Bye Bye Bystander, Hello Hero

By Michele Corbat

Sometimes scratch that, many times this past school year I have been astounded by the way my school community has come together to support one another and show kindness.  We've had tragedies that have forever changed us, such as the death of  beloved Dieck Elementary teacher, Mr. Christopher Carney and the suicide of adored high school senior and varsity football quarterback, Brendon Fitch.  Our teachers, administrators, students, parents, and the entire community pulled together for the families of these individuals (Chris's wife is also a teacher at Dieck Elementary where his two children are students and Brendon's mom, uncle and aunt are all teachers at Swartz Creek Schools where his cousins also attend school).  On Saturday, May 10th, students and staff from Swartz Creek Middle School, joined together, once again, to show kindness.  Thanks to the work of our SCMS Diversity Club, which is lead by teacher, Tony Suchanek,  the first ever "Bye Bye Bystander, Hello Hero" event was held on Saturday, May 10.

Description of the event on our district website

A Little Background

On November 4 & 5, 2013, several hundred educators, students and community members gathered for the first ever The Hero Roundtable at Swartz Creek High School. This is a one-of-a-kind multi-disciplinary conference on heroism and was organized by Adam Hartley and Matt Langdon.  The opposite of a hero is not a villain; it's a bystander. Every community in the world, big or small, can use more heroes. Those who attended, learned how to stop being bystanders and start becoming heroes.

I attended the conference with a small group of middle school students and a few other teachers.  We were moved by stories shared by Jeremiah Anthony, a high school kid from Iowa City, Iowa who created the Twitter account Westhighbros to take a stand against bullying.  The account tweets sincere compliments to students and staff.  And stories from author, Dave Rendall, who told us, "What makes us weak, makes us strong and what makes us weird, makes us wonderful."  He encouraged us to embrace our uniqueness by flaunting our weakness.  We also heard from a 15 year old boy from Michigan, Ethan King, who started a non-profit charity to donate soccer balls to under-privileged children around the world when he was only 12!  Ethan told us, "It doesn't matter how old or how young you are, you can make a difference."

After this inspiring event, the students, teachers and I met a few times to plan how we could begin taking action in our school.  Many ideas were shared and initiatives were beginning to happen in small ways in our school. Paper buckets were posted on all staff members' doors or work spaces. Announcements were made to fill the buckets with post-it notes with compliments or uplifting messages.  Lockers were decorated with uplifting notes and compliments as well.  Students and staff were encouraged to take the Ten Day Challenge.

The Ten Day Challenge

Thanks to my colleague, Tony Suchanek, the momentum continued.  Tony is a 6th grade teacher in our school who started and leads our Diversity Club.  He took the ideas from The Hero Roundtable Conference to this club and we had a movement!

Fast Forward To This Weekend

The Diversity Club organized an event to make an even bigger impact. They organized the first annual, "Bye Bye Bystander, Hello Hero Celebration".  I attended this celebration on Saturday.  As participants arrived, they signed in to the guest book and noted the time.  When we left, we signed out and noted the time. These logs will be used to determine how many people were involved as well as how many total minutes people stood up against bullying.  There were problem-solving games like untangling a human knot and uplifting games like a compliment web.  Students sang and danced.  Three of our 8th grade students rocked the house as their band played rock classics from the 80's.

Most moving for all though, were the stories shared during open mic time.  Some shared stories about feeling worthless because of how others had picked on them to the point that they wondered if life was worth living.  Others shared stories of knowing you are different and celebrating those differences anyways.  A parent took the mic and explained to students that our attitude is not a feeling, rather a choice.  He told us that we can choose kindness.  In between stories, videos were shown about people who took action as heroes like the story of the Olivet Middle School Football team who planned to make a classmates day, to make his week, to make him happy.




Inspirational messages were also shared from across the world from people like Matt Langdon, Jeremiah Anthony and Ethan King.  They encouraged the students to keep standing and doing the right thing.

