Professional Practice Organizing Grants

Transcription

1 Professional Practice Organizing Grants OEA s Center for Great Public Schools awards Professional Practice Organizing grants to help local associations engage members around important issues that impact teaching and learning. The grant may be used to support professional learning and/or to enhance and improve professional practice in a specific area. Supporting members as they address issues of professional practice enables them to collaboratively create solutions designed to shape the future of education, improve student learning, achieve educational equity, and enhance their profession overall. Grants recipients are selected each fall to receive up to $5000. During the school year, five locals from across the state were awarded Professional Practice Organizing Grants. Rebecca Chitkowski, Gladstone Teachers Association, Gladstone SD Development of Mentoring and Coaching for Professional Development Gladstone School District has had a significant loss of veteran staff over the past five years, resulting in 60% of staff district-wide teaching under probationary status during the school year. The school community has always had a veteran faculty capable of mentoring and providing support for the new staff; however, in recent years with a significant turnover and a decrease in teacher retention, Rebecca Chitkowski, a Gladstone educator and president of the GTA, noticed the lack of a mentorship and induction program capable of supporting the needs of new staff. Rebecca used a Professional Practice Organizing Grant to send three members of the teaching staff to the New Teacher Center Symposium. Training from attendance at the conference allowed for a growth of teacher leadership staff and provided research based information and implementation practices that enriched Gladstone s mentoring and coaching opportunities for teachers. Symposium attendance enabled the teachers to work with district administration to enhance the current mentorship program and to increase meaningful professional development for use in subsequent years. Four attributes of a mentoring program were emphasized at the symposium and will be infused into Gladstone s model in the future. 1. A higher level of support including time, curriculum, and classroom management 2. Peer reinforcement and collaborative peer observation 3. Scaffolded mentorship based on teacher growth in skill and confidence over the first three years 4. A highly skilled and trained mentor Because of the GTA s work on this project, four goals have been set for the future: 1. Time for teacher/mentor interaction 2. Ongoing, personalized professional development for new teachers 3. Ongoing support for mentors 4. Multi-year new teacher induction and mentoring 1 OEA Center for Great Public Schools August 28, 2017

2 Anne Goff, Springfield Education Association, Springfield SD New Educator Engagement The Springfield Education Association, led by Anne Goff, understood that newer teachers were hungry for support. The SEA wanted to consciously reach out to these newer teachers so they used a Professional Practice Organizing Grant to fund a weekend of professional learning and follow-up sessions for them. The SEA s goals were to develop collaborative relationships between newer teachers in the district, to develop collaborative relationships between newer teachers and SEA leaders, to provide support in refining classroom practices, and to set the stage for future interactions. The professional learning sessions were facilitated by SEA leaders who are also instructional leaders in the district. The sessions covered student engagement, social justice/teaching for equity, behavior management, assessment practices and strategies, and prioritizing in and out of the classroom. During the learning sessions, 17 newer teachers shared ideas and resources, asked questions, shared challenges, and offered solutions to each other. In addition, fun activities were integrated into the weekend to foster relationship building. Comments from a few participants: A wonderful weekend to connect with other teachers throughout the district. A way to build community, to get to know other teachers, and to find out what we all have in common. A wonderful way to increase my excitement about what I do and the amazing teachers that I work with! My take-aways: getting to bond and build community with other teachers and to spend more time with teachers that are in the same boat as I am. I got a lot amazing resources to help build and increase culture and community in my classroom. As a new educator, I have found that I often feel like I m floundering or not doing enough to reach my students. I really appreciate everything that you have done for us this weekend. The newer teachers now have a wider group beyond just colleagues in their buildings with whom they can collaborate. Building a cohort of newer teachers provides others to answer questions and brainstorm solutions. Feeling more connected to peers, to SEA leadership, to our work as educators lessens isolation, increases collaboration, and keeps teachers in the profession. 2 OEA Center for Great Public Schools August 28, 2017

