Anne Jolly's Diary

Entry 11: I left home today feeling optimistic and professional - navy suit, heels, and a briefcase (not leather) filled with copies of carefully-prepared materials, complete with borders, shading, and "drop cap" lettering. I had already touched base with the principals at these schools. This was "kick off" day, in a sense. We'd be discussing the Impact Team process at their schools.

My first stop was right out of the "How to Have a Perfect Day" manual. The principal at that middle school had already decided to use the Impact Team process as a way of strengthening students' writing abilities. Last year, he'd provided his language arts teachers with twelve hours of training in teaching writing. Great training - but little follow-through. No support base was in place to help his teachers make needed changes and incorporate those strategies. So, in this school, the language arts teachers and I will work together to set up that support base through this Impact Group process. Several of these teachers are really "dynamite!" The school's Title I Coordinator at the school met with us and will help to facilitate the process when I am not at the school. The principal is already interested in expanding the Impact Team process to the whole faculty next year if it proves effective in designing and sustaining good instructional practices. I left happily chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" under my breath.

Maybe that's why I was so stunned at my next stop. This principal, battling a barrage of problems, is overwhelmed with Stanford Achievement Test problems. His teachers - now under the gun - are focusing heavily on raising those test scores. He intends to hold off on any new initiatives, including this Impact Team process. As I walked through the school I noted the unfinished, unusable science lab. Workers had installed permanent structures in classrooms in bewildering places that blocked students' views of the only boards on the walls. To me, conditions like this make it even more crucial that teachers work together, support each other, and design and implement the kinds of good teaching practices that will really improve learning for their students. And that kind of instructional progress can't happen in one year. Yet, schools like this have a short time frame in which to raise standardized test scores, and feel compelled to try quick-fix approaches like focusing on the test. Oh well, the testing issue aside, this school isn't going to work with me. Not at all.

Entry 12: Still no progress with a third middle school where I was initially asked to work with math teachers. The situation there is delicate with regard to working with these teachers, who are already heavily involved in a math initiative and feeling defensive to boot. Maybe I can try a different approach and work with other teachers at the school (perhaps a group of four or five volunteers) to establish one Impact Team. I'm still struggling for a viable direction here.

Entry 13: Interesting stuff at my school today, where the whole faculty has agreed to participate in the Impact Team process! I met with eleven different teaching teams one at the time. My goal was to have each team identify their three top priorities in terms of data-based needs they felt they would like to work on this year. I was fascinated by the team personalities. One team of teachers - who I've privately dubbed the "Gung-Ho Group" had already decided on their top priority before I arrived. Driven by some irrational need to go through the motions, I still asked them to brainstorm additional ideas for possible consideration, and to choose three. They brainstormed exactly three ideas, then stopped. We all chuckled at my absurdity and I moved on.

Another team, the "Think-About-It Team" approached the process tentatively, painstakingly questioning each idea they came up with. They finally came up with five ideas, then settled cautiously on three. From that team, I stepped right into the "Brainstorm Brigade." With this group, ideas zoomed from everywhere at the same time. I almost ran out of chart paper. Narrowing their ideas down to three priorities was a real challenge for this team, and they tried to fold every idea they came up with under one of their three top priorities.

I'll combine and tally the information from these groups, and at the next faculty meeting I'll unveil the "top three" priorities. From there we'll narrow to one focus - maybe.

Entry 14: Worked on climate survey today - got bogged down. In a moment of clarity I realized that I must be able to identify exactly what behaviors and qualities teachers need to exhibit before I can develop questions to survey these. I need more research on this. Accordingly, I switched directions and worked on designing a training process for the Impact Teams. Predictably, I soon realized that I need more research and information for this as well. Obviously, the only benefit I derived from my efforts to be productive today was the progressive discovery of my ignorance.

Entry 15: Enter, the Cavalry! I took my survey/training process woes to Ruth Ash and Maurice Persall at Samford University. What a duo! They shared team-building activities, consensus-building methods, surveys they have developed, and ways to involve team members in ownership of the process. And they gave me three basic principles to remember.

That last thought is particularly comforting. More than ever, I realize that I don't have the answers. But I know more now than I did yesterday. Maybe by Monday I'll be really smart!