Now What?

I wasn't the only one impacted by this event.  A ripple of kindness is spreading.  I know this because three students have started an Instagram account that they call SCMS_Hero.

 

 

This is one example of how the event made an impact on those who attended.  I wonder how many other people, both students and adults, left the event thinking, "I will not stand by, I will STAND UP when I see someone in need."   I am excited to see what the future holds for my community because I know that this is not the end.  It is the beginning.  The beginning of a movement where people look out for each other.  Where people look at one another and say, "I see you and I got your back!"

Almost 1,000 Swartz Creek Middle School students and staff wearing their #SCMShero T shirts

Want To Learn More?

Tony Suchanek will bring students from our Diversity Club to share on July 29, in Swartz Creek, Michigan at the COLchat To Action Conference.  Come meet these heroes in person and learn how you can start a movement in your school!

A Letter To My Son On His 13th Birthday

By Michele Corbat

Dear Brady,

Today is a special day.  Today you are thirteen!  It does not seem possible that you are turning thirteen.  It was only yesterday that I was in labor with you for 15 hours...scared...and hoping that you would be healthy.  It took forever for you to be born. I was exhausted and almost to the point of giving up, telling the doctor that I couldn't push any more. However, I found the energy to try to push one more time and finally you were born (only four minutes from Friday the 13th).  As exhausted as I was, all of that faded away the moment the doctor handed you to me, my beautiful son. You had jet black hair and the biggest blue eyes.  You were amazing, so tiny and perfect and beautiful and such a gift from God.  I have been more amazed by you as you have grown.  I thank God in trusting me with the gift of being your mother.

The past 13 years have definitely been the most blessed learning experience in my entire life. I am certain that I will continue learning from you in the years to come.  You have taught me how to love unconditionally not expecting anything in return, how to enjoy the small things in life, how to be carefree.  All the way home from our vacation today, my mind was flooded with memories as I was driving.  The times we danced in the living room with the stereo blaring, the times you'd help me 'clean' with your mini-vacuum, when I found you hiding behind the recliner using nose hair trimmers to shave your head, playing grocery store and McDonalds with you in our basement, your first day of school as I cried my eyes out putting you on the bus, watching you play tee-ball (picking weeds), then baseball (hustling behind the plate as catcher), cracking up at your spot-on impersonations, watching you act as the third parent for Austin (#firstbornprobs) and watching you comfort him when times have been difficult. The list is endless.  Thank you! You have made my life worthwhile. You have been one of the brightest lights of my life.

Someday I hope you look back and read this letter with a different perspective than you do today. As you begin your journey as a teenager I want you to know a few things. 

1.  Stay close to God in all times.  When you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, talk to Him.  When you are feeling blessed and thankful, talk to Him.  Change is constant and life is short.  God will be with you through it all.

2.  Dad and I love you.  There are going to be times that it may seem that we are 'lame' when you ask to do something that 'all of your friends' are doing and we say no.  Please know that every decision we make is out of love.  We want the best for you and want to protect you. 

3.  Be a good big brother.  Austin ADORES you.  He watches everything you do and say, often imitating you.  Be a good role model for him.  When you make mistakes, admit them and then change your ways.  He is going to be there for you long after Dad and I are gone.  Make time for him.  Nurture your relationship with him.

4.  There are going to be girls that come and go in your life. There will be heartbreaks.  Choose the ones that are special to you. Most importantly, treat them with respect, and respect yourself. Treat every girl as God's property. Treat yourself as God's property.  Remember that you can talk to Dad and me for advice. 

5.  Be kind.  Be a great friend to others.  Be the person that people can count on and trust.  Treat people with respect and give everyone a chance.  Remember that everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about. 

6.  There are going to be some rough times as a teenager.  There will be days when life is awesome, but there will be many that it seems the world is against you. In those days, I want you to remember, Dad and I have your back. Always. No matter what. Take it slow, you don't have to grow up overnight (even though you keep reminding me how many years until driver's training or college).

