Teacher Voice through Focus Notes

By: Jan Horn & Travis Marcum

Every teacher has a voice but having that voice heard is sometimes a challenge in our busy educational lives. Teachers have a multitude of ideas and concerns, and other than speaking to our close colleagues, those thoughts stay swirling in our minds without ever reaching the outside corridors in order to spark positive change. Having an avenue to share Teacher Voice with all stakeholders is crucial in implementing a coherent work environment that is conducive to learning for all students and staff.

With that charge being given, Travis Marcum and I decided to call a meeting with our superintendent, building principal, and district technology staff in order to brainstorm avenues for possible teacher voice platforms. Travis and I both knew that the platform must be easily accessed and easily navigated in order for teachers to not feel overwhelmed by one more thing to do. We also mulled over ideas on how to set norms for the voice topics so ideas posted would bring about positive change and not a gripe session of issues out of our control. Then, with a stroke of good luck, the Fayette County Kentucky Learning Center faculty was in the building that same day conducting a walk-through to address any issues we were having with a current system we were already piloting. This eOS system is called “Transformations” and is a software used to record students’ employable skills throughout the school day. The creators of this unique system were invited to sit in our meeting and the discussion exploded!

The room of stakeholders quickly realized that we already had a system that would serve our purposes successfully. The Transformations software could be used to create "focus notes" for teachers to collaborate regularly and conveniently. Travis and I were eager to move forward with this idea as every teacher in our building was already using the system and were comfortable with it, thus meeting two of our concerns for sharing teacher voice. The superintendent wanted to learn more and was eager to have himself and other district support staff added to the unique feature the system calls focus notes.

Since this meeting, we have added content groups within the focus notes, a way to organize comments so that teachers can easily access a note to their content areas to share their voices. Through this system, teachers are also able to store conversations as well as check off the common core standards for PGES that meet the confines of the discussion, the things that were accomplished or resolved.

Even though we found a great avenue for teacher voice through focus notes, there is still much work to be accomplished. The system is constantly updating which gives teachers some anxiety. Furthermore, teachers feel overwhelmed with the many focus notes that come through daily, both from teachers and students. Therefore, our next steps to improve are to encourage teachers in our building to share the many awesome things going on in their classrooms so that the rest of the school and all stakeholders can celebrate and borrow their fantastic ideas.

Teacher voice and leadership are the changes that must take place to nurture and ensure student achievement and teacher morale in this new day of public education. Let the change begin.

For more information, contact Jan Horn or Travis Marcum.

This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.