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Rosemary (Santos) Aguilar is Director of Curriculum and Staff Development.
I think that we are fortunate to be in a partnership with Ball right now, because they have helped us go through the budget crisis. Our district, as we know it, has been — I do not want to say destroyed — but pretty much decimated in the sense that it is going through some difficult changes.
At this point, we are in the process of rebuilding, and part of that rebuilding is creating a strong foundation on which to build. I think that this year Ball has been very instrumental in helping us build that new foundation by helping us see new ways of working, new ways of thinking, new ways of designing.
The new way we are working is more organic. We are more relaxed. We are more concerned now with the content and the quality of the conversations, and we have allowed ourselves the time to think, to share, to question; whereas in the past, that was not really the practice.
We do not know what next year is going to look like. We have some ideas, but they are changing every week. Part of what we have had to deal with is the uncertainty and being okay with the fact that we do not know. I personally have not been told what my role for next year will be. However, it is okay, because I know I am going to be part of the new Rowland. Therefore, whatever role I end up in, I feel that it is going to be a place in which I will be able to continue to grow and develop as a professional.
We all respond to change differently. The fear in change is not knowing or not having the information or the knowledge about the change. The fear is based on the unknown. I think that is the piece. That is the bloodline that Ball is giving us, because they are constantly talking to us about the change process, about how it is chaotic and it is uncertain. Therefore, instead of just experiencing all the confusion, the chaos, the uncertainty, and not having anyone, Ball staff is telling us, “It’s okay. This is what happens. You are going to feel this way. These reactions are normal.”
If it were not for the Ball staff, I do not know that I would be able to say what I’m saying. I don’t know that I would be as hopeful. You know how when somebody is not doing well and cannot take care of himself or herself that they actually need somebody else to help them through those hard times? That is how I see Ball for us.
The next two years are going to be important because they are going to create the foundation of the new Rowland. I see Ball playing a very important and critical role as our partners in this process. Our critical friends – that is what they are – critical friends.
I am very hopeful for our district, because we have to go through this. We don’t have a choice, but we’re in good hands with the Ball Foundation.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Rob Arias is the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources.
The work with Ball has made me more cognizant of the idea of having more people involved in discussions and decisions regarding what we do on a daily basis. I think I’ve been trying to encourage that more. Personally, I feel like I’ve always been pretty collaborative in the way I do my work, but I think I recognize now that it’s not just a matter of having a collaborative leadership approach. You might have that, but in order to make that real, you almost have to make a conscious effort to get more people involved. I’ve always known this, but I think it has become clearer that a lot of people don’t have access to information that could be helpful.
For instance, there have been times this year during some open public meetings where questions were being asked about delicate and difficult matters regarding layoffs. Some of the questions didn’t have to be answered, and I had a choice there, personally. I could have done the administrative two-step and shuffled my way through those questions without answering them. But I thought it would be better for me to be very upfront about the challenges that the district was facing – to try to be as clear and transparent as possible.
Now, was my choice to do that a result of the work that we did through the Ball Foundation and our strategic plan? You know, it’s hard to say exactly. But I think it did have some impact. I think you have to practice those behaviors of being clear and transparent, and I think I’ve been practicing them because of the work I did with strategy eight. And I think as you begin to practice that, it becomes part of a fabric of what you do.
So, the impact of me being open, transparent, and just laying it out there for folks was very positive. I don’t think anybody was crazy about my answer or said, “Way to go!”, but I think it settled that particular audience. They could accept the reality that we had to deal with because they understood it. I also think the fact that I didn’t have to answer any more questions about the subject once I spoke about it in a very open way was evidence that the approach was the appropriate one.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Sue Brewer is the former Assistant Superintendent of the Elementary Division; currently she is a consultant with the Ball Foundation.
For me, our second trip to Chicago was pivotal. I felt that there was an energy and a real commitment to change by a broad group of people that was so exciting. At the first Chicago meeting, we were all in square one taking baby steps. We were defining our roles and talking about how we would work together. In fact, I think we left that first summer with more questions like, “How is this going to work?” Whereas, after the second Chicago meeting that happened the following summer, we actually had a commitment to change and an action plan. We had a group of twenty-five people who collectively said they want to be part of this change and will help to lead this change.
We took the same people who went to the first Chicago meeting to the second meeting, and we also added some new folks. As we were planning the second Chicago trip, I was worried about how we would bring this new group of people together. The original group had really bonded. We had done some excellent thinking together, and now we were bringing in another fifteen people. It turned out to be so successful; it was just thrilling to watch.
One of the funniest things happened the first night we were there. I thought we should do some kind of team building, so I asked Sue Cook who drove her motor home to Chicago if we could have a cocktail party in her RV that first night. There turned out to be a huge storm with a tornado warning that night (Sue didn’t mention the tornado warning in this interview, but I remember her talking about it in another meeting). It was pouring rain, 95 degrees with 100 percent humidity; people were running out to the motor home. You have to picture this really big RV with twenty people crammed into it and lightning and thunder all around. We couldn’t move. But you know what? It began the process of getting to know each other. We laughed so hard. It was like the beginning of this group coming together.