I am so proud of you! You bring joy to my heart and I love being your mother. Every day is a blessing and the best is yet to come.

Love you always and forever,

Mom

Reflections on #MACUL14

by Michele Corbat

I attended the 2014 MACUL Conference along with some of my colleagues.  There were countless, amazing technology tools shared and I have an Evernote document loaded with these tools.  However, the tools were not my main take away from this conference.  My take away was the importance of establishing relationships and connections with one another.  Every keynote address and every session that I attended included stories about the power of connections and relationships.

My eyes welled with tears during  Adam Bellow's mind-blowing keynote address when he shared this video clip of John Berlin's emotional appeal to Facebook to unlock his late son's account. After his son passed away, John wanted to watch his son's "Look Back" video, and thankfully got the opportunity.  The technology enabled John to connect with his son one more time.  Adam reminded us that technology allows us to capture the meaningful experiences in life and to create the big ones.

Then I heard more stories from Todd Nesloney, better known on Twitter as TechNinjaTodd,  Todd shared his journey in creating a flipped project based learning classroom.  One of the first statements he made was, "Relationships are number one.  If you are not building relationships, then nothing I am saying will work in your classroom."  AMEN!  Todd told us about the Math Fair he does with his students and how it has been the highlight of his career.  I was inspired listening to him explain how proud the students were of their learning because they could choose their project based on their passion.  Todd understands the importance of establishing relationships with students and making his classroom a place where students want to be.


At the end of the first day of the conference, my last session was on Game Changing Apps by Drew Minock, Brad Waid and Todd Nesloney.  Once again, the power of connections came up.  One of the game changing apps the guys shared was Cargo-Bot.  Brad shared a story of one of his former students who was a mute.  This student talked to no one for years.  However, once this student was introduced to Cargo-Bot, he became inspired.  After several weeks of working with Cargo-Bot, this student spoke.  He was the first to volunteer his group to do a presentation to the class on Cargo-Bot.  He even led the presentation!  Brad explained that you never know what's going to impact, inspire or engage one of your students.  It could be a connection with technology.

Throughout the second day of the conference I continued to hear stories about the importance of relationships and connections from George Couros.  George told us about how his father, an immigrant from Greece, learned to use Facebook and FaceTime.  Why did he choose those tools?  Because he knew that was the way he would connect with his children and grandchildren.  He told the story of Alyssa, a seven year old girl from Australia whose father helped her start a blog.  Alyssa posted a video to her blog that George took at a Justin Bieber concert and her father tweeted it.  Teachers around the world commented on Alyssa's blog and she would rush home from school each day to read the comments.  The power of connections using technology inspired and motivated this child to write more blog posts.

An idea was also born out of this conference.  An idea on encouraging other teachers and administrators to become connected.  Some of the #michEd crew including,  Todd Bloch, Jeff Bush, and Mike Kaechele connected with me at the end of the second day to ask if my #COLchat team would be interested in joining them in submitting a proposal to present at the 2014 Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals' Conference.  We set up a Google Hangout with my administrators and #COLchat co-moderators, Adam Hartley and Rodney Hetherton.  We are working on our proposal now and the focus will be how a culture of learning can be created through relationships and when educators are connected. 

George Couros said, "To inspire meaningful change you must make a connection to the heart."  It's about the relationships and connections that we make NOT about the technology itself.  We need to be sure that we are not missing the best part of the internet--the power of connections.  This is the big idea that I want to share with my colleagues when I return to school this week.  This is the big idea that will continue to be my focus with my school community.  I will take what I learned from MACUL14 and put it into action.  I will focus on relationships and connections. 

Thank you to all who spent countless hours organizing or preparing presentations for the MACUL14 conference.  I am grateful for the opportunity to have connected with so many passionate educators from Michigan and across the world!

