Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Month: October 2007

  • Collaboration for student success: teachers and para-educators working together

    **Kartoo Visual search for paraeducators**
    (type paraeducator in the search field, click on the mindmap key)

    The idea of extra help in the classroom is becoming more and more a reality for many classroom teachers. As we move away from stand alone resource room models towards inclusion for students with needs there is a recognition that para-educators play a crucial role in improving student achievement and success in the classroom (NEA).

    Though I believe we are moving further away from the traditionally accepted role of the classroom teacher as the ‘sage on the stage’ in his or her classroom, we are far from able to say that the role is historical fact. It still exists in many classrooms. And even when it doesn’t, it can be very intimidating for a teacher to have someone come into their classroom. It is hard to share a classroom with another educator.

    Last year I worked with a group of educators – teachers, teaching assistants (para-educators), and administrators – from different schools in Montreal in professional development sessions under the heading, Collaboration for Student Success/Travaillons Ensemble pour un Meilleur Rendement Scolaire. Here are some of the ideas we generated as we explored how to guarantee successful teacher/paraeducator collaboration.

    We looked at Context.

    • Quebec curricular reforms place the student at the centre of the curriculum and teachers are expected to differentiate their instruction based on the student profiles in their classrooms.
    • We are talking more and more of teaching teams where, under the Quebec Education Act, the teacher is the ‘premier intervenant’ – or the first speaker – for a student’s educational rights.
    • Our classrooms are becoming more and more diverse, with a variety of needs (from special to gifted and everything in between).


    The context led us to develop an Essential Question

    How can I, the teacher, make an effective intervention in the lives of the students in my classrooms with the tools I have (and by the way, just what are those tools?)

    This question led us to develop some Common Definitions. Most importantly, for this discussion, we spoke of the tools that were available to us and we decided that the most important were people: our colleagues and consultants. We also searched for a common definition of collaboration and we decided that in order to effectively collaborate we had to have a shared vision for the classroom. We had to begin to pay attention to the same things in our classroom in order to be able to learn from the phenomena in our classrooms and to be able to plan accordingly.

    The first Plan of Action that arose from these definitions naturally formed itself around how to establish a shared vision amongst the classroom teaching team (the main players being the class teacher and the para-educator(s)).

    We decided that it could only grow from conversation.

    We also came up with essential conversations around Expectations.

    Teachers are ultimately responsible for curriculum, evaluation, and reporting. The para-educator facilitates the delivery and activities around this.

    Conversations at the beginning of a teacher/para-educator relationship could be facilitated by asking questions such as:

    • What are your expectations of me as a para-educator?
    • How can I best help this classroom?
    • What is most important for you in regards to classroom management? being on time? how I intervene with a student or group of students?


    Teachers also noted that it was important for them to know how their para-educator worked best, what his or her strengths were, so they could plan accordingly.

    Our favourite resource to facilitate teacher and para-educator collaboration is available through ASCD and is called:

    A Teacher’s Guide to Working with Paraeducators and Other Classroom Aides
    By Jill Morgan and Betty Y. Ashbakar (ASCD, 2001)

    There are some really clear and spot-on question sheets that teachers and para-educators can use to clarify their relationship in terms of the roles and responsibilities of both educators. I will go so far as to say it is essential reading for teacher/paraeducator collaboration.

    Basically this is what we decided was key – it is essential for teachers and para-educators to have a clear and common vision of what each of their roles and responsibilities are towards the classroom and the students in it. The only way this can happen is by talking about it.

    Some other resources:

    Getting Educated: Paraeducators

    Project Para: Pareducator Self-Study Program

    Special Connections: An Introduction to Working Effectively with Paraeducators

    Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

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  • Gaining focus in reform

    I really think that we are focusing on the wrong things in education reform.

    Recent education reform in Quebec – and I am sure it is similar in other areas – has focused on creating new curriculum for students.

    Technology reforms focus on how we can best use technology in the classroom to improve student learning and to make it more authentic.

    Today I responded to John Brandt’s discussion thread in the TeachingFutures wiki about his passion for making all teachers good teachers. What he wrote got me to thinking about how to do that. Is it really through curricular or technological reform? In both cases I hear proponents of the reforms saying that teachers need to change what they are doing, that they need to become more in tune with ‘the reform’.

    What if we were to become more in tune with teachers? Instead of focusing on curriculum and tools with which to teach it, what if we were to focus on the teachers who will be working with the children?

    In a recent post of mine I quote Senator Barack Obama when he spoke in his 2005 speech, Teaching Our Kids in a 21st Century Economy, about the influence a teacher has on a child’s success. He said:

    From the moment our children step into a classroom, new evidence shows that the single most important factor in determining their achievement today is not the color of their skin or where they come from; it’s not who their parents are or how much money they have.

    It’s who their teacher is. It’s the person who will brave some of the most difficult schools, the most challenging children, and accept the most meager compensation simply to give someone else the chance to succeed.

    Each time I read or hear that I repeat to myself

    It is who the teacher is

    There is a lot of ‘after the fact’ professional development for teachers. I call it ‘after the fact’ because it seems to come after curricular reform in answer to panicked teacher response to having to deal with change in how they teach.

    It seems to me we are going about it backwards. I think that the reform that will finally take place that will actually stick will be when we reform the way we support and nurture teachers.

