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Brandon Adame is a third grade teacher at Blandford Elementary School. When this story was told, he was a second grade teacher at Blandford.
My first encounter with Ball was when I worked on one of the strategic planning teams for the district. My principal proposed that I be a part of the process, so I said, “Okay. I’ll see what this is all about.” Quite honestly, I didn’t know anything about Ball and I had no idea what I was getting into. Basically, what we did was meet and talk about where the district is currently, and where we want it to be based on our vision.
At first I was really skeptical and felt intimidated. Our strategic planning group was made up of teachers, principals, and parents from throughout the entire district, and I was a first-year teacher – straight from college. But in the end, I think it was good that I had just come out of college. During the process, I remember thinking, “Okay, what do I want?” So I read my old essays that I wrote in college about what I was going to do as a teacher and how the kids were going to do this and be so great. When I read that, I thought, “Wow, that’s so not what it is.” But I knew we could get there – and that’s what I think I brought to the process.
Ball gave us the opportunity to have an open forum to talk as if there were no limits on what we could do. They said to us, “Forget about the limits. We’ll worry about that later. Let’s talk about what you want.” So every day we started by saying, “Don’t have limits. Don’t say we can’t do this.” Instead, we talked about where we wanted our students to be, and about what we could do if there were no testing or monetary limitations. For me, it was really refreshing to sit down and get back to basics, and to see what everyone wanted for the students. We all wanted the same thing, but we all felt that testing prohibited that. The process also changed my thinking to, “Let’s think beyond testing, and maybe eventually we’ll get rid of the things that are holding us back.”
One thing we started talking about was technology. A lot of students have access to computer labs, but not their own computers. So we said, “Imagine a day where kids have their own laptops and can access the internet at any time.”
I think the greatest thing that we talked about was changing the whole report card system. Instead of having letter grades, have an individualized action plan for each student based on their strengths and needs, and actually have students demonstrate their knowledge through different means – not just test taking. For example, if students like to work with their hands, say to them, “Build this for me.”
Talking about the whole structure of education, and especially the report cards really made me think, “Wow, I’ve been stuck with the same model and haven’t thought of other ones. But thinking about these new models – wouldn’t that be a great thing to see happen with the kids?”
The hardest part of the process was the word-smithing that we did. We would develop a couple of objectives for our action plan, and then someone would say, “I don’t feel comfortable with that word, let’s change it.” Or we’d say, “We agree that we all believe this should happen for kids,” and then someone would say, “You know what? I don’t quite believe that.” So, we’d go back to the drawing board day after day, and we’d e-mail each other, “Is this okay? Do you think this would work?” We’d think we were done with our action plan, and then the next day someone would say, “Well, I don’t quite feel comfortable.”
So that was the hard part. We kept going back and changing it. Every single time we did that, my ideas changed. In fact, everyone’s ideas changed and we’d be back at square one. At first, it was pretty annoying. I was like, “Come on, guys, just settle for it.” But I think that was the best part because people had so much buy-in – they didn’t want to just settle for it. They wanted something that everyone was proud of, and that everyone felt comfortable with. I think that’s what we ended up with, too. So that was a very good thing.
I’ve been able to implement some of the things that came out of the strategic planning process, like the APA principles that we talked about. Honestly, I may have heard about the principles in college, but here we actually looked at them and dissected each one. I have them on the wall in my classroom now, and I look at them when I do my lesson plans, trying to accommodate the students’ needs. I also have little notebooks in which I make notes about the kids and what their strengths are. For example, in a science lesson I’ll let the students use different ways to show me what they learned. That’s really helped me out a lot.
I’ve noticed that the enthusiasm of my students is changing because now I’m targeting their strengths and letting them show me that they know something. A lot of my kids can’t pass a paper and pencil reading comprehension test, so instead I’ll ask them verbally to explain what’s going on in what they read – which is something they can do.
My relationship with other teachers has changed as well. During meetings, I now express different points of view, and I open my mind to new things. I also participate more, and I think I add a little more to conversations because of what I’ve learned and what I’ve learned from others.
Being part of this process was a great experience for me. I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t the easiest thing. It was a lot of work, but at the end, I think we all looked at each other like, “Wow, we all gained a lot from this.” So, it was definitely worth it.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
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.
Sylvia Cadena was a primary literacy coach at Villacorta Elementary School. She is currently a learning director at Villacorta.
My most memorable experience is an awareness of a personal transformation that happened to me just this past Wednesday at a meeting that Ball Foundation staff facilitated. I was in a big group working on the district strategic plan, and there were a lot of what I consider to be very important people in the room: the superintendent, our school leaders, our principals. Because the district is going through a huge restructuring, we were talking about ourselves as a system and the great changes that will have to be made due to budget cuts. We talked about what these changes might look and feel like and the consequences that would befall our students.
We were given a question to discuss with our small groups and then we had to share out. Now, when I’m surrounded by a lot of people, I can be shy by nature. I usually sit back and listen to what other people have to say before I make comments or share my ideas and thoughts. But I did something I have never done before. When the question, “Who has something to say?” was asked, no one raised their hand. No one raised their hand. And then I did.
I got up, and I talked about how if there’s danger within a system, in order to survive, systems have to be able to change, adapt, and modify themselves so that they can renew themselves. I equated it to my experience as a third grade teacher when I was teaching ecosystems. I felt that it was important to express that we’re in the emerging phase, and we have to change and adapt so that we can renew ourselves. It was the first time I had ever done that, and I did it for two possible reasons: I had made a personal connection with the ideas and the process, and I had been doing reading that my Ball mentors recommended. So I wasn’t just thinking out of the box anymore—I was acting out of the box. Consequently, a couple of principals came up to me and thanked me for having said that.
I find myself in a place of great passion and that I am realizing my voice. In my experience with Ball from my first Immersion Day to this last meeting a few days ago, I find myself realizing that, for the first time ever, every person in this district is going to be given an opportunity to voice what they feel in their heart. And a heart voice is as valued as a logical voice. That’s why I’m so excited and not afraid of the changes we’re going to be facing. I think it’s even more exciting because the voices we are going to hear will be a combination of heart and mind, and what a better connection that will be for the children.
I’ve always felt this passion as a teacher, but the more I go through this process with Ball, the more I’m not afraid to have it and to share it. This passion is more courageous. I’m able to walk away and be okay with anything I say because my passion is very focused and also open-minded. I will allow my passion to be guided along a different path if I believe that path is better than the one I may be following. I’m open to allowing my passion to emerge, to adapt, and to change along with the entire district.
Change is difficult, but the experiences that we have had have caused a lot of people to step up and be interested. More of us are volunteering to learn and grow. I believe it’s the example of Ball because they are unwavering and consistent in their practices. They model it, live it, and breathe it, and every time we participate in something that Ball has to offer, we know to expect integrity. When you live it, it’s not fake. It’s sincere and it’s consistent. I think that consistency shows people that it’s a valuable experience for us. Ball has taught me the importance of all of us needing to be at the top of our game. We need to build our capacity so that we can be better for the students. We can’t build a child’s capacity unless we build ours.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