Reminders on Kindness

By Michele Corbat

"I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go."

Rachel Joy Scott (1981-1999)
Student, First Victim Of The Columbine High School Massacre

Do you know about Rachel's Challenge?  If you don't, stop reading this RIGHT NOW and check it out.  I've written about this before when people in my life have reminded me about the impact of kindness.  I've been reminded of this in two very powerful ways once again.

The first way breaks my heart into a million pieces.  The first way is how heart-breaking it is to others when we are intentionally unkind.  Maybe you haven't heard yet, but there's a new fad going around where high school and middle school Confessions accounts are popping up all over Twitter.  Or maybe it has been going on for a while and I am just finding out.  These accounts are places for students of these schools to send anonymous tweets that are supposed "confessions" along with their grade level.  These accounts are nothing more than horrible examples of keyboard courage.  According to UrbanDictionary.com, keyboard courage is:

Keyboard Courage

Function: noun
descriptive quality: 1: A quality or characteristic displayed by a person through the written word that this person would not ordinarily possess. 2: The confrontational attitude exhibited by someone via an anonymous entry to an internet web-page or posting. 3: An attitude demonstrated by someone when they realize that actions taken by them or words written by them across a computer connection will have little, if any, personal repercussions. 4: A false bravery possessed by an individual who does not possess the true quality in person.

Sadly, some of these accounts have shown up in my school district.  I have read the tweets.  Some are terribly hurtful and I wonder what the person named in the tweet is feeling.  Is she wondering what everyone will think when they see her at school?  Is he thinking that people will laugh at him and make fun of him?  Does he want to seek revenge for the anger he is feeling from his hurt?  Words are POWERFUL and unkind words can kill us!

But then, I was also reminded of the power of kindness; how small acts of kindness can cause someone to feel loved, to make someone's day, to heal and to inspire.  My colleague, Chris Carney, is battling the fight of his life.  One month ago, he was diagnosed with cancer.  He has been feeling excruciating pain for more than a year with the sources not found until recently.  Chris is a popular teacher, one who children love.  It's not uncommon to walk past Chris' classroom and see him playing his guitar and singing to or with his children.  Or to see him dress up as Superman to remind children how they are heroes for their acts of kindness.  Chris' wife, Christy, is also a teacher in my school.  She is one of the sweetest and kindest people you could ever know.  It's not uncommon to find a note from Christy letting you know she is thinking about you and praying for you when she knows you are facing struggles.  It's no surprise that she's taking unpaid time off from school to care for Chris.  

When Chris was diagnosed, just days before Christmas, teachers, parents, and community members stepped up immediately to show the Carney's just how much we love them.  Within days, a benefit was organized with information shared on Facebook and Twitter accounts.  People jumped in to lead committees, businesses donated gift cards and merchandise, students made cards and wrote letters, and teachers donated sick days.  One act of kindness led to another act of kindness and so on and so on. 

After only a few weeks of organizing, an amazing benefit took place yesterday.  The roads were ice-covered and temperatures were barely above 0, however HUNDREDS of people came.  People volunteered their time to work the various areas of the benefit.  Many donated more than the minimum amounts for admission or bake sale items. It was the top story on our local news.  Check it out here. At this point, more than $17,000 has been collected and this amount continues to grow as donations are still rolling in.  Acts of kindness filled the entire room!

However, Chris and Christy were not able to come to the benefit as Chris has only recently been released from the hospital and cannot compromise his immune system.  But the power of technology did not stop us from bringing them there.  The best part of the day for me, were the times we spent connected with Chris and Christy through our Skype visits.   To see their students, past and present, come to the iPad and tell them "I love you" or "We miss you", made my heart smile.  To see Chris and Christy smile from ear to ear as people talked with them was the best feeling in the world.  When we told them that $12,000 had been raised by 5:00 with still two hours to go, the expressions on their faces said it all!

