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The plan of this school was to create a happy school where students want to attend. A place where kids will feel safe and want to express themselves so they can be who they are. The teachers and principle have created a safe, caring, and fun environment where students have passion.
The school has children from different socioeconomic backgrounds with different cultural traditions and family structures. 40% of the students are ELL's. There are students with a variety of needs throughout the school. The teachers and principle see how the students do better in an inclusive setting rather than separate. Teachers can't push kids out because they learn in a different way. They need to embrace each and every student as a human being and address their needs individually. They need to find how to make the student successful based on their needs. If the students have difficulty in one one skill the teacher takes the time to make sure the student learns it. Taking the extra time and support will help the student succeed.
(2015, September 10). Finding Time for Collaboration and Using it Well. Inclusive Schools Network. Retrieved From: http://inclusiveschools.org/finding-time-for-collaboration-and-using-it-well/
(2012 November, 5). Ellerslie Campus, K-9: Inclusion Through Collaboration. ED Public Schools. Retrieved from: Youtube.com
Henderson, B. (2006) Champions of Inclusion. International Journal of Whole Schooling. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ847470.pdf
(2013 November, 5) SWIFT Domains and Features at Henderson School. The Swift Center. Retrieved from: Youtube.com
Strauss, V. (2013 May, 2) Why collaboration is vital to creating effective schools. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/02/why-collaboration-is-vital-to-creating-effective-schools/
Teachers get their best work through collaboration focused on student learning. All students belong to all teachers. It is up to administration to come up with a schedule to collaborate. They need to find a time table that everyone can understand and work within. Having lunch hours at the same time, physical education time, and time at the end of the day is set up for scheduling. The school has established a norm that everyone will collaborate for, at minimum, one hour per week to focus on student learning. The school and staff embrace the time they have. The teachers talk about how its everyone's job to meet the needs of the students. Every single teacher is in a collaborative per grade level, horizontal collaboration. A lot meet every morning to talk about what they'll do with their students for the day. They talk about where they are in the curriculum and where they are going next. Some students need extra time and extra support so they figure out how to do that for their students. They determine where they need to focus for intervention. They are always sharing ideas to make sure they are all doing the same thing at the same time. They have classes switch around during some lessons if students are having an easy or difficult time with it. The students who need more intervention will come together in one class so they can have further intervention. The teachers change around the classrooms based on skill levels in different lessons. During a switch students are always with different teachers and students. Nobody ever feels they are in the low or high group because the groups are always changing.
Vertical teaching is with all k-9 teachers. They figure out what they need to do as a school, plan out writing assessments, and subject lessons. Grades 4, 5, and 6 work to be on the same page. They line up the year plan so the teachers know how to meet what the other grades are doing. They get to see where the students are going and coming from and what skills they need to have down to move onto the next grade. The curriculum is aligned with all grades to help students and help them succeed in the next grade. Collaboration creates a community within the school. The teachers know what is going on in each classroom and they learn who all the students are. Collaboration benefits students and teachers. When you become a better teacher the students become better learners. You can get more done with more minds.
I can connect this with the second module Collaboration and Community. It is very important for teachers to find time to collaborate to benefit them and the students. It can be difficult for teachers to find the time because everyone has very different and busy schedules. Teachers should find the time and use it well. I like how at this school all teachers are required at least an hour minimum per week to collaborate. This ensures they are collaborating. Teachers can us common planning time or protected planning time. Common planning time is the time that is scheduled for the same time every day or every week. Protected planning time is time created by locating a reasonable block of time that may or may not be on a regular basis but can provide time that is set aside for teachers to collaborate together. If teachers take the time to figure out what planning time works best they will succeed in collaboration. This video also brought me back to module one, Foundations of Inclusive Teaching. In this module there was a video about the Henderson School in Boston. This video also showed first hand how inclusion can work within a school as long as teachers and administrators have the passion and put the time in to make it work.
In the future I plan to work in an inclusive setting if I get the chance. I have seen that this can work within the school and it can also be the best thing. If teachers take the time to work together to figure out what their students need they will succeed. I know I may not be able to reach all my students in every lesson but this is when I can use collaboration. I can speak to teachers in other classes who have had the same students and ask if they have any suggestions of how the students work best. It is not about chatting with other teachers to see how their day is or to try to compete on who is the best teachers. Collaboration is a time to talk about the students and the curriculum to find the best way to reach all of your students. I like receiving feedback, good or bad, from others so I can improve on what I am doing. This will be very important and helpful to me when I become a teacher.