Part II: Voices From the Field-->Chapter 4: Maple View-->Sustaining a Culturally Proficient Learning Community
The strengths and assets of my community include members who purposefully seek out to include a diverse group of members to ensure all perspectives are addressed. Including a diverse group of members ensures that all voices are heard and that all populations are represented. Diversity does not only refer to cultural diversity, but also sexual orientation, students with different levels of disabilities, backgrounds, home lifestyles, religious backgrounds, and other walks of life.
The contributions I make to the learning community is act as a representative of my students and their parents so that their concerns can be addressed as well. When I find resources I share them with the rest of the staff. I also learn from my mistakes and share those experiences with the rest of the staff to help them have a smoother experience than I did.
As a community we collaboratively learn about our students by asking questions that will help us dig deeper and find root causes for situations currently happening. We study data and look for patterns that stand out to us so that we may decide on next steps. We support each other through different situations so that everyone experiences success.
We learn about the families of our students through informal conversations with students and their parents, parent-teacher conferences, SSTs, 504s, IEPs, e-mails, informal surveys, and our students' writing pieces.
We learn about ourselves through constant self-reflection, reading professional development literature, receiving honest feedback from trusted colleagues, administrators, students and parents, and through mistakes.
We learn about ourselves collectively through workshops, professional development, trainings, data, parent feedback, surveys, overall student success, the media, and social networks.
Reflection:
After reading the information on Table 4.1, I feel very fortunate to work at at school that mostly uses the empowering language of the collaborative model. Once in a while someone might start to think like the traditional model, instead of the collaborative model, but we save them quick! And they appreciate it! We are such a strong staff, we don't let each other drown.
Stereotypes, assumptions, blame and negative presuppositions influence my decisions and behaviors, and those of my colleagues, by causing us to make decisions based on faulty information. That helps no one because when you operate from this point, you are finding solutions to problems of which you are not informed. We need to remember to not make assumptions or allow negative presuppositions to influence our decisions, but rather find the root cause before we decide on what actions to take.
We might apply our collective learning to demonstrate our value for diversity by taking action that reflects our appreciation and consideration for diversity.
At our school families are definitely perceived as members of the professional learning community and partners in their children's education and they know that they are. Throughout the school year, our school offers so many opportunities for parents to contribute and be involved. I almost feel dependent, to a certain degree, on their willingness to volunteer!
Going Deeper: 3 Keys
3 Key Learnings:
*As a leader, state the obvious and address it. For example, if the demographics have been changing, don't just ignore what everyone has been noticing. Bring it to light and empower all stakeholders to be able to enjoy the new situation with the appropriate belief system so that everyone can experience success.
*Don't lose sight of what is important: school mission, vision, goals.
*Focus on teaching students rather than teaching subjects or grades.
3 Key Quotes:
-->"For the past several years, Sam And Barbara have worked together to encourage and support district educators to become more aware of the changing demographics of the community and to view diversity as an opportunity and positive experience rather than a challenge and negative experience (Lindsey et. al, p. 57).
-->"We use the Maple View School District to demonstrate how schools in today's assessment-driven environments struggle to make the shift from the traditional subject-focused instructional model to the student-centered, collaborative, standards-based model" (Lindsey et. al, p.58).
-->Lindsey et. al states, "This model requires a shift from the language of blaming the students and their circumstances to the language of personal responsibility for teaching and learning" (as cited in Kegan & Lahey, 2001).
3 Key Questions:
*What steps can be taken to help teachers embrace, accept, and welcome a change in demographics at their school?
*How do we help teachers shift their thinking from believing underserved students are deficient in their culture to believing they are enriched and empowered with a different set of knowledge that should be used in the classroom to enhance their education?
*How long does the transition usually take from a traditional model to a collaborative model?
Thinking of my role as an educator, the information from this chapter causes me to think about my practice in an exciting way because I am being reminded that changing the language we use, helps change our perspective and then positive and productive action follows.
As I read about Maple View the thoughts that come to mind about my own context include the fact that we are also in the process of finding a new principal for our school and we are hoping that the new principal will "sustain the leadership momentum established by" (Lindsey et. al, p.58) our current principal.
The strengths and assets of my community include members who purposefully seek out to include a diverse group of members to ensure all perspectives are addressed. Including a diverse group of members ensures that all voices are heard and that all populations are represented. Diversity does not only refer to cultural diversity, but also sexual orientation, students with different levels of disabilities, backgrounds, home lifestyles, religious backgrounds, and other walks of life.
The contributions I make to the learning community is act as a representative of my students and their parents so that their concerns can be addressed as well. When I find resources I share them with the rest of the staff. I also learn from my mistakes and share those experiences with the rest of the staff to help them have a smoother experience than I did.
As a community we collaboratively learn about our students by asking questions that will help us dig deeper and find root causes for situations currently happening. We study data and look for patterns that stand out to us so that we may decide on next steps. We support each other through different situations so that everyone experiences success.
We learn about the families of our students through informal conversations with students and their parents, parent-teacher conferences, SSTs, 504s, IEPs, e-mails, informal surveys, and our students' writing pieces.
We learn about ourselves through constant self-reflection, reading professional development literature, receiving honest feedback from trusted colleagues, administrators, students and parents, and through mistakes.
We learn about ourselves collectively through workshops, professional development, trainings, data, parent feedback, surveys, overall student success, the media, and social networks.
Reflection:
After reading the information on Table 4.1, I feel very fortunate to work at at school that mostly uses the empowering language of the collaborative model. Once in a while someone might start to think like the traditional model, instead of the collaborative model, but we save them quick! And they appreciate it! We are such a strong staff, we don't let each other drown.
Stereotypes, assumptions, blame and negative presuppositions influence my decisions and behaviors, and those of my colleagues, by causing us to make decisions based on faulty information. That helps no one because when you operate from this point, you are finding solutions to problems of which you are not informed. We need to remember to not make assumptions or allow negative presuppositions to influence our decisions, but rather find the root cause before we decide on what actions to take.
We might apply our collective learning to demonstrate our value for diversity by taking action that reflects our appreciation and consideration for diversity.
At our school families are definitely perceived as members of the professional learning community and partners in their children's education and they know that they are. Throughout the school year, our school offers so many opportunities for parents to contribute and be involved. I almost feel dependent, to a certain degree, on their willingness to volunteer!
Going Deeper: 3 Keys
3 Key Learnings:
*As a leader, state the obvious and address it. For example, if the demographics have been changing, don't just ignore what everyone has been noticing. Bring it to light and empower all stakeholders to be able to enjoy the new situation with the appropriate belief system so that everyone can experience success.
*Don't lose sight of what is important: school mission, vision, goals.
*Focus on teaching students rather than teaching subjects or grades.
3 Key Quotes:
-->"For the past several years, Sam And Barbara have worked together to encourage and support district educators to become more aware of the changing demographics of the community and to view diversity as an opportunity and positive experience rather than a challenge and negative experience (Lindsey et. al, p. 57).
-->"We use the Maple View School District to demonstrate how schools in today's assessment-driven environments struggle to make the shift from the traditional subject-focused instructional model to the student-centered, collaborative, standards-based model" (Lindsey et. al, p.58).
-->Lindsey et. al states, "This model requires a shift from the language of blaming the students and their circumstances to the language of personal responsibility for teaching and learning" (as cited in Kegan & Lahey, 2001).
3 Key Questions:
*What steps can be taken to help teachers embrace, accept, and welcome a change in demographics at their school?
*How do we help teachers shift their thinking from believing underserved students are deficient in their culture to believing they are enriched and empowered with a different set of knowledge that should be used in the classroom to enhance their education?
*How long does the transition usually take from a traditional model to a collaborative model?
Thinking of my role as an educator, the information from this chapter causes me to think about my practice in an exciting way because I am being reminded that changing the language we use, helps change our perspective and then positive and productive action follows.
As I read about Maple View the thoughts that come to mind about my own context include the fact that we are also in the process of finding a new principal for our school and we are hoping that the new principal will "sustain the leadership momentum established by" (Lindsey et. al, p.58) our current principal.