Photo courtesy Kirsten Lovely

 

 

We all need to remember that what we say and what we do matters.  Life is short.  Rachel Scott said, "Tomorrow is not a promise, but a chance."   Will our actions and words help others feel hope or feel despair?  It's our choice.  I choose kindness.  I choose acts of love.  It feels so much better!

 

A Journey to Healthier Grading Practices

By Michele Corbat

Today I was reminded that Margaret Mead was spot on when she said this.  I worked with our elementary standards based grading team.  This is a team of thoughtful, passionate individuals who are changing our little corner of the world for students.
 
In my district, Swartz Creek Community Schools, we have had standards based report cards in place at the elementary level for about 5 years.  This was before Common Core State Standards were adopted by my state.  Over the years, our teachers have worked to make some tweaks to the report cards, but the cards have not really been fully aligned to CCSS.  This year a group of elementary teachers, led by Rodney Hetherton, was invited to represent their grade level and school building to work together on revising our report cards.  Our revised report cards will better reflect the CCSS for ELA and mathematics.
 
The team has only met three times, however the work these dedicated teachers have done is amazing!  It speaks volumes of their commitment to take positive steps in better communicating grade-level expectations for student learning.  It was obvious to me from the first meeting that a culture of learning existed on this team.  There is trust amongst these 7 individuals.  They are honest with their questions about how they have been reporting student learning.  They are positive and supportive with one another.  People on the team feel safe to express confusion.  Our conversations are reflective and thoughtful.  They are reaching out to their building and grade level colleagues for input and come to each meeting reporting this feedback to the team. 

During our first two meetings, time was spent revisiting elements of standards based grading and the purposes of it. We discussed the purpose of a report card.  We discussed the differences between formative and summative assessments.  We discussed power standards. In between meetings, we collaborated using Google documents to record suggestions for ELA and math power standards.  

Like I mentioned earlier, today was only our third meeting.  The first two hours were spent discussing what makes an effective standards based report card. We reviewed examples from other school districts. I had to leave the meeting for another meeting (a typical day for me) and when I returned two hours later the team had the entire ELA-Writing portion of the report card revised.  Not just for one grade level, but for kindergarten through fifth grade.  They were thoughtful about the organization of the card to align to the CCSS anchor standards, spiral up through the grade levels and that the wording was parent-friendly.  After a quick lunch, they spent a couple of more hours working collaboratively and revised the entire mathematics portion of the card.  Again, for kindergarten through fifth grade!

Because these educators are so thoughtful, they spent the last portion of the day planning how to share the drafts of these revisions with our colleagues.  They want to ensure that teachers understand the rationale behind the revisions.  Conversations around how to educate our parents on the revisions also took place.  Maybe a team of parents will join us in a future meeting.  A guide to the revised report card will be developed with an FAQ section.  Ideas were collected and documented on our Google doc.  These details will be worked out in our next meeting.

I am blessed to be a part of this team.  Margaret Mead was right.  My colleagues are thoughtful, committed people who are changing our little corner of the world. 

If you get grading right, it will support everything else you do.~Doug Reeves

I'm Walking on Sunshine

By Michele Corbat

Photo by Kristen Duke

I was SHOCKED today to learn that two people I admire greatly nominated my blog for a Sunshine Award.  Educators, Starr Sackstein and Drew Frank, are two people I follow on Twitter.  Starr is a high school English/journalism teacher from New York.  She is the author of Teaching Mythology Exposed (a must-read).  Drew is  Director of Academic Operations and Lower School Principal at The Davis Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.  These individuals contribute to my learning, inspire and wow me with the ways they are reaching and influencing students every day.  In fact, if you aren't following these Edurockstars, stop reading this blog and go read their blogs right now.

Being honored by your peers is a fantastic feeling. Being honored by these peers is especially amazing because I am in awe of them.

