I have tried to support ongoing collaboration between special educational and general educational staff. I recently attended trainings on differentiated instruction and checks for understanding, both general education initiatives and both connected to the idea that one size does not fit all and that equal is not always fair. These concepts are especially important when dealing with special education, ELL, and poverty issues. I have also shared Kansas Assessment data with both special and general educational staff in an effort to help them target instruction.
Sometimes we need to do more than share information; we need to model what quality collaboration looks like. I know you do that and it helps a lot of students.
I think that modeling is something that we sometimes do forget about. However, it is sometimes hard to see where you can go in and help without overstepping boundaries.
Collaboration between sped and general ed is so important. I don't do enough of it, simply because it is so hard to schedule the time. Every year I strive to do better but I always seem to fall short.
That is the most challenging part of teaching is finding the time to collaborate. When ever possible go to the teachers PLC times and just sit and listen. Even if you don't have much to say just your presents will let them know that you are trying to be part of their team.
I agree collaboration is very important! I make a point at the beginning of the year to schedule team meetings with my regular ed teachers. We have been doing them for about 3-4 years now and they just know we will do team meetings and they expect that every year. It took a year or so to get them going smoothly, but what a great way to team and provide support for our kiddos.
When I look at the action steps in this chapter, I feel a little helpless. I would like to see more staff development and more investment in staff. Then reality sets in; I hear about lack of funds, the rising cost of education, and how programs are being cut in order to manage budgets and I feel sad. Some students get a reputation for being lazy, unkind to others, fighters, etc. I have found when there is something good to say about these students they will rise to the occasion and their teachers then tend to look for the good in them. In past years, we have done the ‘Wall of Fame’ where students earn stars on the wall beside the office by doing something good. At the end of the year, the students get their stars. On the star is the student’s name, the act of kindness they did, the date, and the teacher making the nomination. It never ceased to amaze me at the positive student reactions to getting their stars put on the wall. Even the ‘tough’ kids are pleased with earning stars.
Jerrie, That is awesome! I had no idea the high school was doing that. Its like the story about giving three stars to a student and they in turn have to give each star to someone who they caught being good. One of those stars made it to a boy who had thought about committing suicide that very day. I've thought about carrying that through the middle school, but something always got in the way.
I like the "wall of fame" idea, too! One of my schools has a 'Caught Red Handed' board, which is very similar. I think having staff look for good behaviors and having the children strive to get on the board is beneficial for both the kids and the staff!
I like your "Wall of Fame". We use another type of positive reward system in our school that all of the kids are familiar with. I understand about the feeling of helplessness. There is always so much that needs to be done and not enough time/money/buy-in to get it done.
I think one action step I would like to see happen at my school is to encourage staff dialogue. I think it would be great to have the staff take time to share positive anecdotes about their students and to offer ideas to those who are having trouble.
I agree with you about staff dialogue. It's hard to get several teachers together except in the mornings. Our course level teachers don't have planning time together which is a shame. I'm lucky to catch one teacher a few minutes before class where another I may be able to visit a little bit longer.
staff dilogue is very important, but I know sometimes when you talk about children from poverty situations, staff members can become negative. It is our responsibility to keep the conversations positive.
I like the action step: encouraging staff dialogue. I am striving to do this as a SPED teacher comunicating with general ed staff members and administration. I also plan to share the information about the capacity of the brain to change whenever possible.
I think that with different schedules, having a meaningful conversation with staff members is difficult. I find it hard to catch teachers on their planning times. I usually have to grab them in the hallway during passing period.
Investing in the staff members is something that our schools social committee is starting to do which I am a member of. We have started providing staff meals such as taco bar, potato bar, last of the month birthday treats. It has been working so far, the staff seem closer together and are willing to communicate more as a team. I think that for so many years they were just working, working, and working with not any recognition for their efforts from other teachers. Therefore, getting together and having these community meals in the school is a great time to communicate on another level.
I work in a few different districts and couldn't agree with you more - -the administrators who take the time to make you feel like part of a family definitely reap the rewards in their staff. It's so good to get to know each other on a personal level -so much understanding and collaboration can then take place without feeling threatened.
