I spent a while in email and on the phone this week with the counselor in charge of schedules at school. Someone tipped me off that my schedule didn't look so good for next year. Sure, I was teaching 4 honors classes (World History Pre-AP) and AVID (which I can't wait to get started on) but, I was "floating" from White House to the "New" House which is in portable buildings. Not good.
A couple of weeks ago at our conference with area high school, a number of my high school leadership team personnel sat in on a seminar about "Small Learning Communities." I was the only teacher-only person in the room. There were a few instructional coaches (department heads), principals, and counselors. The room was pretty full. But, that didn't stop me from giving my $.02 worth. We lived "Small Learning Communities" last year at my school and I have some strong opinions on the pitfalls and problems.
Last August 2006, prepping for the first day of school in my room.An SLC (Small Learning Community) is about 800 students organized in one area of the building. We do ours in Houses. Two Houses make up one Community. It's pretty unique to high schools and we are one of the only ones in the nation that is setup this way. It's easier at AHS because we have been able to build from ground zero to do it. But, the other high schools in our district are being remodeled and rebuilt inside and out to include SLC setups.
My house is the "White" house (last year they were named after our school colors - we had three - red, white, & blue). But, next year there is a new house that will be setup in portable buildings while they actually construct and build a new community. It'll be great when it is finished because we will then have an even setup of communities. On my end of the building White House is on the 2nd floor and Red is on the first. Then we have a long, long corridor down the center of the school (it's actually a quarter of a mile long!) and at he end of that hall will be the Blue and New communities. This will help with the problem I am writing about: FLOATING.
The concept works like this. If students are in the White House they stay in the White House for their classes as much as possible. That's hard to do in a high school 100% of the time and actually impossible. There are electives, sports, dance, art, band, etc. where they obviously would leave. But, their core classes would be in their community. This creates a "school" within a "school" feel. Super large 5A high schools like ours will have a chance to connect closer with each student and give them a sense of belonging.
I LOVE the idea. And I am almost evangelical about it. It works perfectly with our Daily Advisory period as well. Advisory is a 30 minute period each day that is organized by community. I have a group 19 of students who are in the White House and they come to my room each day between 2nd and 3rd period for advisory. The role of Advisory is to guide them through high school and prepare them for their future. I have these 19 kids for four years. Advisory is like a super-glorified home room. We check the student's academic progress two days a week and give them time for studying and tutoring. One day a week is for a social-emotional lesson. One example this year is my kids learned about starvation in Africa and what can be done to help them. One day is for Clubs (Thursday, my club is the Video Game Club). And Friday is a social day. It's a day to bring in food, to celebrate and have a party and enjoy everyone's company. It's just another example of how these communities and schools within a school are a great thing.
Back to my dilemma. The counselor and administrative team have drawn the line in the sand that students will not move from community to community for their classes. Instead teachers will. That's called floating. Norma floated into three different rooms this year to teach. And in two different communities at the opposite ends of the school. She really struggled with not having her materials, having to deal with other teacher's disorganization. She would arrive in a room with a video clip to show that day and the vcr/dvd combo would not work. Or the computer would be completely down. It was a year long struggle for her.
So when I got the message that I might be floating, I was a little panicked. I am a strong believer (and made it be known during the conference a couple of weeks ago) that teachers should be teaching multiple preparations and staying in their community. For example, a teacher might have to teach both economics and government. Then they are serving the needs of those students in that community. But, our administration, teachers, and school is trying to do things the old way. We used to teach one prep and specialize in that area. Sure it makes things easier in one way, but floating makes everything hard.
I called my counselor and explained that I would rather teach three "levels" or preps than float and only teach one. I will be able to serve my community better as an SLC leader by being in that community/house every period of the day. And I love having my own room where I can post student work on the walls, have my technology working and configured how I need it to be. The "New" house is a set of portables which will have terrible technology. There is no doubt they will have it tough out there because it's only for one year and they aren't going to setup projectors, screens, vcr/dvd combos, etc. I would have to be setting all that up myself. AND only be in that room two periods out of seven! How could I even be sure it was in working condition from one day to the next. Or even still there and not stolen.