The next morning we went to the meeting with lots of excitement. The Ball team had done an excellent job of designing activities in which we discussed where we had been and where we are right now, along with a lot of reflection about where we wanted to go from here and how we might want to work differently. I happened to be in the group with our new teachers, and just to see their eyes and watch them start to participate – they said to me, “This is so powerful. Do you think this is something we could do?” and it was like the door opened. I said, “Absolutely. Let’s talk about it.”
That spirit of “let’s be part of this change” was so strong in the whole group. You could feel the electricity. You could feel people saying, “I want to be part of this. I want to do things differently. I want to take this back to my school and share this.” It was at this point that we decided we wanted to work differently with each other and we wanted to work differently as a district. It was one of those soul experiences where you say, “This is what it should look like.”
It was almost like a catharsis in that we were leaving behind some old ways of doing things and we were opening new doors that would lead us into a much more collaborative and more creative way of working together – you could feel it. Everyone in the room could feel the electricity, could feel the commitment. That’s when I really knew that this was going to significantly impact every aspect of our work and that we would feel this impact in every classroom. After that second Chicago summer, we knew we were going to make a difference.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Angie Cardenas was an administrative assistant to the Superintendent; she is now retired.
At first, I wasn’t quite sure how the Ball Foundation was going to work with our district. I assumed it was strictly a teacher enhancement project. However, Ball recently held a mini-conference for classified staff – school office managers, instructional aides, anyone in the classified field that wanted to go and get a little more insight. When we started hearing about the different strategies Ball is using not only for the teachers, but for the entire district, I think that’s when I had an “aha” moment.
I realized that this work with Ball gives you a revitalization of why you’re actually here. It’s not just about our jobs, our paycheck, or our benefits, but to truly make a significant change with the way we work with kids. I’ve been around other staff development trainers, and I know they use a lot of strategies to make learning fun for kids, etc., etc. But in this instance with Ball, I felt like it was changing my own mindset. People come to work. They do their job. Some do an exemplary job, and some do a so-so job, but it’s always that drudgery kind of a thing. But this conference with Ball was transformational in that I realized this is not just a day-to-day coming to work. Instead, it’s like you’re truly touching people, and not only students. Like myself – I’m not in the classroom and I don’t have one-on-one interaction with students. But now the things that I consider nondescript and do every day take on a little more meaning. What I’m doing really means something as it trickles down to the students. I feel that my work has more relevance and more meaning.
Since Ball has been here, Dr. Ott has challenged me to do things more on my own, and I’m happy to do it because I enjoy the challenge. I think this is what Ball is doing with our staff. They’re challenging them to step up to the plate even more, and low and behold, the staff is enjoying the challenge again.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Katie Elder was a Staff Development Specialist when she told this story. She is currently on medical leave.
The opportunities that the Ball Foundation has given us to collaborate with each other have made a difference for me. When I chose to become a high school teacher many years ago, one thing that was interesting to me was the solitary nature of the work. I could go into the classroom, close my door, and do my thing, all by myself. It was like that for years and years of my teaching. One of the things I’ve learned through the work with Ball is that not only do I now see the need for collaboration, I also recognize that two heads are better than one. Because more people are involved, there’s more opportunity for creative thinking and moving projects forward. This work has also changed me as a person. I now want that kind of collaborative working relationship with people. I look for opportunities to bring other people into the conversation, to encourage bigger thinking and more ideas and more avenues to move forward.
As a staff development specialist, I’m responsible for the implementation of some of the district staff development initiatives. For instance, my partner and I conduct workshops on dynamic lessons and classroom management for brand new teachers in the fall of their first teaching year. We also do teaching training in the spring for all the second year teachers. The work with Ball has changed the way that I work with these teachers. My thinking has opened up about how our programs might look and how we could do things differently.
To give you an example of this change – my partner and I implemented a very different model this year by making the whole new teacher program more collaborative. We asked the teachers what they wanted to work on, and we actually created the curriculum based on their needs. The teachers could choose from topics like discipline, assessment, or differentiation. The workshops were well-attended even though they weren’t mandatory.
Before, the program was dreaded which was partly the state’s fault. It was very form-heavy. The teachers felt like they were jumping through hoops, checking off boxes that really didn’t have the intended effect of improving their instruction. Now they feel empowered to use different models of professional development, like maybe go watch another teacher teach. Or find someone who’s good at something that they don’t feel as good at and collaborate with that person.
The teachers love this model. We’ve gotten great response. The idea that they have choice and that they actually have a say in developing the choices has made everything better. Everything feels more open. I’m sure that it’s not a coincidence that we’re working with Ball and having these collaborative kinds of conversations.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
