggest learning curve for me in my journey as an instructional leader and coach.

Teaching has become such an isolated experience, in some settings, and our educators need more. As part of my work with instructional coaching I saw a need for educators to truly collaborate and learn from each other. I needed to be an advocate of reflective learning and I wanted to implement a process which allows educators to do so.

Learners

For this project I would like to eventually include all the elementary schools, but for now I have included the administration and educators from the two buildings in which I work. This makes the most sense because this was a new experience for all of us and I am trying to build relationships from the ground up.

It is important to demonstrate reflective and collaborative teaching because we so desperately need it in our classrooms. Our educators should be modeling this for the students and should reap the benefits of working with a "village" and not on an "island." This was a point made in many of our PLC sessions we taught and during a presentation to the school board regarding the importance of instructional coaching.

My intention is to help educators begin to see the value of teaching with the doors open and not closed based on parent feedback and by looking at school and student data. It is important to use and reference our professional colleagues for purposes of improvement and not competition.

Additionally, our district is looking at implementation of standards based grading, instructional coaching, and trying to work toward a curriculum model with common assessments because we have not been for many years. With our students struggling on standardized assessments, its crucial that we change the way we work together and look at what we are teaching and the way we are teaching. Instructional practices need to be identified and improved, educators need to work together to implement these best practices and they need to work collaborative to provide meaningful education that results in success for our students.

Competencies

Overarching Competencies

• The two overarching competencies I focused on were Technology Facility and Reflective Practice.
  • I chose Technology Facility to help with this challenge for many reasons. The first, our educators do not have time to travel and collaborate. We are making changes to documents constantly, and need a way to communicate immediately. We collaborated via Microsoft Teams and over email and I we began sharing videos via Swivl.com.
    • I am proficient with technology use and I wanted to incorporate different ways for the educators to learn to collaborate that would also allow them to use it in their classroom. I wanted to grow myself as a technology user during TLI.
  • I chose Reflective Practice based on the need for educators to step away from their practice being so personal. Our teachers are too attached to the evaluative measures of their practice. I wanted to help them evaluate themselves so they were not so afraid of someone else doing it. Further, I wanted them to work on being so comfortable and reflective in their practice that they could help others do it as well.
    • I am a reflective practitioner, but I knew I could grow with my educators. This project forced me out of my comfort zone because I was creating videos of myself teaching for instructional purposes. I was engaging in coaching cycles with my work, for NBPTS, and with other educators. Being a proponent of practice what you preach was important for the teachers to see that it is doable and I could be trusted to lead.

Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competency

• The Diversity-Equity-Cultural Competency I chose was collaborate purposefully.
  • I chose collaborate purposefully because this competency was the challenge. Our educators were not collaborating in a purposeful manner. It was imperative for them to understand that changes were not going to be made if they didn't begin having purposeful conversations and engaging in collaborative practices frequently.
    • Our students are encouraged to collaborate every day. I made it my message it encourage that practice with the educators. They needed to practice what they were preaching as well.

Instructional Pathway

• The Instructional Pathway I chose was coaching and mentoring.
  • I chose the coaching and mentoring pathway to help me address the challenge for many reasons. First, coaching and mentoring was not a solid practice in our district. We had tried to engage in coaching and mentoring practices, but they were not as meaningful as they could have been. Second, if funding falls through and the instructional coaching position cannot be sustainable for our district, it is important to me that the educators can engage in coaching and mentoring while they collaborate.
    • Coaching and mentoring is critical to the educational process. Without it, as I have stated before, our educators are teaching on an "island" and there will be no way to continue their growth and the success of their students.

For the challenges identified, I will be working with the building administration, central office administration (Data, Curriculum, Asst. Supt.), building educators, and the instructional coaches at each level. I have also been seeking assistance from our OPI contact person, Debbie Hunsaker, and have made joined an Instructional Coaching Facebook group to advice and input.

Some resources I will be using to address the need will be the use of Microsoft Teams. This tool is free to the district, is a closed communication tool and can be a private space for educators to collaborate because they have to be invited to be part of the team. I will be using Swivl video and iPads to record lessons and upload them to share with the educators participating. OPI graciously provided one Swivl per school. The iPads were purchased with grant money for the instructional coaches to use and for use of intervention programs. Meeting spaces can be held at schools and in classrooms. We have conference rooms to use in the new facilities that provide privacy and a large meeting space to project videos and video conference if necessary. My goal was to not have to buy or implement anything that would be costly or out of our means.