Yes, I think my school is a collaborative community. We work with an at risk population, it is very important we are all "on the same page". We start our day with a meeting for "plan of action for the day" and we meet again briefly at the end of the day just for an update on how the day went (problems, concerns, special circumstances...). We are a small school, so we work together pretty well.
I think our school is a collaborative community. We are a Title I school and we have a lot of other resources that help at risk kids. Last year, we had a Family Preservation worker come and spent the day with three 7th grade girls. Our school also works with a local out-reach program, called Mt. Rogers. They have counsellors who come in and work with students who are having trouble at home or school or just for social reasons. One thing I enjoy about working at our school is, its family oriented. We are split up into teams by different grade levels, but we all work and communicate well together. Another example, is our principal is working on a grant to promote an after school program which will require local area businesses to interact with local schools to promote a positive community outreach program. We hope this will better connect our parents, students, and other members of the community. Israel Easter
I do believe that one of my schools is a collaborative community. Eveyone like Regina said is on the same page. The school and the community both know and understand the goals that are to be accomplished. There is a great relationship between the two and a sense of trust of knowing the when resources and help is needed it is provided. Now on the other hand my other school is so far from being connected to the community it is sad. There is never any help nor collaboration that goes on. The school reaches out and puts forth an honest effort for the community to come on board. But the community seems not to care about the well being of the students whom of which are thier kids. It is hard to rely on a community that seems to put the students is contains last. I know I might soud harsh but I have been on a team of people trying to reverse this attitude and connection for two years and still seem to be going nowhere. Pardon me, but it pisses me off!
I believe my school is a collaborative community. While we are grouped to make it feel like a collaborative community, I think a sense of "crisis" is what actually brought our school together. For the past two years, we have struggled to meet AYP, each member of the faculty sacrificed for the school and felt the obligation to help our school succeed. We each put the students first and worked together with the goal of meeting AYP in mind. This sense of urgency really brought the school together. -- Jennifer Campbell
My school is a collaborative community. The school I work at is also a Title I school which allows classroom teachers and Title I teachers to work with students who struggle to keep their head above water. We also recently implemented the Family Preservation program as well. I believe that the staff in our school work well together and rely on each other for support. Everyone supports all efforts to make our school a safe and inviting place for children and adults. Our school also has a theme for each new school year that expresses goals to be met throughout the year. All of these things I believe brings our school together.
I would definitely say that my school is a collaborative community, especially with regards to our sixth and seventh-grade teams. For the past year, we have team taught. One A Day, I would teach my seventh graders as my sixth-grade counterpart came into my room and worked with me. On B Day she would instruct primarily her sixth graders, and I would be in with her to assist and to lend my expertise. This was very effect as our SOL test scores have shown this spring.
I also believe that collaboration is seen in the lower grades as well. At each grade level we have common planning in which we meet to address student needs, problem, concerns. And, certainly we plan with our subject area partner for the team teaching. At the lower levels, the teachers – through a grant – have day-long planning sessions periodically with substitutes in the classroom.
These are just two examples that indicate that collaborative efforts are part of my school’s efforts, showing that we are connected and working together for a common goal. However, I do not believe that we are solely a collaborative community. Certainly we demonstrate charac-teristics of the other six defined communities, according to Sergiovanni Movita Utt
Though I am not working at a school (I work "in" schools), or TTAC organization is definitely collaborative. Chapter 5 quotes Wilkins, "competence in any organization is rarely traced to a single individual." This is very true of the work we do. Each person, based on individual skills and talents, may make a unique contribution to an aspect of planning a school improvement plan (as an example), but the contribution does not stand alone; it is part of the overall technical assistance developed by our staff working collaboratively with the school.
I believe that my school is a collaborative community. I beleive that every teacher needs to get along and work together in order to make the school a better place for the students. As teachers we are grouped in "pods". This means the core teachers work in groups of four. We also meet within core areas. Teachers need to share their ideas with everyone in the school. Our school currently works with Mt. Rogers and other organizations that help council students that may need it.
Within my department we are definately a collaborative community. If an English teacher has a problem or needs a suggestion on teaching something, all we need to do is ask. We are all friends and share our personal and professional lives freely. As far as I can tell it is this way from department to department. As a school, we are not a collaborative community. Rarely do we step out of our departments to get to know other teachers and how they teach. We never see nor talk to the teachers in the technical center. Reading this chapter has helped me understand the reasons I feel unsatisfied with my school - the lack of community felt school-wide.