My counselor agreed that he could setup my schedule to keep me in one room. But, I would have to drop two of my World History Pre-AP honors classes and pick up two level classes. I was glad to do it. Last year I taught the level/pre-AP split and had the best year of teaching in my life. Sure it would be great to have 70 more honors kids that were wonderful students... but, at what cost? I would be disorganized, harried and frustrated by floating. I know that for a fact. And I would be 1/2 the teacher I could be. I would rather focus on the kids in one community and do my best job possible for them.
This was not an easy decision at first because "level" classes are also some times very "below level" classes. There is such a bigger risk of having kids that are super discipline problems - even for "The Teacher of the Year." :`)
By switching my schedule it also gives another teacher a better schedule. He will not have to commute or float from the Blue house to the White house. He will also be teaching ALL pre-Ap classes. He'll be a little nervous about that (he'll float between the new and blue houses - but they are very close to each other) because he has never taught Pre-AP before. But, as World History team leader, I will do everything I can to help him out. And he's a great teacher that deserves to be getting great kids. It's a better situation for him and for me. So I don't believe floating is the answer. In fact, where we can eliminate it there is help for both the teachers and students. The kids would tell Norma all year long, why are we not in "Your" room? That's the room where she spent 4 periods of the day in the Red House. They didn't get to see pictures of Aidan on her desk, their work and the work of all of the other classes were not on the wall to inspire them. And Norma had to teach out of a rolling cart. She would hope she didn't forget anything, like makeup tests, pencils, pens, gradebook, etc.
I am SUPER happy that I made the call and got my schedule changed. After all, how would it look for the person who has been most vocal about stopping floating wherever possible, to also be floating himself? Boy would I have had a rough year. Sure, I would have adjusted. But, it would have meant teaching a certain way in the White House (where I had enough technology to do it the way I am used to) to teaching a different style in the New House. I am much happier in the same room.
Not to mention the fact that I can keep an eye out for students in the halls and clean things up in our "flex areas" (those are places where students can lounge in nice chairs and tables between classes and go out there to tutor and study during class). We don't have enough teachers monitoring the hallways between classes because they are running from house to house or room to room floating all day.
Our flex areas. Did you have furniture in the hallways when you were a kid to lounge in? Boy are our kids spoiled today! Now I can settle my brain into thinking about how I am going to improve my World History classes and teach my AVID kids (I'll also have them from freshman year to senior year). I have a lot of great ideas for next year and some of them would have been spoiled had I had to float.
I have not even mentioned what is coming in our district - the elimination of a planning period for all teachers. The budget in Texas is horrible. They have frozen our funding at 2004 levels, yet we have added or will add 3 new big high schools since then. How can a district do it? Well, one way is to cut all Information Technology positions... which they are doing for next year. And then cut teachers (actually we are opening a new high school, so I believe the teachers that get cut from the high schools will be able to move there). They will give us an extra teaching period (cut out one planning period) and pay us the same money. Yeah! That sounds great! 35 more students and less planning time. Wooo Hooo. This will not happen until the 2008-2009 year.
The flex area is nice, but it's a lot more work for teachers to have to clean up after the students. It does add a sense of community though.BUT, the reason I explain this story is that teacher are going to have to teach multiple preps when those cut backs happen. So I believe our school needs to start preparing teachers to think about a secondary (or possibly) third area to teach. We need to think about this now to get people the training and materials they need to do their jobs the best that they can. But, I don't see that happening yet. Maybe it will be focus next year? But, I don't see it. What I see is setting us up for super failure by focusing teachers now on only ONE prep when that will not be the future for us.
Regardless, I have taken care of my situation. And I will be able to continue to do as good a job of teaching next year as I have done this past year. That makes me a lot happier!
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The past few days I have not been feeling well at all. Haven't been sleeping well. It makes perfect sense. In the back of my mind, I am dreading going home. Only because I will be front and center thinking about my dad and Norma's mom. It just isn't fair that they can't play with Aidan and that Aidan is never really going to know them. (only what we can tell him - and we will tell a lot)