Sunshine Award:

According to the rules of the sunshine award I am required to:

1.  Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
2.  Share 11 random facts about myself.
3.  Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for me.
4.  List 11 bloggers that I believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!
5.  Post 11 questions for the bloggers I nominate (cannot nominate the blogger who nominate me).

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I LOVE music!  I don't have a favorite genre but know the lyrics to hundreds, if not thousands of songs.  Everything from Pink to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Kid Rock to Hank Williams Jr. to Luther Vandross!  I love it all.
2. Before my kids were born, I spent my evenings teaching step-aerobics and kickboxing six days/week.  I was a lean, mean, fighting machine (well, not really, but it rhymes).
3. My early career goal was to become a social worker.  I spent my first couple of years in college on this career path. 
4. My only sibling, Becky, was killed in a tragic car accident at age 6.  I was in the car.  Our birthdays are 364 days apart (mine is 3-17-69 and hers is 3-16-70).  I miss her.
5. I spent 5 years working at a group home for developmentally disabled adults before I was hired as a teacher.
6. I'm scared to death to walk on high school bleachers.
7. My strange addiction:  Real Housewives of ANYWHERE (O.C., N.J., Atlanta)
8. My next strange addiction:  HGTV (Love House Hunters, Property Brothers, Love It or List It and so many more).
9. I could live on eating cereal alone every day for the rest of my life.
10. I don't untie my shoes when I take them off.
11. I hope I can be the kind of parent to my kids that my parents were to me.

11 Questions for me (From Starr):

1. What made you want to go into education? I was inspired by my middle school math teacher, Johanna Brown.  She was creating a culture of learning back in the 80's with me and my peers.  Our paths crossed again my second year of college where she was my math teacher again.  I realized that I wanted to inspire others the way she inspired me.
2. Which teacher made the greatest impact and why? I answered this in #1.
3. What is your favorite professional learning?  Edcamps!  My first one was nErDcampbc last summer and I was hooked.
4. If you could recommend one professional book, what would it be and why?  Only one? Hmmm, I would recommend Choice Words by Peter Johnston because it gives us the language and research to build healthy learning communities.
5. What’s your favorite chat and why? When does it happen? After #COLchat and #SBGchat (*wink), my favorite chat is #satchat or #satchatwc.  These chats were my firsts as a newbie to Twitter and connected me to so many amazing educators around the world.  Both take place on Saturday mornings. 
6. What do you like to do on your “free” time? Ha, what's that?
7. What is your most vivid childhood memory?  My fondest childhood memory is playing Sonny and Cher with my sister.  I was older so I made her be Sonny and we would do concerts for my parents.
8. What’s one topic you could write about every day?  I could write about my children every day.  They help me to remember what's important in life and I am blessed to be their mom.
9. What’s your favorite meal?  Spaghetti and meatballs
10. Did you play any sport as a kid? if yes, which one(s)?  I played softball, volleyball, ringette (hockey for girls), and was on the swim team.
11. What would you like to share that you haven’t already?  I need to write every day to sharpen my skills and deepen my reflection about teaching/learning.  I wanted to choose this for my nerdlution, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to do it.

11 Questions for me (From Drew):

1. What is your favorite movie of all time?  The Green Mile
2. If you could go to have attended any concert anytime in history, what would it have been?  I would have seen Pink's performance at the 2010 Grammy's.  Check out the video here.
3. What do you do for fun?  Hobby?  I like to spend time with my wolf pack (my 3 best friends that anyone could have).  We enjoy shopping, going to comedy shows, or just hanging at one of our houses for a girls' night in.
4. What two guests would make the best comedic pair as co-hosts for the Oscars?  I enjoy Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (girl power).
5. Cat, Dog or Goldfish? Why… Cat!  When I am stressed and my cat, Marley, jumps in my lap, my blood pressure goes down just by petting her. 
6. How do you caffeinate? I used to drink a fountain diet coke every day for several years.  Last year I gave that up and became addicted to coffee.  Now, I have one or the other only once/week.
7. Favorite twitter chat?  See #5 from Starr's questions above.
8. Best place you ever vacationed?  Ft. Lauderdale, FL with my husband and kids.  We went there about 4 years ago and had the most amazing time because of the beautiful weather, upgrades, and awesome people we met.
9. Best book you’ve read in 2013? I just finished reading The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom and am still reflecting on the lessons learned. 
10. Favorite television shows?  Pretty much any reality TV (I know that most of these shows are not real).
11. What is one thing you never/rarely share that you are exceptionally proud of?  I can wrap my arms into a weird pretzel shape and then put them over my head.  It's rare that I meet someone else who can do this.  (not sure I'm proud of that)