My school is a collaborative community in parts, most effectively within grade levels. Our upper grades teach content areas allowing us to specialize in certain areas. Our lower grades plan together, observe each other, and reflect on each others teaching. We do not, however, do much collaboratively across grade levels, which I feel is ashame. We all get along well as individuals, but do not take our individual talents and bring them together to make an effective community. This is something that is lacking at my school. Samantha Reed
My school is a collaborative community yes and no. I feel that at grade levels it is a collaborative community and when the principal makes teacher aware of situations we are collaborative, but consistently through the school, I would say no. I believe that schools sometimes have "clicks" in which teachers work together for such a time thats just what occurs. Not that it is totally negative, I just feel that takes away from being totally collaborative community.
My school is a collaborative community. We get together to discuss plans at grade-level and we also get together across grade-levels to discuss test scores and curriculum. As a faculty, we all get along pretty good. The main reason we are here is for the children. Therefore, everyone at our school does a pretty good job of getting together to make sure everything we are doing is in the best interst of the students.
I believe that my school community is reflective of a collaborative community. Working together for a common goal - student success. We involve members of the community such as Mt. Rogers school conselors, Social Services, and parents of students in making our school a better place. We are also in the process of setting up an after-school & summer program that would allow students to interact with community groups such as Reeves Community Center for physical fitness oppotunities and Surry Arts Council for visual and performing arts advancement. Within our school, teachers and administration work together to make decisions for the betterment of our school and students. I do see areas of improvement within our school that would lead us towards a better collaborative community, but without improvement opportutnties, we would become too comforatable in our situation.
I do believe our school is a collaborative community. Our faculty at the high school has formmed focus groups that meet monthly with the faculty of the middle school to improve on overall student achievement. We take into consideration what we think the students are lacking and strategies to help them succeed at the next grade level. The focus groups seemed to improve SOL scores and aided in our schools accreditation.
My community is a collaborative community with the common goal to help Radford University. Because one voice affects the perception of all others, we need a consistent message and feel a sense of interdependence. Further, because we are all working to achieve the same goal, if one part fails the other parts cannot meet that goal. There is a sense of mutual obligation as we are all responsible for raising money and the consquences of not doing so mean we could not have the necessary operating budget for the school, it's students, and our salaries amoungst other things. We are therefore interdependent in pursuing our common goal and we all benefit from another's success.
I definitely feel like my school community is a collaborative community. I teach in an open school and it is one of the most collaborative staffs I have worked with. Grade levels plan together. Gifted and special ed resource teachers collaborate daliy with teachers. Library, Art, and Music teachers incorporate the curricululm. Before SOL testing many teachers in the building offerred to help with remediation even if they were not a testing grade. We are all there for the one common purpose, the students. Eveyone works together to ensure that all students succeed! Christy Sparks
I think that our school is a collaborative community. We all have many different connections that have a mutual benefit. Most of the time, when there is anything that needs to be accomplished, you can find someone that can help you. The staff all has an understanding that there is a definite goal for the school. Everyone works together to achieve those goals. I like the people I work with do have interdependence and a moral obligation to each other. I great example would have to be during our SOL testing this year. Many staff members were pitching in to make sure testing went smoothly. This included helping with the testing procedures, administrating tests, proctoring test, as well as many other small tasks. Many of the things I witnessed went beyond what would have been they were obligated to having to do. Therefore, our school has many people in it that work hard to achieve the goals set, and take care of anything that needs to be done.
I do feel that my school has a collaborative community. We are all there for the same reasons and that is to make sure that each and every student succeeds. I have worked in a school where grade levels feel it is there job to take care of only their students' needs. However, where I am at now, we all work to ensure the success of each child no matter what the grade level. We feel obligated to ensure that everyone achieves to his or her ability.
