Sunday, March 8, 2015
No Collaboration for Elective/Exploratlory Teachers
My current problem is that there is not any collaboration among exploratory/elective teachers. We are all alone in creating from scratch content, lessons, and implementing technology into those lessons. We have no one to share ideas with in creating these engaging lessons. Academic teachers know their content and share and create lessons together.
My first year teaching, I taught Personal Finance. I was told research whatever I thought I needed to teach the students. I spent every weekend for 5 months planning and researching content for the class. After school I drove to the high school to connect with the high school teacher for ideas, but not extremely help because they had the funding for virtual lessons. I also realized after all that work I put in to the class, I had to change it. I had students repeating this exploratory class and I needed to change my content for each grade level. I had to research new lessons for the other grade levels and ideas, no one explained that I needed to have different lessons for each grade level. I was exhausted. I spent my second year doing the same thing as the first year. I felt like I only lived for doing lesson plans. Then a professional development course was being offered on teaching Personal Finance in middle schools. I begged for them to let me go so I could find out different ways to teach the content.
I only get 45 minutes to plan, make copies if needed, go the bathroom, grade papers/projects, etc. The next planning is 20 minutes. We never have a enough time for our professional development trainings with our school iPad technology sessions Thanks to taking my masters in technology I was able to start integrating technology. I have attached two links that are blogs, one from a principal admitting to what goes on at his school with elective teachers and the other is an elective teacher in a middle school in Dallas. These scenarios happen often.
I would just love the opportunity to collaborate with someone else besides my self about the content I am teaching.
http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/4773
http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2008/07/i-want-to-collaborate-too.html/
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Hello Yvonne,
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! I am what my school considers to be a "Singleton", meaning that I am the only teacher who teaches the courses that I teach. It can be difficult at time to have someone who does not understands my course content and objectives give me feedback, or to collaborate with. To make matters worse, collaborative time is always difficult to find. My school district has set forth so many different initiatives over that past few years that most teachers’ heads are spinning out of control. While some are wonderful and others are mandatory (re-accreditation), there is never enough time allotted to any given task. I feel that I need to be an expert in too many different areas with only a 24 hour day when a 72 hour day is what I need to do my best work.
By the way, I teach Personal Finance online for VHS, so if you ever want to collaborate through Google Hangouts or Skype, just let me know!
That is great to know. I appreciate your help and understanding. Unfortunately, they do not offer Personal Finance anymore. They needed someone to teach the math enrichment and did not hire another exploratory teacher. The same old feeling that we don't matter.
ReplyDeleteYvonne, I am sorry about that. Always remember that WE DO MATTER! I added one of your articles to my Diigo because I feel that elective course are very important and that they help students discover their interests which may help them choose a career pathway and college major. A well-seasoned and very dear teacher once scolded me when she heard me make a comment about just being something; basically putting myself down without even realizing it. She said, "You are never just something! You are a wonderful teacher and don't you ever forget that!" So my friend, I pass that on to you for the next time you feel like "We don't matter" because we do!
ReplyDeleteYou absolutely DO matter! We need enrichment more than ever. I'd like to know more about grade levels and what you are doing. Truly, I do not think that this high stakes environment has not done a thing for collaboration between elective teachers or "specials" teachers and classroom teachers. We are all under pressure, and planning time is disappearing rapidly. I have questions. Do you have a math curriculum coordinator or math coach? You need someone with whom to dig up resources and plan. I think it would be helpful, too, to have resources outside of the school. And I think you should attend a math conference to network with others. Those conferences are a real pick-me-up.
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