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Brian Huff is an ELD teacher and a Title I Program Specialist at Alvarado Intermediate School.
My first interaction with the Ball Foundation happened at the beginning of this school year (2008-2009). It seems like there’s always something new in education – new programs and new curriculum. So when we first heard about the Ball Foundation, I was skeptical and wondered if this was just one more thing. However, when Carla and Barbara [from the foundation] met with us one morning to share their work, they used words like “networks” and “dialogue” and “making space” for teacher collaboration to happen. I realized it wasn’t just another program and breathed a sigh of relief. I thought, “This is really what we should be about. Giving teachers the space and time to collaborate is what will make a difference in student learning.” It was exciting.
As the year went on, we began to meet with Ball. I always left invigorated and challenged, but in the back of my mind, I had the thought, “Where is the product? Where and when is this going to happen?”
Then, a couple of months ago, I attended a meeting with a cross-section of district members—teachers, classified staff, leadership. It was clear through the conversations and decisions being made that we were all on the same page—valuing collaboration, believing that expertise is within all of us as teachers and leaders and support staff. You could tell from every area of the district that the value of collaboration had become real.
Now I’m starting to see deeper collaboration and dialogue evolve and take root at the site level. Ball has done an excellent job of modeling ways to make this kind of interaction happen, and our Community of Practice has already been an important place for in-house wisdom to be shared. It is dynamic and models the kind of workplace I want to be part of, where everyone’s valued and there’s a free flow of creativity.
It’s taken us a while to get to this point—we don’t learn just by hearing about something. Instead, Ball has taken us through a process of experiencing this space to collaborate. Once we experience it, the idea catches on. I understand the longevity of the process now. It takes time because everyone must experience it in order to become a reality.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