I feel our school has a collaborative commnity. We work together in the internal and external community to make a team. Our school offers different types of community involvement to our students at risk. We work as a team to assure that all students get what they need to be successful. In our school vision I feel that our students are our first focus and a collaborative community is a large part of the success. Jamie Cain
My school has been a collaborative community in all twelve of the years I have been there. The word, "family" has been used many times to describe my school. The teachers all get along very well and care about the students. The teachers will share information about students to help the student's next teacher to be able to bond with them better and to know where to start with their education. We have a, "Sunshine Committee" that sends flowers, organizes food, sets up showers, or whatever for our staff needs if they might have a death in the family, illness, or marriage/shower. We also have, "A-team" meetings where we discuss each student monthly, whether it be of an academic, social, or emotional nature to help them reach their full potential. Our principal has worked with our teachers this year to make sure that we are communicating with and involving parents in order to make them feel like they are part of our school community. Shelly Goad
My school is a collaborative community. We have collaboration meetings once per week within grade levels, and once per month across grade levels. Those are scheduled and formal. I would say informal meetings as such happen daily. Title one, special ed., and reading specialists also collaborate with classroom teachers daily. They discuss strategies and teaching models, really they share all useful knowledge. Jacob Leonard
I think my school is very collaborative. I see continually the cooperation between academic and vocational teachers working to increase learning and helping individual students. This additionally creates an attitude of unity, common pruposes and goals, in addition to validation of each other and the overall "vision". Rusty
I agree with Christy. Yes my school is a collaborative community. When a new teacher comes on board the rest of that grade level team meets with them to share resources and planning ideas to make it easier to them as they transition in. The music and art teachers align their lessons to match our SOLs. Our librarian and gifted teachers are great at co-teaching with us. Angie Cornett
My school is a collaborative community. Yes, we share new ideas, materials, offer suggestions of what works best in certain grade levels. Some grade levels work together in the building with Reading Buddies. Our speciality teachers have helped out with remediation in the past. Title 1 works well throughout all grade levels. However, certain grade levels seem not to want to work together, which is sad when it shows up on the SOL results. I wish we could work together more than we do now. 100% would be nice. Melissa Gillie
Our school has become much more of a collaborative community as we have worked to reach AYP goals. External intervention has led to increased department planning, school-wide data analysis, and renewed commitment to working together to ensure the success of all children. As a result of an increased collaboration the school will meet its AYP goals for the first time since becoming a 6-7 grade school. Thanks, Marlin Campbell
I am sorry to say I do not think my entire school is a collaborative community. Many of the grade levels work well together, however we have a large clique who do not work well with others. They do not work well with most staff members. I try to stay in my class and work as do many other members of our staff. The sad thing is, I have worked at other schools and I know our school would be a much better place to work and learn if everyone would work together cooperatively. Some of the teachers I work with are so great. Misty Z
Giles is very much a collaborative community mainly for its size and personality of the community. The teachers, some who have to share classrooms, really support each other regardless of teaching styles and methods. We are always willing to introduce new strategies with each other, more collaboration on school improvement plans, and helping each other introduce techonology into the classroom to produce better learning environments.
Yes, I think my school is a collaborative community. We work with an at risk population, it is very important we are all "on the same page". We start our day with a meeting for "plan of action for the day" and we meet again briefly at the end of the day just for an update on how the day went (problems, concerns, special circumstances...). We are a small school, so we work together pretty well.
ReplyDeleteI think our school is a collaborative community. We are a Title I school and we have a lot of other resources that help at risk kids. Last year, we had a Family Preservation worker come and spent the day with three 7th grade girls. Our school also works with a local out-reach program, called Mt. Rogers. They have counsellors who come in and work with students who are having trouble at home or school or just for social reasons. One thing I enjoy about working at our school is, its family oriented. We are split up into teams by different grade levels, but we all work and communicate well together. Another example, is our principal is working on a grant to promote an after school program which will require local area businesses to interact with local schools to promote a positive community outreach program. We hope this will better connect our parents, students, and other members of the community. Israel Easter
ReplyDeleteI do believe that one of my schools is a collaborative community. Eveyone like Regina said is on the same page. The school and the community both know and understand the goals that are to be accomplished. There is a great relationship between the two and a sense of trust of knowing the when resources and help is needed it is provided. Now on the other hand my other school is so far from being connected to the community it is sad. There is never any help nor collaboration that goes on. The school reaches out and puts forth an honest effort for the community to come on board. But the community seems not to care about the well being of the students whom of which are thier kids. It is hard to rely on a community that seems to put the students is contains last. I know I might soud harsh but I have been on a team of people trying to reverse this attitude and connection for two years and still seem to be going nowhere. Pardon me, but it pisses me off!
ReplyDeletezack dotson carroll co-hort
I believe my school is a collaborative community. While we are grouped to make it feel like a collaborative community, I think a sense of "crisis" is what actually brought our school together. For the past two years, we have struggled to meet AYP, each member of the faculty sacrificed for the school and felt the obligation to help our school succeed. We each put the students first and worked together with the goal of meeting AYP in mind. This sense of urgency really brought the school together.
ReplyDelete-- Jennifer Campbell
My school is a collaborative community. The school I work at is also a Title I school which allows classroom teachers and Title I teachers to work with students who struggle to keep their head above water. We also recently implemented the Family Preservation program as well. I believe that the staff in our school work well together and rely on each other for support. Everyone supports all efforts to make our school a safe and inviting place for children and adults. Our school also has a theme for each new school year that expresses goals to be met throughout the year. All of these things I believe brings our school together.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely say that my school is a collaborative community, especially with regards to our sixth and seventh-grade teams. For the past year, we have team taught. One A Day, I would teach my seventh graders as my sixth-grade counterpart came into my room and worked with me. On B Day she would instruct primarily her sixth graders, and I would be in with her to assist and to lend my expertise. This was very effect as our SOL test scores have shown this spring.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that collaboration is seen in the lower grades as well. At each grade level we have common planning in which we meet to address student needs, problem, concerns. And, certainly we plan with our subject area partner for the team teaching. At the lower levels, the teachers – through a grant – have day-long planning sessions periodically with substitutes in the classroom.
