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May I Have the Floor?

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This week we were exploring how teachers can differentiate their classrooms through the environment or affect of the room.  The TLC designed an activity that shared photos of teachers' classrooms from our school, who used the environment to support differentiation.  The activity was a hit, teachers were engaged and discussing the rooms and even asking me to text them the pictures, so they could emulate these ideas in their rooms. Then, we showed a picture of a classroom with flexible seating. Flexible seating in Mr. McNeeley's classroom The groups were discussing and the room was buzzing, quickly it came time for the whole group share out.  I was facilitating this moment and asked the room to share what they were talking about regarding the picture of flexible seating, through the lens of a handout we were using to support Tomlinson's definition of differentiation (the yellow paper I will come back to shortly). The first participant shared her frustrations wi...
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Wayfinding

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After 15 years of being a classroom teacher, this is the first year that I do not have my own classroom. My teaching is focused on professional development endeavors.  And, as meaningful as my work is-nothing compares to having a class full of kids to work with every day. Luckily, I frequently get to go to other teachers' classes and work with the kids in different ways.  Recently, an ELL science teacher invited me to go on a field trip with his class to the Bishop Museum Planetarium to view a presentation on Hawaiian wayfinders, who learned to read the wind and the stars to navigate throughout the Pacific.  I learned that the term wayfinding is different from navigating because when you wayfind, you adapt and read your surroundings, you find your way as you go and you trust both your intuition and your knowledge.   This idea of wayfinding really resonated with me and made me think about what we are doing with the Teacher Leadership Cadre-we are finding o...
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School Year 17-18 Has Begun!

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The first TLC workshop is officially in the books and it was a success! We collected the faculty's preferences for workshop topics for the year through a Google Survey. The TLC provided five choices: Project Based Learning (continuing from last year)  Communication Skills (inspired by students' perceived need) Content Area Literacy Differentiation Strategies Instilling Grit and Growth Mindset The TLC came to these choices by simply throwing out ideas on what we thought would have a large impact on student achievement-we came up with 11 choices, which was clearly too much.  Then, the TLC narrowed it down by voting for our top five, which was rolled out to the faculty.  It was important for us to provide the faculty with choice, but not just an open ended vote.  We wanted to it to be concrete and clear, so there would be a majority, but many voices of our faculty would feel they were heard.  The survey was simple-teachers voted for their first and seco...
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Learning to Work Together and Getting Dirty

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The second day of our Teacher Leadership Cadre Summer Retreat was at Papahana Kuaola in Kaneohe.  We were blessed to have a TLC member who works there in the summers and led us through sacred work in sacred land. The goal of this day was to move from understanding each other on a personal level to understanding each others' working styles and personalities.  We began by finishing the 2 minute speeches from the first day of the retreat and each of the three final speeches were deeply personal and revealed moments of profound impact on each of the speakers.  Through sharing with the team, these people showed that they trust in the group and believe in the process.  This trust and belief set the tone for a powerful day. After the speeches, we each shared our full names, place of birth, where we currently live, and a person we would like to bring to work with us today-this person could be living or passed, but someone who's spirit we would like in the work. ...
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Facing Fears

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We began our Summer Leadership Retreat at the Coral Crater Adventure Tower and literally faced down our fears and took great leaps of faith.  The Tower is an intimidating 65 ft high structure with 18 obstacles to overcome.  Although we were harnessed in, we needed to move the harness ourselves and unhook and rehook the gear often.  We crossed various unstable, uneven bridges, swung on ropes like Tarzan, and jumped across platforms. It was terrifying.  But, it was also amazing to share in that fear and support each other through it. Everyone needed encouragement and everyone stepped up to provide it.  There were moments when we were paralyzed with fear, afraid to go on, unsure that the risk would pay off and in those moments, our teammates supported us.  Sometimes the support was physical, offering a hand or pulling each other up on a platform.  But more often, it was the words: the reminder that we were safe, the steadfast belief that we could d...
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Reflecting, Rejuvenating, Reconnecting

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Coral Crater Adventure Tower: Kapolei, HI As summer is winding down, it is time to move from the reflecting (or as I like to say internal marinating) phase of thinking to concrete planning. The first event that I will be leading is the Farrington High School Teacher Leadership Cadre Summer Retreat.  Even though the TLC is entering into its third year, this is the first summer we have had a retreat.  The retreat idea came into being after a rocky transition from the first year of TLC to the second.  As we moved into a new team, with new group dynamics, I clearly underestimated the importance of relationships and the power of setting a strong foundation. This year, we are going to start slow to go fast-we will lay down the roots for our tree to grow strong. We will nurture our relationships. This summer all TLC members have been reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown.  I will give more insights about this book in a future post, but the overall message is that ...
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