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  • Self-esteem in school: a blog post found via wordpress tag

    I’m having fun on wordpress – in particular I am enjoying finding bloggers through my wordpress tags. Today I discovered a blog post by Principal Kendrick called The Importance of Self Esteem where principal Kendrick cited this gem from Michelle Borba:

        Special Care for Special Students

        Michelle Borba, nationally known author and consultant on
    self-esteem and achievement in children,         says there are five things
    middle school educators can do easily to improve the self-esteem of
    their             students:

    • Mentor a child. Find one student who looks as
      though he or she needs a connection and just take a little more time
      (even one minute a day) to find a positive moment.
    • Connect with your team about a student. Pass on
      concerns to at least one other staff member so you’re both on the same
      page. You can then reinforce the same positive traits about a student
      together and optimize the effort.
    • Reframe children’s images of themselves. Find one
      positive trait that is earned and deserved—artistic, great smile, kind
      heart—and let the student be aware of it. Reframing an image generally
      takes 21 days, so reinforce the same trait 10 seconds a day for 21 days.
    • Turn students on to a great book, Web site, hobby, or a club that might capitalize on their natural interests or strengths.
    • Make yourself available. Give students your e-mail address and let them know special times you can be reached.

    The effect that we have on students is enormous, unmeasurable. Barack Obama believes that teachers are the #1 influence on children outside of their same sex parent. I agree.

    It is our responsibility as educators to do good with our students –  look how easy it is!

    Remember the fox:

    “One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox.
    “Men have no more time to understand anything.
    They buy things all ready made at the shops.
    But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship,
    and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . . “

    “What must I do, to tame you? asked the little prince.

    “You must be very patient,” replied the fox. First you will sit down
    at a little distance from me–like that–in the grass.
    I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye,
    and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings.
    But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . . “

    The next day the little prince came back.

    “It would have been better to come back at the same hour,” said the fox.
    “If for example, you came at four o’clock in the afternoon,
    then at three o’clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier
    as the hour advances. At four o’clock, I shall be worrying and jumping about.
    I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time,
    I shall never know at what hour my heart is ready to greet you . . .
    One must observe the proper rites . . . “

    “What is a rite?” asked the little prince.

    “Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. “They
    are what make one day different from other days, one hour different
    from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every
    Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful
    day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the
    hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other
    day, and I should never have any vacation at all.”

    So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near–

    “Ah,” said the fox, “I shall cry.”

    “It is your own fault,” said the little prince. “I never wished you any sort of harm;
    but you wanted me to tame you . . . “

    “Yes, that is so,” said the fox.

    “But now you are going to cry!” said the little prince.

    “Yes, that is so,” said the fox.

    “Then it has done you no good at all!”

    “It has done me good,” said the fox, “because of the color of the wheat fields.”
    And then he added: “Go and look again at the roses.
    You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world.
    Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.”

    The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

    “You are not at all like my rose,” he said. “As yet you are nothing.
    No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one.
    You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox
    like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made a friend,
    and now he is unique in all the world.”

    And the roses were very much embarrassed.

    “You are beautiful, but you are empty,” he went on.
    “One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think
    that my rose looked just like you–the rose that belongs to me.
    But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you
    other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she
    that I have put under the glass globe; because it is for her
    that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three we saved
    to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to,
    when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing.
    Because she is my rose.”

    And he went back to meet the fox. “Goodbye,” he said.

    “Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret:
    It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

    “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

    “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

    “It is the time I have wasted for my rose—” said the little prince so he would be sure to remember.

    “Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it.
    You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
    You are responsible for your rose . . . “

    “I am responsible for my rose,” the little prince repeated,
    so that he would be sure to remember.

    from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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  • homework revolution

    I just read a post by Elona Hartjes at Teachers at Risk on homework and came across this wonderful twist on homework:

    I like Damion Frye’s approach to homework. He teaches grade nine, and for the last three years has been assigning homework to parents. Yes, that’s right. He’s been giving homework to parents. So how does this work? Well, students work on assignments in class, and then parents are expected to respond to their child’s work via an on-line blog or email. If parents don’t do the homework, it can affect the student’s grade. Why give homework if it isn’t going to count. He believes that involving parents in their children’s education improves the children’s educational experience. Frye says that parents complain they never see their kids’ school work. Now because of his homework policy, parents know exactly what their kids are doing , at least in his class.

    When I think of it, most of the homework I have ever assigned has been for parents anyway! It makes so much sense to make this purposeful. Involving parents instead of merely appeasing them is much more relevant to student learning and success.

    My students work really hard during the day in school. They take work home when, really, they’ve been goofing of during the day or if they have preparation to do in studying for an evaluation situation. I have no control over work that goes home. So in the past, when parents complained that there was no homework, I sent home ‘busy work’.

    Lately, I have been doing something a bit different. The homework I give my students has to do with gaining exposure to the world around them (by watching, listening to, or reading the local news) and conversation with their families, as part of the homework is to report on a conversation they had about something that happened in the news.

    I really like Damion Frye’s idea, as presented by Elona above. I have at least 2 students in my class who do not have computers at home, so I need to think about that. Though they can certainly go to the local library or even come by school to complete the assignment…(don’t mind me, thinking out loud here ;) )

    Thanks for the idea Elona and Damion!

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  • Responsibility

    Gleaned from Scott McLeod…

    “You can’t expect responsible kids if you don’t give them any responsibility.”

    Love it.
    Isn’t this what it is all about, this teaching business?
    Thanks Scott.

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