Tuesday, June 06, 2006

I think I do

I kind of like meetings. In life most people don't, but in a public or private meeting, people have to say something or be indebted to their silence.

But mostly it is a good way to share ideas.

Today we had a K-5 meeting and it is clear that this team wants to work together. Enough that the specials show up to see what is going on. The whole crew is there, from Teaching Assistants to the Librarian. And when everyone is there, you can often accomplish more.

[In my school specials are the non-core subjects like, gym, art, music & library. I think they are often seen as a resource by some of the staff, but not integral to learning and education.]

If there is a question of when to meet next, everyone can say, that is a good day or not.

No one has to say: "I think so and so can cover for you on Thursday" because so and so can speak for his or herself.

To me, often a meeting is similar to listening next to the copier that is in the library. When you here two teachers discuss what they are doing during the day, it is helpful for making the library ready for those projects.

The team meeting with the K-5 at my school is so much more productive for me -- as a specials teacher.

I think there are many reasons for this:

  • the k-5 don't get to interact with each other much, so they spend most of the time working on curriculum.
  • 6-8 and 9-12 teachers meet 2.5 times a week and discuss a lot of varying things that doesn't really touch upon collaboration (more in the Middle School). This isn't to say these teachers don't collaborate, since they have other times to meet, like two planning periods, compared to one for the k-5.
  • Specials teachers attend the after school k-5 meetings and can not attend the 6-8 and 9-12 meetings that take place while specials are being taught.


This isn't a criticism of the staff or the system, it is just factors that contribute to the way things get done. I actually have a schedule that allows me to go to the 6-8 and 9-12 meetings, but find they tend to focus on student issues and schedules. Both of these are important to me, but much of it is moot. It is good to know a student in failing math and for me to make sure they are working when they are in the library, but I have less impact.

I have more impact on helping collaborations, which are not discussed as much.




Copier time
The best thing about copier time, is lobby time. I get to present ideas that I can help with and factors that can helpful to me.

Two collaborations took place this year that I thought had opposite results. Team A started by discussing the project, then came down to me and asked for the library to help prepare for the project. The beginning was a two page paper, then a powerpoint. While this was going on the art teacher had the students make a kite that resembled the art of the artist the paper and powerpoint was on.

Team B started the project with a powerpoint. I guess the two-page paper was also presented as part of the project, but the students went to work on the powerpoint and spent three weeks changing color and finding music --- which included listening to music 'for the project' but was clearly just listening to music. A very large share of the students spend less than two days working on the paper. Which also mean they spent about three days finding content.




You can guess which project turned out the best. I know which was enjoyed the most by the students, but I will bet that Team A students will value what they learned for a lifetime. At the copier, I presented to a teacher from Team B how the Team A approach would be helpful for me in monitoring the computers and the students.

Monday, June 05, 2006

test two

New post at:

I have been using Word Press, new posts of chatter from the Library Monkey can be found there.

so much trouble with this