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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.
Suzanne Isago is an account clerk at Giano Intermediate School.
Last year I felt honored and privileged to be part of the strategic planning committee. I worked on Strategy V, which was to ensure superior classified and certificated staff who know what they’re doing and are well educated for their positions. Also, to make sure that they all have colleagues they can talk to and approach for help if they need it. We discussed many different areas like not only having the knowledge and experience, but also the desire to learn more about areas that aren’t necessarily their own. For example, because classified employees have to sometimes cover for other positions, it’s important for us to know each other’s jobs. That kind of working relationship shows a lot of teamwork inside the schools. What’s so great about it is you’ll be able to call on anybody in the district to find an answer to your question. It’s almost like, “Let me drop everything and help you.” I love that about our district – they want to make sure that they answer your question and help you do everything right.
When I first heard about the opportunity to work on Strategy V, I thought, “Oh yes, I want to be a part of this. This is a great opportunity for me to learn more from people who are so well educated, like the administrators and teachers.” When you’re around those kinds of people, you gain more knowledge. Your thinking changes in a positive manner. I also feel like it’s so easy to approach them now. Before, I thought, “How do I approach them? How do I approach an administrator?” I always thought so highly of them, and now being able to talk to them on a personal level has changed my working relationship with them. This process made it so that we were all on the same level, and we could speak what we believe.
As a result of working on Strategy V, I think I’m more open-minded. When I need to find an answer to an issue or a question, I’ll think, “Let me go out of the box and try to solve the problem or get an answer.” Before I would say, “I’ll just go ask somebody else.” It was so easy to pass the buck, but now when someone needs help and I don’t have the answer, I’ll say, “I think I know somebody who might be able to help you.” Or when somebody is new at our school, I want to make sure they are introduced to our administrators or to whomever I think they’re going to work with. That way, they can have the support that they might need throughout the day. So there’s somebody they can go to just to say, “Hey, what’s your thinking on this?” or “What should I do about this?” Overall, I think I’m trying to be more helpful.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Debi Klotz is principal at Rincon Intermediate School.
This school year (2008-09), Rincon had the opportunity to create its own strategic plan based on the district’s new strategic plan. We also designed ways to implement the plan at Rincon. Part of the purpose of this process was to lay the groundwork and foundation for other schools to follow. It was the resources and support from the Ball Partnership that enabled us to engage in this process. Our work with Ball also made it possible for us to think outside the box and start coming up with some new ideas.
We started by putting together a core committee made up of myself, parents, teachers, students, and classified staff. The people who made up this team were selected from different programs, and included parents who were already involved at the school. This core team developed a mission statement, objectives, and four tactics that will guide the future direction of the school.
After we developed these things, other teachers, classified staff, parents, and students got to volunteer to be on a tactic team. They investigated and developed ideas of what each tactic might look like for us at Rincon. So far, we’ve come up with plans to start implementing some of the tactics for next school year. We realize that it’s a flexible model, so it will be changing as we go. But we’ve come up with some really creative and innovative ways to help kids learn and enhance their literacy.
Our first tactic has to do with building the school community. We’re going to be exploring the way our school is physically structured. One of the things that is really difficult to do is find the main office because it’s right in the middle of the school and all the buildings look exactly the same. No one can tell you where the front of the school is because everyone comes in through the back. One of the ideas was to jazz up the front of the school a little more so people would know that’s the front. Then maybe we could paint some roadrunner footprints (the roadrunner is our school mascot) that lead people to the office – a “follow me to the office” kind of thing. Like when you go to a hospital and they tell you to follow the blue line or the yellow line.
Our second tactic deals with “school to high school” and “school to college/career.” We have the Career Pathways program at the high schools, and there’s a seventh and eighth grade component that gets the students to begin identifying career paths. We want the students to do a career interest inventory so they can get more in tune with their career paths and start talking about them more. We want them to see the connection from intermediate school to high school to college, keeping their college/career interests in mind.
The third tactic is about public relations for the school. That group talked a lot about changing the logo of our school. We won’t be doing that next year, but we will be enhancing our technology and communications. Our website is not very good, so I’m having some previous Rincon students who are currently in high school do some technology work over the summer. One of them has become quite a webmaster, so he’s going to design a new webpage for us next year. We’re also going to start doing more things for parents online. So for those parents who need computer access, we’ve put some computers in the parent center.