These are just two examples that indicate that collaborative efforts are part of my school’s efforts, showing that we are connected and working together for a common goal. However, I do not believe that we are solely a collaborative community. Certainly we demonstrate charac-teristics of the other six defined communities, according to Sergiovanni
Movita Utt
Though I am not working at a school (I work "in" schools), or TTAC organization is definitely collaborative. Chapter 5 quotes Wilkins, "competence in any organization is rarely traced to a single individual." This is very true of the work we do. Each person, based on individual skills and talents, may make a unique contribution to an aspect of planning a school improvement plan (as an example), but the contribution does not stand alone; it is part of the overall technical assistance developed by our staff working collaboratively with the school.
ReplyDeleteI believe that my school is a collaborative community. I beleive that every teacher needs to get along and work together in order to make the school a better place for the students. As teachers we are grouped in "pods". This means the core teachers work in groups of four. We also meet within core areas. Teachers need to share their ideas with everyone in the school. Our school currently works with Mt. Rogers and other organizations that help council students that may need it.
ReplyDeleteCory Hawks- Carroll County Cohort
Within my department we are definately a collaborative community. If an English teacher has a problem or needs a suggestion on teaching something, all we need to do is ask. We are all friends and share our personal and professional lives freely. As far as I can tell it is this way from department to department. As a school, we are not a collaborative community. Rarely do we step out of our departments to get to know other teachers and how they teach. We never see nor talk to the teachers in the technical center. Reading this chapter has helped me understand the reasons I feel unsatisfied with my school - the lack of community felt school-wide.
ReplyDeleteMy school is a collaborative community in parts, most effectively within grade levels. Our upper grades teach content areas allowing us to specialize in certain areas. Our lower grades plan together, observe each other, and reflect on each others teaching. We do not, however, do much collaboratively across grade levels, which I feel is ashame. We all get along well as individuals, but do not take our individual talents and bring them together to make an effective community. This is something that is lacking at my school.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Reed
My school is a collaborative community yes and no. I feel that at grade levels it is a collaborative community and when the principal makes teacher aware of situations we are collaborative, but consistently through the school, I would say no. I believe that schools sometimes have "clicks" in which teachers work together for such a time thats just what occurs. Not that it is totally negative, I just feel that takes away from being totally collaborative community.
ReplyDeleteShane Reed CC
My school is a collaborative community. We get together to discuss plans at grade-level and we also get together across grade-levels to discuss test scores and curriculum. As a faculty, we all get along pretty good. The main reason we are here is for the children. Therefore, everyone at our school does a pretty good job of getting together to make sure everything we are doing is in the best interst of the students.
ReplyDeleteI believe that my school community is reflective of a collaborative community. Working together for a common goal - student success. We involve members of the community such as Mt. Rogers school conselors, Social Services, and parents of students in making our school a better place. We are also in the process of setting up an after-school & summer program that would allow students to interact with community groups such as Reeves Community Center for physical fitness oppotunities and Surry Arts Council for visual and performing arts advancement. Within our school, teachers and administration work together to make decisions for the betterment of our school and students. I do see areas of improvement within our school that would lead us towards a better collaborative community, but without improvement opportutnties, we would become too comforatable in our situation.
ReplyDeleteI do believe our school is a collaborative community. Our faculty at the high school has formmed focus groups that meet monthly with the faculty of the middle school to improve on overall student achievement. We take into consideration what we think the students are lacking and strategies to help them succeed at the next grade level. The focus groups seemed to improve SOL scores and aided in our schools accreditation.
