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Yes, No, and Double Rainbow Unicorn Land

11/13/2014

6 Comments

 
I got mentioned in a Tweet tonight by Tim McCaffrey, a math coach in Southern California.  My response is too long for a 140 character reply, so I'll do my best here.

@mr_stadel @robertkaplinsky @Jstevens009 @MrVaudrey do you guys think you would be more effective coaches if you taught one period a day?

— Tim McCaffrey (@timsmccaffrey) November 14, 2014

Yes

I miss my kids. I loved my students.  Of all the things about being a classroom teacher that I think about, my students are responsible for all but one (I had a really strong department that I respect highly and miss dearly at my last school).  In one way or another, they made it possible to get up in the morning and do my best to bring what I thought resembled my "A game".  

With that being said, my answer to Tim's question is Yes, No, and Double Rainbow Unicorn Land.

No

Not having a classroom sucks, as I alluded to with my comments about my students.  Being in the coaching role, I have more time to research and learn about effective teaching strategies, apps, and websites.  I get to have more conversations with teachers who are doing dynamic work throughout our district and I see how their work can fill in some of my gaps as an instructor.  It would be outstanding to take this new set of tools into a classroom and use them as a "one classroom learning lab".

On top of that, I'd have the best of both worlds.  Only one class to lesson plan for, assess, deal with classroom management for, and invest in emotionally?  Whabam!  That sounds like quite the deal.  I was so exhausted after most days of school and, by the end of February, I was looking for a finish line.  With one class, the emotional toll that a set of 185 students take wouldn't even compare to 54 minutes, 180 days, of 35-40 high school students.  That I could manage.

Looking past the utopia of a one class assignment, I would also be able to "stay relevant" with the implementation of the tools that I am researching.  When going to work with another teacher or offer up advice, my foundation for all discussions would be based on what I'm currently doing or plan to do with my students in the coming days, weeks, or month.  This would certainly add credibility to what I'm trying to accomplish as I work with 1100 teachers in my current district.

Along with this, teachers would be able to come in and observe my learning lab and come up with new ideas for us to try out.  Knowing that this class is a one-of-a-kind experience, the students would be familiar with the regular visits and would embrace the idea of being special enough to be involved with it.  Seriously, this would be a pretty cool thing to see happen.

But no.
As much as I miss the classroom and the interactions with the students, having only one class of kids wouldn't be enough.  If I'm going to be on campus, I want to fully commit to being there for the kids.  If my role is 1/5 teacher and 4/5 coach (or any other disbursement of teacher and coach role), I have divided responsibilities.

In this scenario, I imagine being pulled in so many different directions.  Right now, I'm a member of 4 committees who meet regularly and make decisions that directly impact the learning that happens in our 1100+ classrooms throughout our district.  I'm involved with professional development teams who count on the consistency and insight of educators and district personnel who can bring in pertinenet information.  I was always overcommitted as a teacher, but this would take things to a whole new level.

Not only that, but I would be relegated to the one campus instead of all 8 high schools in our district.  One perk of the job that I didn't expect was seeing the different cultures on each of our campuses.  I learned from an English teacher today at our southernmost school and learned from a librarian at our northernmost school on Halloween.  If I was in the classroom for a period, there's no way I could keep my sanity and my schedule simultaneously.

With that being said, it's not fair to the kids. If I'm teaching a percentage < 100 of my contract, there's a limited percentage of time I'm thinking of those students.  Sure, they will always be the ultimate priority, but it's a whole different mindset.  As a Geometry teacher, I was always worried and eager to find better ways to help my students learn and care about Geometry.  Anything else was a personal hobby.  If I'm expected to dedicate 1/5 of my time to math and the rest to supporting the district, there are going to be gaps that I'm not willing to allow happen.  This either means a stressed and unhappy me (and family) or a lapse in productivity.

It isn't fair to the school.  Let's assume that I'm a decent teacher.  By no stretch of the imagination was I great at teaching kids math (hey, just look at my test scores........ oops) and I had plenty of gaps in my classroom management that needed (still need) improvement.  Those kids in my learning lab would know that I'm only on campus for that one period, or only teaching for that one period, and I can't help but imagine that there will be repurcussions because of it.  Kids can sniff out a fake, can tell when someone's lying, and know when they're being cheated.  To me, a 1/5 assignment is cheating the kids of the best job that the selected teacher can do for the students, teachers, and culture of the school.

But Yes.

Double Rainbow Unicorn Land

I'm almost there, but not quite yet.  My ideal scenario is to be a coach with opportunities to get into classrooms and teach lessons.  A little while ago, I had the chance to do that thanks to Christina Depweg and Mathalicious.  It was incredible and I enjoyed every minute of it.  

At the end of the day, I felt like I got my feet wet again and had the chance to try out a few new things that I hadn't done as a classroom teacher with my own students.  Some of the new technology like Doceri wasn't available to me when I was in the classroom, so this was the perfect chance to put my money where my mouth was and model what that could look like. Not only that, but I've been working a lot more on Mathalicious and advocating for our district to invest in it.  This gave me some ground to stand on.  It also gave a 2nd year teacher a different look at instruction with her own students rather than a learning lab.

When it was all said and done, I went back to the office, reflected, thought about how I could improve for next time, and got right onto my calendar for the next training that we were planning for a Chromebook rollout.  I wasn't worried about how I was going to teach the lesson the next day and I could focus on the next group who needed my full attention and respect.