I agree that this would be beneficial for most districts. When administrators take time and effort to build and foster relationships with their staff, they will have stronger bonds and collaboration will be easier.
Action steps that are listed in the book are great. Without the time or administrative support, staff investment and collaboration probably won't happen. At one school I was in, one day a month was totally devoted to team meetings on each sped kid. It was great. Time was limited to 45 minutes. In another school, the kids were let out at school at Friday noon once a month for meetings of our own choosing. It worked as well. At the moment I've copied off information about executive functions and plan on sharing it with a small set of teachers. We will fill out the questions before we meet with the parents at a requested team meeting. They will get a copy of the diagram that Marcy shared with us. In a couple of weeks, we'll see how it has worked. Hopefully, some minds will be open and will gain a new perspective.
It is interesting how different systems in different schools can work effectively. I try to incorporate meeting times with the various preschool teachers that I work with. Because some of the preschools are community based, it looks a little different but is still effective. I hope your sharing works well for you.
The action step that stood out to me is to Gather quality Data. Sometimes this can seem overwhelming as we consider time constraints. I feel that we cannot simply pull a kid out of class every 3 weeks and do formal testing. It has its place but it does not give a complete picture we need to know how this kid performs in and out of a classroom setting. There are so many factor that will affect the outcome, attention, distractions, time to complete tasks, etc. It is hard to find the time but we need to observe students in all school settings and talk with other professionals about your findings and encourage feedback and advice.
~~ Stephanie-- That is so true about time. there is never enough. I would love to be involved in grade level team meetings it would help to have a more accurate pic of the goals for that particular period of time in the classroom. Unfortunately, we SPED teachers are expected to cover the classrooms for the teachers to attend their meetings.
~~ Rae Lynn-- I agree that staff communication is so important. We should be working as a team to make the best possible decisions for a student's education. You cannot act as a team without proper communication and support.
I don't feel like "quality data" has to be done through formal testing. I work in class with students and take data every day but have to be creative and specific in what I am measuring. I really like your thoughts on gathering input from many different teachers in different settings/time of day.
I feel like all I do is "gather quality data" but it so often speaks for itself and definitely drives the support I give students. I also collaborate with other staff members but also parents (through home visits) with the hope of breaking the cycle. I couldn't do my job as effectively as I do if I didn't have the support of a great ECSE teacher as well as PT/OT so I can pick their brains.
One of the action steps I’ve seen utilized in one of my buildings is changing staff members’ mind-sets. Everyone in the building sends out a ‘Positive Note’ (i.e. mass email to all faculty/staff) whenever they notice that one of the students has done something well that day. I think this is a GREAT idea and VERY beneficial, because I know some of notes I’ve received have involved students that, before this, I’d primarily only heard negative comments about. Here are a couple of the notes that I received last week (minus names of course):
“_____ is doing excellent work for me. He/She read To Kill a Mockingbird independently, finished weeks before anyone else, got an A on the test with no instruction or help from me, and is now tackling another pretty lengthy book. _____ is working very hard and has had an awesome attitude this 9 weeks.”
“_____ is a new student in the (building) who came knowing no English. _____ amazes me with his/her academic abilities. He/She is extremely bright in his/her native language and now I am seeing the progress everyday when transitioning to learning a new language. He/She took his/her plant and animal cell test on his/her own with no help and received a 91%. This was a difficult test and I was so proud of him/her. I don’t think I could make the strides that he/she is doing everyday if I had to learn Spanish! It is fun to see the progress that _____ is making every day.”
I haven’t sent out a Positive Note yet, but I do try to put in a good word for a student, or try to give the teacher/whoever a different point of view, if I hear someone having a conversation about him/her that’s primarily negative.
Stephanie~ I like your idea about having the student pass their earned stars out to other students as well. I think it means a lot to students when teachers give them positive encouragement, but I also think it can mean the world to them to know that their peers’ have taken notice of their behavior and are accepting of them.
dclodfelter~ I agree with your statement that we cannot act as a team without proper communication and support. In a recent staffing I was involved in, I had gathered teachers’ input about a student, but still really stressed that I’d like them each to attend the student’s staffing so we could all be in the same room at one time (typically VERY difficult to do) to discuss what our next steps should be. In the end, everyone showed up with a certain idea in mind, we all discussed and collaborated for about 30 minutes or so, took a break, came back, discussed for another 45-ish minutes, and came up with a completely different plan than the original. It was GREAT! Even though it wasn’t what we had initially expected, I think everything turned out better because everyone was there to express their opinions and share their input. I know that type of communication won’t be able to happen every time, but I’m thankful it did on that day, because I don’t think we would’ve come to the same conclusions without it.