11 Bloggers that I believe deserve recognition:

1. Colby Sharp's blog- Love when he writes about his 5 things
2. Katherine Sokolowski's blog- I am waiting for her book!
3. Chris Lehman's blog- I want to write with the style and voice that he does.
4. Ben Gilpin's blog- Inspirational! 
5. Tony Sinanis' blog- I feel like I have met Tony by reading his blog posts. 
6. Tom Schimmer's blog- Have shared his posts with colleagues
7. Charity Stephen's blog- A girl after my own heart
8. Mark Clement's blog- He is an Edunator, ya!
9. Shawn Storm's blog- A fellow positive deviant
10. Rafranz Davis' blog- Find myself saying "Amen" after reading her posts!
11. Dennis Sparks' blog- So many great entries to share!

11 Questions for my nominees:

1. Coke or Pepsi?
2. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
3. Tell about a student who has influenced you the most and why.
4. What are your top 3 favorite professional books?
5. Who have you met in real life that you follow on Twitter?
6. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change and why?
7. So far, the highlight of my career in education has been...
8. If I was a fruit I would be a ___________ because_____
9. My most influential teacher was...
10. In 10 years, I see myself....
11. How do you balance family and work?

I share this blog with Adam Hartley and Rod Hetherton.  If it wasn't for these positive deviants, I probably would not have started writing blog posts at all.  Thank you for reading and spreading the sunshine in my life!

How Do I Give Them All What They Need?-Part 1

By Michele Corbat

This post is the first in a series about my journey with Teacher Labs.  

Last school year, my school district went through a revision process to create new vision, mission and belief statements.  It had been many years since these statements were created and we seemed to lack direction.  Our GPS was not set.  We did not have a common destination.

"If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind."  Roman philosopher Seneca

After 10 months of research, discussions, reviewing our data, staff/parent/student/community surveys, and school board presentations, we developed powerful new mission, vision and belief statements.

MISSION: Swartz Creek Community Schools inspires our learners to embrace challenges, set goals, grow their talents, and realize their dreams for success in a global society.

VISION: Swartz Creek Community Schools provides a world class education through innovative experiences while developing the unique talents of our learners.

BELIEF STATEMENTS: 
- We believe in a culture of learning.
- We believe that student learning should be the primary goal for all decisions made affecting the school district.
- We believe the climate and culture of the school is engaging, nurturing, challenging, and inspires students to express their personal ideas.
- We believe curriculum is integrated, differentiated, meaningful, and pertinent to life.
- We believe in culturally relevant education that provides the knowledge and skills to meet the global challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.
- We believe in continuous improvement informed by critical evaluation and reflection.
- We believe expanding technologies enrich how teachers teach and students learn.
- We believe in building relationships and sharing resources with our community, parents, and staff members.

Why Teacher Labs?

However, merely drafting these statements and putting them in writing was not enough.  To realize our district's mission, we are putting these words into action. One way we are doing this is by implementing job-embedded professional development that we refer to as Teacher Labs.  Teacher Labs connect directly to our mission statement and many of our belief statements. 