The last tactic is about curriculum, and one of the big curriculum changes we’re going to start next year is more heterogeneous grouping for the students. We want to start mixing the kids and putting them into more established teams. The teachers attended training on differentiation and heterogeneous groupings because some of them aren’t used to mixed groups.
As part of this fourth tactic, we also want to do more inquiry and project-based education. For example, say in a history class students are studying Lewis and Clark. Instead of the teacher just talking about the expedition, the students would be engaged in different projects about Lewis and Clark at varying depths depending on their abilities. Right now we have the RAIS program – Rincon Academy of International Studies. It’s part of our GATE program. The students do a personal project of their choice at the end. We had one student do a “fashion of the decades” project. She took aspects from the 20s through the 80s and incorporated them into her own kind of look. Usually only the GATE students have the opportunity to experience these kinds of projects. We want all the students to have this opportunity because it’s good for all kids. With these changes, we won’t have just regular classrooms, we’ll have engaged classrooms.
The feedback I’ve gotten from the people involved in this process has been very high. When each of the tactic teams presented their ideas, the parents on the core team all came back to hear the ideas and say “yay” or “nay” or question them. That part was very powerful. It was nice to see that their work was taken seriously.
The process for me was great. So many people, so many ideas. I loved it. For me, it was like “fair shared management.” I’m the manager and I realize that I’m ultimately responsible, but when everybody sees that their ideas are extremely valuable and are actually implemented, it helps create a culture-sharing school. It’s a win-win situation, and there’s a lot more buy-in for the plan.
I’ve also changed how I work with my staff. For example, we have late starts on Tuesday mornings and usually something is planned for the staff on those days. I took all those things off the table and said we were going to work on strategic planning. The district had given us a deadline, and we were going to meet it. A lot of people said, “No, we can’t deal with that. We can’t do it,” but they did. The staff would go out and do research and then report their findings. I don’t remember the staff ever doing that before. They would do that for their own classrooms, of course, but not for school wide initiatives or programs. So that was a big change. Plus, I wasn’t in a group even though I visited each group every week. The downside was I wasn’t involved in a group, the upside side was I wasn’t involved in a group. So it’s not a plan I came up with – which is huge. But to me, it’s a very positive thing. I’m really proud about the work we’re starting to do right now here at Rincon. And I believe that, as a result, the way we meet in the future will change as well.
It’s been nice to have the Ball Partnership as critical thinking friends. Someone that you can think out loud with and really let your mind go. So many times with the day-to-day business, we get so tied up with what’s happening at that moment, we don’t have time to sit back and reflect. I think that’s one of the things I’ve probably done more of recently than at any other time – to think and reflect on my work, and actually discover things that I would do differently. Normally, I would not have taken the time to think about things, and just kept repeating those things that may or may not have been as useful to do. So for me, going through this work with Ball, I keep getting reminded to stop and think and reflect on what I’m doing and who it effects and if it’s positive, and if it’s getting the results that I want.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Laureen Kuwaye was a seventh grade teacher at Giano Intermediate School when she told this story. She is currently a science and math teacher at Giano.
For me, my really big epiphany came during the Network Days when I saw how much importance my colleagues put on literacy. This importance may not be reflected on a daily basis, but we all are on the same page with getting kids to be readers.
I didn’t go into the Network Days with any expectations. Instead, I went in with what little I know as a classroom teacher. I know what I know, and I’m open to those things that I don’t know. I was open to hearing other people’s perspectives, because a lot of times, you go into these meetings thinking, “This is the one cure-all.” And it’s never the one cure-all. But then when you hear the different perspectives from others, it hits you. You say, “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” or “I wasn’t thinking that way.” The norm in our groups at the Network Days is always to be open to different perspectives. That was a really big eye opener in that we truly believe in this as teachers.
The time away from the classroom to talk to our other colleagues and have those professional conversations is priceless. I think that’s the most powerful and effective communication that we could ever have as teachers. Being allowed to think out of the box, to challenge point, to be able to say, “What about this,” or “What about that?”