The "positive note" concept is a neat idea!! What a great way to communicate with teachers about students and give them a little extra insight (positive) into students. That kind of thing would really help me when I'm trying to encourage some of my students in their general ed classes.
I love the idea of the positive note! I think many teachers get into the cycle of criticism; sending and receiving the positive notes gets them out of that and thinking about encouraging students!
'Support ongoing collaboration' - This is one action step that I have tried to implement as much as possible. In two of my districts, we have monthly 'team meetings' for our preschool kids, which is very helpful for everyone to brainstorm, educate, and transfer information. I would like if this was possible for all of my students. Because of scheduling, it is difficult to acheive.
I agree with you, I learn so much from other professionals during our team meetings- -definitely a priority for our team to meet at least once a month.
Jamie- I wish our staff could observe other teams doing "productive collaboration". I think sometimes we are flying blind as we are changing to common core and trying implement school wide improvement changes.
dclodfelter- Quality data is so important. I find though, that we don't have the best assessments or continual monitoring for accurate data. It is something that comes with practice and collaboration.
I think collaboration between different professionals is essential for growth as a team to support the demanding needs of being an educator. I believe all teachers and support staff have strengths they bring to the table. We also need to be able to be open to suggestions and working as a team. I have tried hard to really work with my team this year to give advise and support when I can even for non special education students. There is one teacher who we work really well together and have excellent collaboration. We don't waste time complaining, just trying to work together for the students. It seems to be a model I would like with other teachers.
Of the action steps listed in the book, I would say that I have tried to collaborate more with staff members. I have focused on one building in doing the collaboration, but I have tried with several staff members. I have been able to attend grade level planning sessions and teach a small group of students in the classroom. Doing this has helped my perception of how that classroom is run as well as how the teachers at that grade level work together. I have also tried to meet with teachers to let them know that I could be there as a resource when they are planning above level interventions.
I like the action steps for quality data and ongoing collaboration. With some of the focus lifted for a couple years on the state assessment, I wonder if we can look at more formative data to help others see what is and is not working. For that to work, we need to maintain a climate of ongoing collaboration between regular and special education staff, Title I, different grade levels, with a non threatening, non judgemental atmosphere where we can all reflect on practices and choose those that really seem to be effective.
I have been trying to have conversations with team members and others about the importance of knowing where our kiddos are coming from before we pass judgement on them. I also try to give the teachers background information that I have seen while going on home visits as to why the family/child responds as they do. I know some teachers wouldn't like this, but I think it would be important for every teacher to go visit each one of their students in their home before school started every year. I think many of them would be amazed what they could learn from that experience.
Supporting ongoing collaboration in one of the action steps. As an itinerant early childhood special education teacher, I provide services in a variety of preschools, play groups, and homes. It requires active collaboration among the adults to meet the needs of the children. Some ways of collaboration used are monthly meetings with the special education team, regular meetings with preschool teachers, emails and phone calls.
For me quality data and staff dialogue are both equally important. There are times when we communicate with each other that we forget to put in how we have helped the student. It is important to know what has helped the student and what hasn't and one way to gather that information is through data that we can then share with others.
Rachel - we do need to collaborate with other staff and support staff to ensure that the student is getting the help they need.
dclodfelter - you are right we don't have the time to sit down and do formal testing as often as we should. There are others way to gather how the kids are doing though and can give us a good picture.
I have tried to support ongoing collaboration between special educational and general educational staff. I recently attended trainings on differentiated instruction and checks for understanding, both general education initiatives and both connected to the idea that one size does not fit all and that equal is not always fair. These concepts are especially important when dealing with special education, ELL, and poverty issues. I have also shared Kansas Assessment data with both special and general educational staff in an effort to help them target instruction.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we need to do more than share information; we need to model what quality collaboration looks like. I know you do that and it helps a lot of students.