In short, I was able to give each scenario the time that is deserved.

As my role evolves, I am hoping that more of these opportunities come up where I can be invited in and work with teachers to teach lessons.  I'll plan with (or for) the teacher, co-teach or just teach the lesson for the day (giving the teacher somewhat of a much-deserved day off), and provide those opportunities we never get to have a conversation with another adults about what actually happened in class that day.

Otherwise, my step away from the classroom will feel more and more like a giant leap into the darkness.

Happy "Double Rainbow Unicorn Land" Fishing
6 Comments
Tim McCaffrey link
11/14/2014 01:26:44 pm

Well said John. I really appreciate your well thought-out feedback. My greatest takeaway from your analysis is my focus will be divided and I will either do one of them well or none. I have been considering this because I have been thinking about how to get better as a mathematics coach. I thought possibly teaching for a period would reap immense dividends.

I have done plenty of lesson studies in my district this year focusing on mathematical modeling. This has given me the opportunity to to model lesson and put my best foot forward as to what a "CC classroom" looks like. Nevertheless, I have never had to teach the CC standards. Sure I can teach a lesson that I was able to spend hours preparing but to implement the Core standards on a daily basis is something else. Hence, I thought teaching one period a day would bringing me closer to reality of the struggle students and teachers are going through implementing CC standards.

What do you do to get better as a mathematics coach?

Reply
John Stevens link
11/30/2014 11:47:46 am

Technically, I'm not a math coach - I'm a technology coach. However, my superiors know that my passion lies in mathematics /and/ technology, so it's been easy to fuel both fires. How do I get better? That's a tough question.

I would say that I get better the same way that I did as a classroom teacher - learning from the people around me. I'm on Twitter (too much, actually), reading blogs, going to conferences, and having conversations. More importantly, I've been talking to more teachers about what makes an effective teacher more than I have ever done in the past. While I've only gone in and taught 4 lessons so far, I feel like my skills are being honed in the conversations and collaboration that I get to have with the math colleagues that I work with. Would it work out better if I had a class of students? I think so, but it goes back to the part of my post where I don't know that I can do both effectively.

I'll return serve: what do you do to get better as a mathematics coach?

Reply
Chris Shore link
11/14/2014 11:30:20 pm

John & Tim,

Last year, I was full-time math coach. This year, I teach one Algebra class of at-risk students. There are benefits and drawbacks to this year.

Benefits: 1) I experiment daily. 2) I have real results to show teachers that student improvement is possible. 3) I impact the lives of some very needy kids. 4) Sometimes that one hour is the only sanity in my day (says a lot). 5) I remain "one of them" (a teacher).

Drawbacks: 1) I still have the same coaching workload as last year, but now I have a class that requires more time than just the hour that I teach (only so many hours in a day). I definitely am making less progress on the coaching side, than last year. 2) I am constantly leaving other meetings and events to drive back to my site by 6th period. 3) It is more difficult to go to conferences and other out of district events to improve my math coaching (less flexibility).

I still "elbow coach" with other teachers, in which we design a lesson together and I teach it to one of their classes. So I am in classes either way.

Loving the job no matter what.

Reply
Felix Jones
11/29/2014 07:47:33 am

Here are some of my humble thoughts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7uCoxvhh-w&feature=youtu.be

Reply
John Stevens link
11/30/2014 12:04:01 pm

First off, your reply via video was legit. Thank you for taking the time to think this through and put it on a video.

At first glance, I like the idea. Give the TOSAs an opportunity to take over a class on a rotational basis, let them try out the cool things that they're learning, and use that as a model for other teachers to see and learn alongside. In theory, it could be amazing. However, I've got a lot of skepticism.

1 - The best way to reach a child is during first instruction. While I don't have the research in front of me to back this up, I truly believe it after being a part of countless intervention classes for 7 years of my career. As good and crazy and influential as I tried to be during an intervention class, I was cleaning up messes more often than not. Outside of my individual case, I still see a lot of trouble with bringing in an All-Star cast to take an additional math class for a site.

2 - The reaction of the kids. Think about the mentality of intervention students. They are already dejected, many of them have acquired this "learned helplessness" as we were told it was called, and don't think too highly of seeing an extra math class on their schedule. Not only that, but you're going to let them develop a rapport with their teacher for 9 weeks, only to see that person leave and get a fresh face. For the students of intervention classes, this is all-too-often what happens in their regular life and it's unfortunate.

3 - How about your colleagues? This is going off of pure speculation, but I've worked with staffs that are tough to welcome new people. They were also reluctant to bring in someone who was going to /fix problems/. While you and Tim are probably well-received by the staffs as a whole, coming in as ringers to change a school may backfire with staff morale. If anything, Chris Shore's model shows that he will be there for the daily grind and won't be perceived to be a rent-a-teacher. How is the principal going to react to having a 9 week employee that can't be used for anything extra? It's not a rhetorical question - I just don't know.

I am really liking where this conversation has gone so far and look forward to where it continues!

John Stevens link
11/30/2014 11:50:41 am

Your struggle is exactly why I think I would struggle with a position like it. Being pulled in so many different directions both mentally and physically would overwhelm me to the point of, I fear, not doing either job well. It's not an overall statement, but more for me personally. I'll get wrapped up in something and not let go. How long have you been doing this?

Reply



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