3 Kathleen Jeskey, Stefanie Agar, & Joyce Brown, Canby Education Association, Canby SD Organizing for ESSA Canby educators Kathleen Jeskey, Stefanie Agar, and Joyce Brown used a Professional Practice Organizing Grant to provide opportunities to involve and engage Canby Education Association members, classified staff, administrative staff, students, families, and the Canby community in the process of ESSA planning and implementation in the Canby School District. Their goal was to build unity and solidarity between all stakeholder groups as they jointly focused on the key areas of ESSA. The Oregon Department of Education asked three questions regarding school quality and school/student success in community forums on ESSA, and the Canby ESSA team used these same questions to gather parent/teacher input around ESSA: 1. What school characteristics are most important? 2. How should we measure the quality or success of a school? 3. How do we assure that all students are successful? In addition, the team decided to conduct an assessment inventory to determine the current number of assessments given to Canby students and how much instruction time was being used in administering those assessments. Staff were surveyed electronically and a bilingual community meeting was held. A bilingual survey was given to parents at fall conferences, and a second community meeting was held to share results. The team presented the survey results to the Canby School Board, who then requested the results be shared with all school principals. Gathering this input from the stakeholder groups helped the ESSA team find common priorities and concerns between families and teachers. It strengthened community support for the Canby Education Association and enlightened the school board of concerns the entire school community shares. 3 OEA Center for Great Public Schools August 28, 2017

4 Lynn Hill, Glide Education Association, Glide SD Teacher Mentoring In response to the high number of Glide teachers who are in their first three years with the district, as well as a concern regarding an increasing number of non-renewals of probationary teachers, the Glide Education Association, led by Lynn Hill, created a three-person mentor committee. The committee used a Professional Practice Organizing Grant to collaborate with district administration to develop and grow a teacher mentoring program that meets Glide s specific needs. The GEA held monthly mentor program lunches where mentors and mentees could network and collaborate with each other. They also sponsored two days of professional learning on topics such as Generational Communication, Licensure, Dealing with Difficult People, ESSA Organizing, and Motivating Challenging Students. Comments from a few participants: Generational Communication was great information when dealing with not only staff, but students and parents, too. I also appreciated more information on reaching students who need additional motivation. I will work to keep the ideas shared in my daily practice. New licensure procedures were very informative, and I think the rest of our staff will find value in all the nuances on the new licenses as they begin renewing their own licenses. It was also nice to be reminded of positive ways to interact with students in the dealing with difficult students training. It s nice to be reminded of why we do the behavior management upfront and great ways to interact with students. The component of How to Motivate Challenging Students that sticks with me is the choice component. I feel like that is an area that I could do more of. I have a few menu type projects, and the video helped them by adding in a quiz before the next step. I will think a lot about it over the summer. Next year, the GEA plans to continue their mentoring program and will work with neighboring districts to create opportunities to help their newest colleagues. The committee plans to attend Oregon Department of Education mentor trainings during the school year, which will give them an opportunity to network with mentors from across the state. 4 OEA Center for Great Public Schools August 28, 2017

5 Mindy Merritt, Salem-Keizer Education Association, Salem-Keizer SD New Teacher Cadre Mindy Merritt, President of the Salem-Keizer Education Association, recognized the importance of connecting with early career educators and providing opportunities to build a foundational understanding of unionism. Using valuable connections, Mindy and SKEA intended to also address the issue and concerns around early career retention. Using a grant from the NEA, SKEA established a program for Early Career Leadership Fellows. A Professional Practice Organizing grant from OEA allowed SKEA to convene the Fellows and other Early Career Leadership Cadre members monthly. Throughout the year, meetings consisted of relationship building, time to dive deeper into individual questions, sharing of strategies, and reviewing findings from a survey of early career educators. Invitations to First Friday monthly socials hosted by SKEA were provided to each early career educator, and they in turn were encouraged to extend invitations to other early career members. SKEA found more early career members were attending the socials, which provided opportunities for them to extend their professional experiences and networks. In addition to the monthly meetings and First Friday socials, the Professional Practice Organizing grant will be used to bring Shelley Taylor, a national presenter on trauma informed classrooms and strategies, to the Salem-Keizer School District Conference for Trauma Informed Classrooms in August. SKEA will also use the grant funds to bring Dr. Audrey Murphy-Brown to conduct a follow-up session on trauma informed classrooms in October. Following the Trauma Informed Conference in August, SKEA will use Professional Practice Organizing grant funds to convene all early career educator members for a luncheon. In addition to the networking opportunity to be found here, SKEA will raffle off much-needed teaching supplies and professional materials at the luncheon. Mindy Merritt said, This Professional Practices grant has provided opportunities to provide our members with the professional development that they are asking for. Our members are beginning to see that advocacy for our profession is an integral part of this Association. 5 OEA Center for Great Public Schools August 28, 2017