With spring break and the KPTP I haven’t had much time to
devote to professional learning as I would have liked. Heck, wasn’t the KPTP enough? All kidding aside, because of an interview I
had, over the past few days I began thinking about collaborative environments
with colleagues. Collaborative
environments between colleagues are a vital structure that allows teachers to
work together to best serve their students. Furthermore, collaborative
environments let educators bounce ideas back and forth, discuss teaching
strategies for both groups and individual students, and support one another
when needed. Interestingly enough, I found a professional learning article on
the Teaching Tolerance website that
addresses the aforementioned ideas, and more.
Collaborative
environments may already exist at your school. In my English department we all
try to work together as a team to support each other and to share ideas. We also plan event together, such as the upcoming
Shakespeare Festival. While some teachers are definitely involved more than
others we all are responsible for doing our part. That being said, collaborative
environments have several other advantages.
As the
article states, collaborative environments are nothing new. I have been to many
a PL or PLC group where an entire schools data is discussed at length. This is
a great start because teachers can see the strengths and weaknesses of their
school. Hopefully, the data is chunked into manageable sections that really
benefit your department, for this allows the data to be evaluated and
productively implemented. These are the types of things that the aforementioned
article focuses on. However, school and department collaborative groups seem to
focus, all too often, on the data, implementation, and differentiation, and
specific students, or types of students, seem to be left out.
The
students that I am referring to are students who identify as LGBTQ or as people
that belong to any other persecuted group. I believe, that while the article
under discussion makes no reference to those students that by being on the web
site that it is we must thing about collaborative teacher teams in this
context. How do we as teachers foster an environment of tolerance within our
schools, classrooms, and our student’s lives? The answer to this is that we have
to plan and implement tolerance just as we would a lesson on Gatsby, or Night, intentionally. It is with this end in mind that we
collaboratively plan our approach to tolerance and, if needed, intervention.
The
article really does break down how to address the formation of a collaborative
environment. While the principal at most schools take care of PL or PLC,
teachers must often volunteer to organize and sponsor whatever groups they see
a need for. This is where this article
really becomes valuable. Step 1: Why
should we do this? This is the question that you have to know the answer to
before you start asking your colleagues to volunteer their time. My answer to
this is that we need to “address solutions for intolerance and lack of respect
among students, teachers, or other members of the school community.” Step 2: is
to help your colleagues understand how your collaborative team will work and
what it does to support the groups under discussion. Step 3: Plan and organize.
Step 4: Intentionally plan and implement that support. Step 5: Maintain
momentum. You may have to be the cheerleader for your group. “Frequent
attention and visibility are major drivers in keeping the initiative moving.”
Step 6: Facilitate. “Be a continual learner… Provide tips and facilitate good
teamwork and assistance.”
All of
these things that I listed here may seem like they are “common knowledge” but
if you’re honest with yourself, did you really know where to start? I certainly
didn’t. That being said, I whole heartedly intend to either start a tolerance
group for marginalized student groups, or offer my services to an existing one,
at wherever I begin my teaching career.
I would also hope that you will visit the website and find additional
information on how to embrace diversity and promote tolerance. A good teacher cares
about teaching; a great teacher cares about teaching their students.
Link to the article: http://www.tolerance.org/print/supplement/ten-steps-implementing-teacher-team-initiative-your-school
Other tolerance websites you should visit:
