Final Narrative

Being the age of twenty-nine years old may not seem like I have a lot of ‘real world’ knowledge or how the world should work. However, I have been working since the day I turned sixteen in a variety of different jobs from retail, waitressing, banking and now teaching. While each of these industries is incredibly different, my enjoyment of each job has varied greatly. I have come to realize that it doesn’t matter how easy or difficult the job is, what matters is the team you are working with. I have been teaching for three short years at the same school in Providence. My first year I was lucky enough to form two strong friendships that will last a lifetime and it has been these friendships, that made me love coming to work because I knew I had a support system if and when I needed it. Fast forward to this school year and looking ahead to the next school year, both of my best friends are moving on to bigger and better things and I am incredibly supportive and happy for them. However, knowing that I will be ‘alone’ in my school has been weighing heavily on me. So I have become determined to bring on a change within my school so that we can become more of a community so that no one feels alone or unsupported.


Giving some background information, my school is one of the largest middle schools in Rhode Island with approximately 900 students and 80 classroom teachers. The building is made up of three floors, each floor being a ‘separate’ academy (PEAK, STEM & STEAM) with each academy being made up of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. Given that our building is as big as it is, it is often quite difficult to see, interact and plan with teachers that are not on the same floor, resulting in a poor climate and culture within the building. Additionally, our school is not teamed, making it difficult to plan and provide support to one another. Our “common planning time” is held every Friday after school but unfortunately, that time is used as whole school training or analyzing data within our separate departments. Since the common planning times are pre-arranged, we rarely ever have time to work collaboratively with our fellow teachers or to even provide support to new and veteran teachers. As a result, teachers are often left feeling as though they are on their own and often don’t know where to turn to for support within our building. It’s like Turkle says, we have all this technology, but those closest to us are suddenly so far away. I believe that students learn when teachers have the opportunity to work collaboratively, connect with each other and support each other.


This belief that I have is from my first-hand experience of my current place of work. Since I started working there three years ago, climate and culture between teachers and administration have been on the rapid decline. When I first started in my building I was wrapped up in being a first-year teacher and just trying to make sure I could survive on a day to day basis and I also had made some strong friendships within this time. Now at year three going into four, I have become more confident in my teaching which has allowed me to feel the black hole of despair that is currently taking over our school. This despair, distrust, and separation truly impact our students more than we realize. Teachers are starting their mornings cranky and ending their days even crankier. How can we expect our students to learn in our classrooms if we ourselves do not want to even be in this environment?


A quote from Robinson’s Ted Talk really stuck with me about the people within my building, “those who are immovable, people who don't get it, or don't want to do anything about it.” This resonated with me because I constantly feel as though the administration and our teachers are stuck in this fixed mindset which is not only hindering our students learning but also our impact as teachers. With all of this in mind, I have decided to be the person that Robinson talks about, the person that moves, who makes things happen. If I can get enough people to move, I can start a movement and if strong enough, start a revolution, according to Robinson. In my eyes, that is what Del Sesto needs, a revolution in order to take us from Te-Ka and turn into the beautiful Te-Fiti. For this to happen, we just need our heart back.


My first push towards this movement is to address the lack of collaboration that is prevalent within the school. According to Wesch in his Learning from Baby George Ted Talk, “collaboration is key” in order to be successful which is why I am working towards creating and collecting data through a Google form on why we need to have teams within our school. This Google form will be sent to all the teachers within my building and will ask them to provide their reasons as to why they think teaming will allow for a stronger learning environment not only for students but for teachers as well. After collecting, analyzing and sorting the data from the Google form as well as collecting my own research, I will bring forth a proposal to my administration in hopes to bring teaming within our school.


My next shove for this movement would be to create multiple Groupme chats within the building. Knowing how large my building is, it is probably unreasonable to have 80 or so teachers on one Groupme chat so I have decided to start small and start a Groupme by department (math, science, english, social studies, special ed, electives). By having this department group chat, it will allow teachers to share something they’ve done that’s worked, hasn’t worked, questions they have or just any piece of information they’d like to share with their team. By allowing a venue for these conversations we are able to start connecting and collaborating with each other. My hope here is to start by department then eventually have integrated departments, this will especially be helpful with my teaming proposal.


The next thrust in this movement will be creating a weekly electronic newsletter that spotlights a different teacher every week. The newsletter will feature a picture of the teacher as well as a mini “interview” that the teachers will be required to fill out via Google form. The newsletter will allow for teachers to be introduced and get to know each other, with the goal of creating a warmer school climate and creating connections between staff. By creating these connections, teachers will feel less separated from each other and start feeling more like a community.


My last and final push of this movement will be to create and offer a support system for teachers. Being a teacher, we are constantly learning new techniques and adapting to a new curriculum. However, we are rarely ever given constructive feedback on what we can do to improve our instruction. Through a Google form, I will offer all teachers to have a visit to their classroom to provide this critical feedback. This Google form would be completed by the teacher that visited the classroom and would be shared only with the teacher being observed. I am hoping that this support would allow for teachers to not only improve instruction and learn new techniques but to also create a culture where we can learn to trust and support each other as professionals.


Having all these movements in place, I hope to create a revolution. A revolution that will remove the darkness that has taken over my school, and instead bring back the joy and happiness that once was. I believe students learn best from teachers that can connect, support and can collaborate within their classroom. In order for this to happen, we need teachers that can first collaborate, support and connect with each other. Thanks to this class, I have learned how I can best take these techno constructivist steps to create a strong community and hopefully, I can be the Moana we need, to turn our Te-ka into the beautiful Te-fiti I know we can be.

References

Robinson, K. (2013, April). Retrieved July 03, 2018, from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley

Turkle, S. (2012, April 21). The Flight From Conversation. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html? pagewanted=all

Wesch, M. (2016, April 15). Retrieved July 05, 2018,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7dbl0rJS0



My grading