DeleteI think that modeling is something that we sometimes do forget about. However, it is sometimes hard to see where you can go in and help without overstepping boundaries.
DeleteCollaboration between sped and general ed is so important. I don't do enough of it, simply because it is so hard to schedule the time. Every year I strive to do better but I always seem to fall short.
ReplyDeleteAll good things take time and I agree, we never seem to have enough!
DeleteThat is the most challenging part of teaching is finding the time to collaborate. When ever possible go to the teachers PLC times and just sit and listen. Even if you don't have much to say just your presents will let them know that you are trying to be part of their team.
DeleteI agree collaboration is very important! I make a point at the beginning of the year to schedule team meetings with my regular ed teachers. We have been doing them for about 3-4 years now and they just know we will do team meetings and they expect that every year. It took a year or so to get them going smoothly, but what a great way to team and provide support for our kiddos.
DeleteWhen I look at the action steps in this chapter, I feel a little helpless. I would like to see more staff development and more investment in staff. Then reality sets in; I hear about lack of funds, the rising cost of education, and how programs are being cut in order to manage budgets and I feel sad. Some students get a reputation for being lazy, unkind to others, fighters, etc. I have found when there is something good to say about these students they will rise to the occasion and their teachers then tend to look for the good in them. In past years, we have done the ‘Wall of Fame’ where students earn stars on the wall beside the office by doing something good. At the end of the year, the students get their stars. On the star is the student’s name, the act of kindness they did, the date, and the teacher making the nomination. It never ceased to amaze me at the positive student reactions to getting their stars put on the wall. Even the ‘tough’ kids are pleased with earning stars.
ReplyDeleteI too, like the "wall of fame". I have seen this before, but had forgotten about it. I am thinking about doing a wall like this in my classroom.
DeleteJerrie, That is awesome! I had no idea the high school was doing that. Its like the story about giving three stars to a student and they in turn have to give each star to someone who they caught being good. One of those stars made it to a boy who had thought about committing suicide that very day. I've thought about carrying that through the middle school, but something always got in the way.
DeleteI like the "wall of fame" idea, too! One of my schools has a 'Caught Red Handed' board, which is very similar. I think having staff look for good behaviors and having the children strive to get on the board is beneficial for both the kids and the staff!
DeleteI really like the "wall of fame" idea at high school age too. We do something similar for elementary, but why not extend it to high school :)
DeleteI like your "Wall of Fame". We use another type of positive reward system in our school that all of the kids are familiar with. I understand about the feeling of helplessness. There is always so much that needs to be done and not enough time/money/buy-in to get it done.
ReplyDeleteI think one action step I would like to see happen at my school is to encourage staff dialogue. I think it would be great to have the staff take time to share positive anecdotes about their students and to offer ideas to those who are having trouble.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about staff dialogue. It's hard to get several teachers together except in the mornings. Our course level teachers don't have planning time together which is a shame. I'm lucky to catch one teacher a few minutes before class where another I may be able to visit a little bit longer.
Deletestaff dilogue is very important, but I know sometimes when you talk about children from poverty situations, staff members can become negative. It is our responsibility to keep the conversations positive.
DeleteI like the action step: encouraging staff dialogue. I am striving to do this as a SPED teacher comunicating with general ed staff members and administration. I also plan to share the information about the capacity of the brain to change whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteI think that with different schedules, having a meaningful conversation with staff members is difficult. I find it hard to catch teachers on their planning times. I usually have to grab them in the hallway during passing period.
DeleteInvesting in the staff members is something that our schools social committee is starting to do which I am a member of. We have started providing staff meals such as taco bar, potato bar, last of the month birthday treats. It has been working so far, the staff seem closer together and are willing to communicate more as a team. I think that for so many years they were just working, working, and working with not any recognition for their efforts from other teachers. Therefore, getting together and having these community meals in the school is a great time to communicate on another level.
ReplyDeleteI work in a few different districts and couldn't agree with you more - -the administrators who take the time to make you feel like part of a family definitely reap the rewards in their staff. It's so good to get to know each other on a personal level -so much understanding and collaboration can then take place without feeling threatened.