ReplyDeleteMy community is a collaborative community with the common goal to help Radford University. Because one voice affects the perception of all others, we need a consistent message and feel a sense of interdependence. Further, because we are all working to achieve the same goal, if one part fails the other parts cannot meet that goal. There is a sense of mutual obligation as we are all responsible for raising money and the consquences of not doing so mean we could not have the necessary operating budget for the school, it's students, and our salaries amoungst other things. We are therefore interdependent in pursuing our common goal and we all benefit from another's success.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel like my school community is a collaborative community. I teach in an open school and it is one of the most collaborative staffs I have worked with. Grade levels plan together. Gifted and special ed resource teachers collaborate daliy with teachers. Library, Art, and Music teachers incorporate the curricululm. Before SOL testing many teachers in the building offerred to help with remediation even if they were not a testing grade. We are all there for the one common purpose, the students. Eveyone works together to ensure that all students succeed! Christy Sparks
ReplyDeleteI think that our school is a collaborative community. We all have many different connections that have a mutual benefit. Most of the time, when there is anything that needs to be accomplished, you can find someone that can help you. The staff all has an understanding that there is a definite goal for the school. Everyone works together to achieve those goals. I like the people I work with do have interdependence and a moral obligation to each other. I great example would have to be during our SOL testing this year. Many staff members were pitching in to make sure testing went smoothly. This included helping with the testing procedures, administrating tests, proctoring test, as well as many other small tasks. Many of the things I witnessed went beyond what would have been they were obligated to having to do. Therefore, our school has many people in it that work hard to achieve the goals set, and take care of anything that needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteJason Morris
I do feel that my school has a collaborative community. We are all there for the same reasons and that is to make sure that each and every student succeeds. I have worked in a school where grade levels feel it is there job to take care of only their students' needs. However, where I am at now, we all work to ensure the success of each child no matter what the grade level. We feel obligated to ensure that everyone achieves to his or her ability.
ReplyDeleteI feel our school has a collaborative commnity. We work together in the internal and external community to make a team. Our school offers different types of community involvement to our students at risk. We work as a team to assure that all students get what they need to be successful. In our school vision I feel that our students are our first focus and a collaborative community is a large part of the success. Jamie Cain
ReplyDeleteMy school has been a collaborative community in all twelve of the years I have been there. The word, "family" has been used many times to describe my school. The teachers all get along very well and care about the students. The teachers will share information about students to help the student's next teacher to be able to bond with them better and to know where to start with their education. We have a, "Sunshine Committee" that sends flowers, organizes food, sets up showers, or whatever for our staff needs if they might have a death in the family, illness, or marriage/shower. We also have, "A-team" meetings where we discuss each student monthly, whether it be of an academic, social, or emotional nature to help them reach their full potential. Our principal has worked with our teachers this year to make sure that we are communicating with and involving parents in order to make them feel like they are part of our school community.
ReplyDeleteShelly Goad
My school is a collaborative community. We have collaboration meetings once per week within grade levels, and once per month across grade levels. Those are scheduled and formal. I would say informal meetings as such happen daily. Title one, special ed., and reading specialists also collaborate with classroom teachers daily. They discuss strategies and teaching models, really they share all useful knowledge.
ReplyDeleteJacob Leonard
I think my school is very collaborative. I see continually the cooperation between academic and vocational teachers working to increase learning and helping individual students. This additionally creates an attitude of unity, common pruposes and goals, in addition to validation of each other and the overall "vision".
ReplyDeleteRusty
I agree with Christy. Yes my school is a collaborative community. When a new teacher comes on board the rest of that grade level team meets with them to share resources and planning ideas to make it easier to them as they transition in. The music and art teachers align their lessons to match our SOLs. Our librarian and gifted teachers are great at co-teaching with us. Angie Cornett
ReplyDeleteMy school is a collaborative community. Yes, we share new ideas, materials, offer suggestions of what works best in certain grade levels. Some grade levels work together in the building with Reading Buddies. Our speciality teachers have helped out with remediation in the past. Title 1 works well throughout all grade levels. However, certain grade levels seem not to want to work together, which is sad when it shows up on the SOL results. I wish we could work together more than we do now. 100% would be nice. Melissa Gillie
ReplyDeleteOur school has become much more of a collaborative community as we have worked to reach AYP goals. External intervention has led to increased department planning, school-wide data analysis, and renewed commitment to working together to ensure the success of all children. As a result of an increased collaboration the school will meet its AYP goals for the first time since becoming a 6-7 grade school. Thanks, Marlin Campbell
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to say I do not think my entire school is a collaborative community. Many of the grade levels work well together, however we have a large clique who do not work well with others. They do not work well with most staff members. I try to stay in my class and work as do many other members of our staff. The sad thing is, I have worked at other schools and I know our school would be a much better place to work and learn if everyone would work together cooperatively. Some of the teachers I work with are so great. Misty Z
ReplyDeleteGiles is very much a collaborative community mainly for its size and personality of the community. The teachers, some who have to share classrooms, really support each other regardless of teaching styles and methods. We are always willing to introduce new strategies with each other, more collaboration on school improvement plans, and helping each other introduce techonology into the classroom to produce better learning environments.
ReplyDelete