Effective professional development and Teacher Labs are:

• Intensive
• sustained over time 
• embedded
• directly related to work with students
• structured to regularly engage teachers in local PLCs where problems of practice are solved through collaboration
• follow-up, reinforcement, apply in new contexts

The bottom line is that professional development is about raising the level of learning for students and must include collaboration and feedback.  Teacher Labs include these key pieces.

How are Teacher Labs organized?

We are fortunate to have support in implementing Teacher Labs.  Lisa Madden was instrumental in getting Teacher Labs going in her previous position and has brought her expertise to us as our County Coordinator for Curriculum and Special Projects.  Not only is she helping us learn about the structure of Teacher Labs, she is also teaching Sandy Cook and me how to be facilitators.  We are using the gradual release of responsibility model to learn how to facilitate labs. 

A lab classroom includes a host teacher, a facilitator and observers.  The host is not an expert and is willing to share his/her practice publicly.  The facilitator organizes and communicates the schedule, prepares paperwork and materials, and leads collaborative discussions before and after observations.  Initially, we are meeting in half day increments.  Our focus is tier 1 reading instruction.  We have a pretty solid MTSS system, however we believe that tier 1 is the foundation. This foundation must be solid for our students and all of our elementary teachers are participating in the lab classroom experience this year.
 

"The best RtI intervention? Improve Tier I instruction for all kids." Breakfast convo topic w/ @alybee930 @AmyRass @HeatherCato #ncte13
— Donalyn Miller (@donalynbooks) November 21, 2013

 The components of the half day include:

• Pre-Observation Meeting
• Establish Norms
• Establish focus for inquiry
• Observers share successes, challenges and goals
• Observation
• Observers visit host's classroom as a 'fly on the wall'
• Take notes for feedback and reflection
• Debriefing
• Observers name and notice
• Host reflects on noticings and verbalizes intentions
• Observers ask questions
• Host answers
• All reflect-making intentional plans for our practice

What have I learned so far?

The lab experience has been one of the most beneficial experiences for me.  I have been out of the classroom for 8 years working in an instructional coach type role.  Since I work in more than one school, I collaborate with and support nearly 70 teachers.  I want to do my very best to meet their needs.  When I was participating in my first Teacher Lab experience this past week, my colleagues seemed to have one common goal.  That is, they want to be able to give ALL of their students what they need.  This is my goal as well.  I want to be able to give ALL of my colleagues what they need.

Students in our classrooms come from middle- and upper-class income levels, from low-income households, from families living in poverty, or from families who are English language learners.  They come from two-parent households, single parent homes and homes where they are being raised by grandparents.  Some have parents or other family members who have read to them since infancy or who have used the television or video games as 'babysitters'.  Their needs are diverse and the task of giving every single one of them what they need can be daunting. 

Because of these diverse needs of our students, I have learned that a Culture of Learning is more critical than ever.  Teacher Labs are a Culture of Learning.  One of my colleagues said it best in the answer to this question s/he provided on a survey about the lab classroom experience. 

Survey Question:  What was the most beneficial part of the professional learning experience?

Getting the chance to reflect on my practice, both by examining a colleague's practice and by being observed and hearing feedback from colleagues.  This is a profession where it is easy to fall into survival mode, and the opportunity to step back and think with people I respect and admire is really invaluable.

I believe that the lab classroom structure can help me to give ALL my colleagues what they need.  Teaching Labs could be set up for other content areas such as math or science.  They could be organized so teachers observe how their colleagues are providing students the knowledge and skills to meet the global challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.  The lab classroom experience can occur at any level, elementary, middle or high school.  Through this differentiation, I can help all of my colleagues grow as professionals.

After Thanksgiving, I will begin facilitating Teaching Labs while Lisa observes me.  I look forward to the feedback she will provide me to become more skilled in working with adult learners.  I will continue to reflect in order to create professional learning communities for my colleagues where inquiry and collaboration result in a commitment to continuous improvement.

How about you?  How do you give them all what they need? 

A community of readers.  A culture of learning.

Deb Roda's 3rd grade class