DeleteI agree that this would be beneficial for most districts. When administrators take time and effort to build and foster relationships with their staff, they will have stronger bonds and collaboration will be easier.
DeleteAction steps that are listed in the book are great. Without the time or administrative support, staff investment and collaboration probably won't happen. At one school I was in, one day a month was totally devoted to team meetings on each sped kid. It was great. Time was limited to 45 minutes. In another school, the kids were let out at school at Friday noon once a month for meetings of our own choosing. It worked as well. At the moment I've copied off information about executive functions and plan on sharing it with a small set of teachers. We will fill out the questions before we meet with the parents at a requested team meeting. They will get a copy of the diagram that Marcy shared with us. In a couple of weeks, we'll see how it has worked. Hopefully, some minds will be open and will gain a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how different systems in different schools can work effectively. I try to incorporate meeting times with the various preschool teachers that I work with. Because some of the preschools are community based, it looks a little different but is still effective. I hope your sharing works well for you.
DeleteThe action step that stood out to me is to Gather quality Data. Sometimes this can seem overwhelming as we consider time constraints. I feel that we cannot simply pull a kid out of class every 3 weeks and do formal testing. It has its place but it does not give a complete picture we need to know how this kid performs in and out of a classroom setting. There are so many factor that will affect the outcome, attention, distractions, time to complete tasks, etc. It is hard to find the time but we need to observe students in all school settings and talk with other professionals about your findings and encourage feedback and advice.
ReplyDelete~~ Stephanie-- That is so true about time. there is never enough. I would love to be involved in grade level team meetings it would help to have a more accurate pic of the goals for that particular period of time in the classroom. Unfortunately, we SPED teachers are expected to cover the classrooms for the teachers to attend their meetings.
~~ Rae Lynn-- I agree that staff communication is so important. We should be working as a team to make the best possible decisions for a student's education. You cannot act as a team without proper communication and support.
I don't feel like "quality data" has to be done through formal testing. I work in class with students and take data every day but have to be creative and specific in what I am measuring. I really like your thoughts on gathering input from many different teachers in different settings/time of day.
DeleteI feel like all I do is "gather quality data" but it so often speaks for itself and definitely drives the support I give students. I also collaborate with other staff members but also parents (through home visits) with the hope of breaking the cycle. I couldn't do my job as effectively as I do if I didn't have the support of a great ECSE teacher as well as PT/OT so I can pick their brains.
ReplyDeleteOne of the action steps I’ve seen utilized in one of my buildings is changing staff members’ mind-sets. Everyone in the building sends out a ‘Positive Note’ (i.e. mass email to all faculty/staff) whenever they notice that one of the students has done something well that day. I think this is a GREAT idea and VERY beneficial, because I know some of notes I’ve received have involved students that, before this, I’d primarily only heard negative comments about. Here are a couple of the notes that I received last week (minus names of course):
ReplyDelete“_____ is doing excellent work for me. He/She read To Kill a Mockingbird independently, finished weeks before anyone else, got an A on the test with no instruction or help from me, and is now tackling another pretty lengthy book. _____ is working very hard and has had an awesome attitude this 9 weeks.”
“_____ is a new student in the (building) who came knowing no English. _____ amazes me with his/her academic abilities. He/She is extremely bright in his/her native language and now I am seeing the progress everyday when transitioning to learning a new language. He/She took his/her plant and animal cell test on his/her own with no help and received a 91%. This was a difficult test and I was so proud of him/her. I don’t think I could make the strides that he/she is doing everyday if I had to learn Spanish! It is fun to see the progress that _____ is making every day.”
I haven’t sent out a Positive Note yet, but I do try to put in a good word for a student, or try to give the teacher/whoever a different point of view, if I hear someone having a conversation about him/her that’s primarily negative.