I’m also on the restructuring committee for the district. We’ve had to consider how we do this work better with less. The new school year coming up poses a big transition for us, however, it leads us back to the core of teaching – without all the technology, with just a pencil and paper. We have to find our love and passion for teaching again, and then learn to roll with the punches and the budget crisis, having fewer resources, but still maximizing the time with the students – motivating both them and ourselves.
There were no preconceived notions with the restructuring because we were going back to scratch. There was nothing we could fall back on. We only knew what we knew, so the principals came with their knowledge, and the classified came with their knowledge, and the certificated people with theirs. We were put in a room all together, and we said to each other, “Oh, I get to see your point and yours. I didn’t realize it’s not as cut and dry.” Then we thought, “How can these three groups work well together for the betterment of the students?” Sometimes we said, “Oh my gosh, I jumped the gun. I went too quickly and assumed too much.” Ball made us take a step back and reflect.
A lot of times, as teachers we go, go, go, and we don’t have time to reflect. That can do more harm to the students than just taking five minutes to reflect. You have to know your students and realize, “From where we are, I need to stop and redo this so that it will be better later.” I look at this restructuring of the district in the same way. We’re getting to the point where we’re saying, “Okay, this is where we are, we need to back up – which will take time – but when we go forward, we’ll be so much more empowered as teachers and eventually our students will be empowered.” It brings it all back down to passion for teaching, and I think we have a lot of that.
I’ve also noticed that my teaching and interaction with students has changed as a result of this process. I sometimes forget that we may be the one adult that ends up reaching that kid. I hope that no kids get past me that I don’t have some kind of influence on their lives. Ball reminds us that there’s a gift in every kid – there’s a diamond in the rough. Sometimes we forget this, especially with the ones that challenge us the most – and they’re the ones that need us the most. We have this saying in the restructuring, “There’s a fire and then there’s a gift.” I don’t want to focus on the fire. I want to look at each student and think, “This is you.” It’s the core of teaching.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
Elena Luna was a math, science, and English teacher and part-time administrator at Giano Intermediate School; she is now a teacher and director of several programs at Santana Alternative Education Center.
Let me first begin by thanking the Ball Foundation for giving me an opportunity to network and travel to Chicago. My first experience was to step out and get involved in the Strategic Planning committee dealing with parent involvement. I met some amazing people from the district that I had never met, which led me to working with Principal, Patricia Cuesta. I met her, we hit it off, and that brought me to teach at Giano Intermediate. Moving to Giano Intermediate opened up the opportunity not only to teach a couple of single subjects, but to do student discipline, administrative duties, and participate in many committees.
Prior to coming to Giano, I was teaching at Northam Elementary. I have been in elementary nine years. One year at the intermediate level and one year at the High school level. Some of the districts I have taught at are: Glendale, Los Angeles, Pomona, and Rowland.
Traveling to Chicago with the Ball Foundation to participate in a weekend workshop on parent involvement gave me the opportunity to network some more and to meet a lot of authors and amazing people who have written books on the subjects that we have been dealing with. It made me realize that no matter where we are in the world, we’re dealing with the same issues: parent involvement, teacher training, and student issues. These were the exact same three issues that the strategic planning committee has been dealing with. It was wonderful to see that connection.
Moreover, the networking with the Ball Foundation has enriched my learning both professionally and personally. As a teacher, if I have a question, I know who to call and say, “I’m dealing with this,” and that person will say, “Try this or try that.” On a personal level, I’m networking a lot and getting more involved in the district, which I never would have done otherwise.
Since this interview, I have been hired by Santana Alternative Education, known as Santana High School. I am the Director of the ACCEPT Program and Coordinator of the Infant Center. This program is geared toward helping pregnant teen moms and dads acquire their high school credits to graduate from high school and move on to college. During their busy day, we take care of their infants, while they accomplish their goal. We also provide our teens moms and dads with outside services, such as WIC, Counseling, educational guidance, and community services.
Finally, I continue working with the Ball Foundation because it gives me opportunities to continue growing personally and professionally. The entire experience has been networking, collaborating, enriching teachers and my students– it’s an ongoing learning process.
Word cloud created at wordle.net.
