Anne Jolly's Diary

Entry 36: A red, cartoon-style apple flexes an impressive set of biceps on the cover of the first project newsletter, - "News With an Impact." Proudly carrying 20 color copies of this newly-birthed document, I entered each team's workroom and left a copy on the table - aware that the colorful layout would catch teachers' attention. Perhaps they will read the summaries I prepared of what each team is doing, the updates on the Impact project, and the humorous teaching-related "wishes" for the new year.

Only half of the school year remains. The project structure is in place and regular collaborative team meetings are underway. Yet, none of that guarantees that the project will be successful. In reality, this project will linger in infancy until real results begin to emerge in terms of teacher and student learning. I thought long and hard about how to spur that growth process, and decided to begin by improving communications among teams. So far, the following items adorn my "to do" list. 1. Distribute a newsletter every week to spotlight team activities. 2. Put copies of teams' weekly logs, along with feedback forms, in the teacher workroom. 3. Meet weekly (and briefly) with each Impact Team. 4. Contact teachers regularly through E-mail to keep them thinking about the process. 5. Arrange for some faculty meetings to be devoted to team-sharing. 6. Arrange for occasional departmental meetings so that subject area teachers can exchange ideas.

Entry 37: The Gold Files came in today! What an incredible resource! I'm happily astonished at the quality and quantity of information and usable teaching strategies they contain. This Internet resource may be my most productive "find" of the year for providing teachers current research. The first file has 19 articles on Mathematics and Writing. The second file includes 22 articles on Writing Across the Curriculum.

Grabbing both files, I charged down the hall, eager to share this information with the 7th grade teachers during their planning time. But the atmosphere in those team areas caught me off-guard. Frustration and discouragement spilled from from the faces of these capable teachers. They had just been hit with the news that from henceforth and forevermore they must document the exact day(s) on which they teach every standard on the High School Graduation Exam, the Stanford Achievement Test, and the Alabama State Course of Study. According to my quick mental calculations, that's about two hundred standards per subject to document. Since all other standards are correlated with the state courses of study, teachers are understandably confused about the purpose of this redundant (and time-consuming) documentation. Why not just document the state course of study standards? The apparent rationale for this latest overkill decree goes like this: the required documentation will supposedly provide protection for the state and school system in the event that students sue because they don't pass the exit exams. To provide further protection (I suppose), all teacher plan books in every subject area will now follow a specific, predetermined format. I'm guessing that means another valuable teacher inservice during which successful, veteran teachers will be "trained" on how to write lesson plans.

Some days I honestly wonder if anyone cares whether teachers prepare for and teach students. Or is the whole instructional process just something teachers do on the side while they take care of "important" stuff like excessive documentation, clerical and administrative work, and other non-instructional responsibilities?

Anyway, teachers were feeling down this morning. I don't blame them. I discussed this latest demand on teachers' time with the principal. He agreed that a team of teachers could take a look at the load of administrative and clerical work and other non-instructional responsibilities, and determine whether anything can be done to free up more time for teachers to focus on their real job: planning for students and teaching them effectively.

Entry 38: Tile now covers part of the concrete floor in school #2. Amazing what a little tile can do to improve the mood of a school! Today I met with the two language arts teams there. After going over their action plans and logs, I realize that these teams need more information, communication, and encouragement than I'm providing. I prepared a newsletter for this school to spotlight their team efforts. (It features that tough looking apple logo.) I arranged regular weekly meeting times. I got email addresses so that I can stay in closer touch. I showed teams the Gold Files and we discussed topics on which they might want to request information. Their principal willingly agreed to order and pay for any files they request. Yet I wonder if a weekly presence will be adequate here. That's something I need to consider in determining how much of on-site availablility the project needs in order to be successful in helping students and teachers.

Since the Impact Team members in this school have no common planning times, they meet before and/or after school. As a reward for their hard work, the principal is allowing these teachers to substitute Impact Team for scheduled professional development days. What a great incentive! I'm also trying to arrange for teachers who are participating in the Impact Team process to get professional development credits.

Entry 39: Team 7 (a code name) at my school acts as my sounding board. I taught on this team last year and I depend on these teachers not to pull any punches concerning what they think about the Impact Team process. While they are not outwardly bouncing with enthusiasm today (they're in the "documentation overwhelm" mode), they unanimously agree that it makes good sense for teachers to get together regularly to focus on students and instruction. They also have a suggestion for the next teacher professional development day - let the faculty engage in strategy-sharing sessions to learn what other teams and teachers are doing that works. Yes! They are enthusiastic enough about the process to want to "chunk" the traditional workshop approach and to hold teacher discussions around students and learning. I consider that real progress!

Entry 40: Like students, teams advance at different rates. One Impact Team took a reflective look at their current direction. As a result, they rewrote their action plan. Another team built a web page for displaying and publishing their students' writing. A teacher on yet another team ordered two books on teacher research and donated these to the teacher resource center in the library. The great thing is that I didn't know how he felt about this process.

Then there's the "enigma" team. They appear to lack any enthusiasm for process. Yet, their action plan and the procedures in their logs reflect frequent meetings, team examination of student work, and efforts to document progress in student writing. Another team concerns me because they do not like working together as a team. They are individualistic in their teaching approaches, and I get the feeling that Impact Team meetings are merely an exercise. Today, one member of this team casually mentioned various kinds of training she has in teaching writing. Bingo! I asked her if she would share her knowledge at a faculty meeting. She brightened and agreed. Maybe I can make believers out of this team by pulling in one member at a time.

So much to accomplish. Half of the school year remains. When did the school year become so short?