Interconnected Skills - part 1

I've been working on this for quite some time.

In the Ontario Currculum, there states (in reading, for Grade 6):

In conversation with past colleagues and experts, my journey towards this has taken many different paths - some fruitful, but many not!

This year, in my Grade 6 class I had a few reservations and changes. My first concern was that the students would find it too difficult to look at the OTHER skills and apply it to reading. I decided, to start at least, to focus on reading first then look outwards. My focus then became: How does reading help make you a better listener? speaker? writer? viewer? representer?

My other concern was due, to a large part, the flexible and free structure of my writer's workshop. Using technology so intensively, immersing every subject in tech, lead to this idea - could they see a difference between writing and representing? Using media within our writing - what is it now?

I approached my reader's and writer's workshop this year with that in mind. I knew the lines between the seemingly artificial categories were becoming blurry - to me, and I felt, especially for my students. Growing up surrounded by media, what then is the difference? The process seems to be universal!

I started my year off with the specific language of PRODUCER and CONSUMER. In that I mean that the reader's workshop would become that of the Consumer's Workshop - where we work on strategies to effectively consume information. My writer's workshop became the Producer's Workshop - where we work on strategies to effectively produce information.

Ahhhhhhh...... A new role, a new perspective

I have started a new role: I am now a Literacy/Numeracy Coach. This means that I was pulled from my classroom - last week - and thrown into this new role. 

There are a couple of things I would like to explore with this post. I am doing this for my own sake - mostly because I don't want to forget this moment, and all the perspective it has brought to my teaching.

A Literacy/Numeracy coach, as I understand it (so far, being 5 days into the gig!) is to help build capacity within the assigned schools. My philosophy is to help improve the teaching within the schools by supporting teachers - so much so that things will be better when I leave. I need to qualify that last statement. I am very cognizant of the role being misinterpreted as a withdrawal resource - I come, take your kids, fix them, then send them back. However, in this role, nothing has improved about the teaching. Things are going to continue the way they have been.

There is a subtle message that comes with my presence. I am in these two schools because things need to get better. This imposed message makes it tricky for me to build relationships. I am not there to judge - however, many don't see it that way. There needs to be an openness from the teachers to admit that their programs need to be improved - and that I can help them. So I come along, charming, self-deprecating sense of humour and a quiet confidence that will hopefully win over the sceptics. Here's hoping!

I felt it was time to leave my classroom. I had been thinking about this role for quite a while, but there were many reasons that I said no - fear being the biggest one. I had become quite comfortable in my own little box - room 211 - and leaving that comfort meant a lot of anxiety for me. This role in particular was very loosely defined. It really was up the individual to create change within schools, with a poorly defined plan. My question repeated within these schools is this: what is your focus? Schools that have a clearly defined focus gives me a starting place to work from. Schools that don't have a focus make it a bit more difficult for me to start. Then my role moves from supporting the focus to providing one.. which is a bit tricky for someone not in tune with the school culture!

As a teacher, I was good - but I was also exhausted. I didn't realize it until I had left. What an incredible pace I kept! I had heard recently that 50% of teachers quit within the first 5 years. I believe it! I mention exhaustion for a very specific reason: so that I won't forget this, and honour this within the teachers that I will be working with. Teachers work hard - all of them. I am there to support them.

I have started popping into classrooms unannounced - mostly because I don't have any specific requests yet. I try to do this unassumingly, but also with the attitude of honour. I am very honoured to be able to enter these spaces and participate in what is going on. 

I am also enjoying the system and school perspectives. I had been very involved in my previous school's improvement team, so I had seen school plans in action. However, now seeing it from the system perspective - the "go in and fix this school" mentality is a completely new perspective for me. I was very good in my own box -and could laser-focus my attention on my kids and my program. Now that I have stepped outside of that, I can begin to see a larger picture. Change in a classroom, coming from a willing teacher, can happen quickly. Change on a school level is a whole lot slower! Change within an entire district is glacial at best! Already I am seeing and hearing things that I thought had been labelled "bad practice" years ago. Really - you are just trying Guided Reading for the first time? I have been living this for the past 10 years. But them, with that check in attitude, it is not for me to judge - it is for me to support others. 

I have reached out, and a few have reached back. For them I am very grateful. This is how it starts. Then in spreads! So for now, I am enjoying playing in other classrooms, turning off my brain at night, and catching up on my sleep!

M.