New Year, New Team

Happy New Year! 

Okay, so no, it is not January, but it is summer and to a teacher this means a fresh start! This is when I set my resolutions and begin preparations for new kids and a new year! 

This year many of my goals pertain to making my PLC team as effective as possible. I will be working with a larger group of people so it is vital that we are all on the same page about what this could and should look like. 

First, it starts with our 4th grade team. I will be working with a teacher who is new to the grade level, but not to teaching. She has previously taught Kindergarten and 5th grade so I am excited about the varied experience that she will bring to the table!

Our Instructional Coach will be another member of our PLC team. She is enthusiastic about working with a team throughout the entire planning, teaching and reflecting model. She has been receiving training in convergent data so I look forward to having support in that area. 

Another essential person our teaching team next year will be our Title 1 teacher. She is extremely passionate about helping kids learn and she is great at giving them a balance of challenge and encouragement. She will be our go-to for all Tier 2 students in the MTSS model. 

We can't forget about our special education teacher! She brings a vast knowledge of teaching practice and strategies for students who need special accommodations. I look up to her as a model teacher and she is truly a professional educator. 

Finally we have our guide, our school principal, who believes in teaching together more than any other practice. He supports us, teaches us and listens to us. He is a great leader who focuses on every individual student and how we can help them learn. 

Yes it is a big team, and this is technically not even everyone! I also want to have vertical conversations with the 3rd and 5th grade teachers at my school, and I would love to work with other 4th grade teams across the district. We also have the Guidance Counselor, Behavior Coordinator, Specials Teachers, ELP Teacher, Support Staff, Secretary and so many others that would take hours to introduce! With all of us teaching together I know that this year will be one of the best for teachers, and more importantly, for students!

It starts from the top!

Welcome back! 

For this post I want to give you a little bit of background information on the district model for teaching and learning. I will also explain how and why I chose to start focusing on becoming a better teacher through collaboration.

During the 2013-2014 school year was when the principal at my elementary school really started promoting collaboration among teachers. Many of us thought we were working together before, but once we started to get professional training about collaboration we quickly realized that we were only touching the surface of truly teaching together. 

It all started with the talk of implementing Professional Learning Communities or PLCs. Our district hired Instructional Coaches from within who would work with teams to plan, teach and reflect. My principal also wanted us to start shifting to more data driven classrooms. We were still diving into the depth and rigor of the Common Core so we also began experimenting with Common Formative Assessments. Furthermore, it was also important to administrators that we start to plan our lessons based around the gradual release of responsibility. 

At the time I was just beginning my second year of teaching, but my first year of teaching 4th grade. I am at a smaller school with only two sections of classes at each grade level, and the other 4th grade teacher was a brand new classroom teacher. Combined we had one year of teaching experience. Yikes!

It was then that the other 4th grade teacher and I made the decision to make our decisions together! I found that the first step to being on a teacher team is to literally make the choice that you will, and want to work with others. You have to decide that you are open minded and flexible. Two things that take practice, time and commitment. However we knew that if we were going to tackle all of the new and changing initiatives we didn't want to do it alone, and that is how we began teaching together! 

Teaching Together 101

Hello Readers!

I have been teaching in the same district for three years now as an elementary school teacher. I first taught 3rd grade for one year and now I have settled into fourth grade. I love this age because I feel that the students are transitioning from teacher reliance to more independence and I love challenging them to fail, succeed and learn from themselves and their choices.

The title of my blog is Teaching Together 101. In my three short years as a teacher I have learned the power of working on a teacher team. It will be my goal to share my experiences with my readers and to reflect on the effectiveness of working as a team. I hope to share and discuss the successes that come from working on a team, as well as the challenges and difficulties that we may face.

I hope that as my reader you will take an active role in my blog. I encourage you to comment, question, and even challenge what I am saying! After all, it isn't a true team if one person is doing all the work. :) Thank you so much for taking the time to read this introduction!