Stephanie~
I like your idea about having the student pass their earned stars out to other students as well. I think it means a lot to students when teachers give them positive encouragement, but I also think it can mean the world to them to know that their peers’ have taken notice of their behavior and are accepting of them.
dclodfelter~
I agree with your statement that we cannot act as a team without proper communication and support. In a recent staffing I was involved in, I had gathered teachers’ input about a student, but still really stressed that I’d like them each to attend the student’s staffing so we could all be in the same room at one time (typically VERY difficult to do) to discuss what our next steps should be. In the end, everyone showed up with a certain idea in mind, we all discussed and collaborated for about 30 minutes or so, took a break, came back, discussed for another 45-ish minutes, and came up with a completely different plan than the original. It was GREAT! Even though it wasn’t what we had initially expected, I think everything turned out better because everyone was there to express their opinions and share their input. I know that type of communication won’t be able to happen every time, but I’m thankful it did on that day, because I don’t think we would’ve come to the same conclusions without it.
The "positive note" concept is a neat idea!! What a great way to communicate with teachers about students and give them a little extra insight (positive) into students. That kind of thing would really help me when I'm trying to encourage some of my students in their general ed classes.
DeleteI love the idea of the positive note! I think many teachers get into the cycle of criticism; sending and receiving the positive notes gets them out of that and thinking about encouraging students!
DeleteLove the positive note idea. When I first skimmed it, I thought it was positive notes for staff. Hmm....
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete'Support ongoing collaboration' - This is one action step that I have tried to implement as much as possible. In two of my districts, we have monthly 'team meetings' for our preschool kids, which is very helpful for everyone to brainstorm, educate, and transfer information. I would like if this was possible for all of my students. Because of scheduling, it is difficult to acheive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I learn so much from other professionals during our team meetings- -definitely a priority for our team to meet at least once a month.
DeleteI agree with building collaboration time into the schedule. It needs to be a priority - "that which gets calendared gets done".
DeleteJamie- I wish our staff could observe other teams doing "productive collaboration". I think sometimes we are flying blind as we are changing to common core and trying implement school wide improvement changes.
ReplyDeletedclodfelter- Quality data is so important. I find though, that we don't have the best assessments or continual monitoring for accurate data. It is something that comes with practice and collaboration.
ReplyDeleteI think collaboration between different professionals is essential for growth as a team to support the demanding needs of being an educator. I believe all teachers and support staff have strengths they bring to the table. We also need to be able to be open to suggestions and working as a team. I have tried hard to really work with my team this year to give advise and support when I can even for non special education students. There is one teacher who we work really well together and have excellent collaboration. We don't waste time complaining, just trying to work together for the students. It seems to be a model I would like with other teachers.
ReplyDeleteOf the action steps listed in the book, I would say that I have tried to collaborate more with staff members. I have focused on one building in doing the collaboration, but I have tried with several staff members. I have been able to attend grade level planning sessions and teach a small group of students in the classroom. Doing this has helped my perception of how that classroom is run as well as how the teachers at that grade level work together. I have also tried to meet with teachers to let them know that I could be there as a resource when they are planning above level interventions.
ReplyDeleteI like the action steps for quality data and ongoing collaboration. With some of the focus lifted for a couple years on the state assessment, I wonder if we can look at more formative data to help others see what is and is not working. For that to work, we need to maintain a climate of ongoing collaboration between regular and special education staff, Title I, different grade levels, with a non threatening, non judgemental atmosphere where we can all reflect on practices and choose those that really seem to be effective.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to have conversations with team members and others about the importance of knowing where our kiddos are coming from before we pass judgement on them. I also try to give the teachers background information that I have seen while going on home visits as to why the family/child responds as they do. I know some teachers wouldn't like this, but I think it would be important for every teacher to go visit each one of their students in their home before school started every year. I think many of them would be amazed what they could learn from that experience.
ReplyDeleteSupporting ongoing collaboration in one of the action steps. As an itinerant early childhood special education teacher, I provide services in a variety of preschools, play groups, and homes. It requires active collaboration among the adults to meet the needs of the children. Some ways of collaboration used are monthly meetings with the special education team, regular meetings with preschool teachers, emails and phone calls.
ReplyDeleteFor me quality data and staff dialogue are both equally important. There are times when we communicate with each other that we forget to put in how we have helped the student. It is important to know what has helped the student and what hasn't and one way to gather that information is through data that we can then share with others.
ReplyDeleteRachel - we do need to collaborate with other staff and support staff to ensure that the student is getting the help they need.
dclodfelter - you are right we don't have the time to sit down and do formal testing as often as we should. There are others way to gather how the kids are doing though and can give us a good picture.