Wow, I was moved while reading today. While digging deeper into what effective schools do, I read about establishing a school-wide efficacy, or confidence. Because we should all be working towards school-wide goals, it makes sense to establish consistency in practice and trust in one another.
I know what I need to do in my Language Arts classroom. I must create a safe environment conducive to learning, give each student an equal educational opportunity, differentiate, and assess progress. At the same time, I should support school-wide goals, rules, and expectations. I feel as if I accomplish these items. However, I do feel like school-wide efficacy may be lacking. Meaning, I do not believe 100% of our staff is implementing all rules, using each instructional minute wisely, or believing in the power to educate all students. I cannot say with confidence that each teacher at my school is teaching with the passion needed to close the educational gap. With this said, I must not add to a positive school-wide efficacy.
So how can we ensure each teacher is "successful" in their individual classroom? (Success being based on implementing school-wide expectations, closing the gap, and providing a safe environment) How can we build confidence in one another at a job site?
It sounds Like you are working to be a part of the solution and doing all you can in your classroom. I'm not sure what control you have over how other teachers view their role in this initiative?!
ReplyDeleteI slightly agree. What they (author's of the book) see as positive school efficacy is having faith in one another, knowing each teacher in the building is holding the students to the same rigorous standards. We should all be confident in one another, not just our own skills. So, it's really looking at philosophy about teacher autonomy versus school-wide goal. If teacher do not believe in the mission statement of our school and our upcoming project, they don't have a place in our building/culture.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
Too bad we can't put "mystery shoppers" into classrooms to experience how a teacher instructs when peers or other trained observers aren't around....
ReplyDeleteHi Sandy,
ReplyDeleteThere could be some validity there. What's nice about Middle School students, is they often talk about classes while in other classes. While they may be bias, emotional, not always logical in their statements at times, as a teacher, I can gauge how well other teachers are connecting with their students. You will not make students happy each and every day. Lets face it, middle schoolers do not like homework and cannot always be "entertained." Some lessons are just cut and dry. But they will also gloat about new things they learned, as well.
Do you think there could be a way to progress monitor an online classroom facilitator? Perhaps universities have a way to view all online classes at any given moment?....