Alone we can do so Little, Together we can do so Much

By: Leah Turner

I am no stranger to education. I grew up the daughter of an assistant superintendent and high school guidance counselor, and the granddaughter of an elementary teacher. I have spent 23 1/2 years in education, first as an aide and then spending the last 22 years in the classroom. I hold several leadership certificates, including a K-12 principalship. I am currently serving as a seventh grade writing teacher.

My style of leadership lends itself to the phrase "it takes a village". One person can have a great idea but if your staff doesn't buy in, then it is just an idea. Education is a collaborative effort among all members in a school. In order for everyone to be successful within a school, all have to contribute. My home school has done just that this past year. We have pioneered an RTI program complete with monitored data to support our efforts to bring our students to proficiency.

Our students begin their preschool years behind students in urban areas. This deficiency is not easily overcome. We are providing every student in our building with an extra 25 focussed minutes in reading and math each day. The fall and winter MAP scores reflected that our efforts are making a difference. Every teacher in our building has become a leader this year to facilitate this change.

The idea of teaching two more classes met with some opposition at the beginning of the year, but teachers soon found that the students’ needs were great and the teacher spirit kicked in to help our students. Our job is to make a better way for our students and to that end, we set our course. Even though the Enrichment and Tier 1 classes tend to be large, the teachers for those groups find ways to challenge their students. Tier 2 and Tier 3 teachers have found ways to make each child feel valued and accepted, and those students reciprocate by giving their best in class, and on assessments.

Our school purchased grade level materials at the beginning of the year for us to use, but when your students aren’t on grade level, you must find or develop resources. Those of us who teach Tier 2 and Tier 3 have sought out resources to help our students be successful. It has been quite rewarding to see students’ scores improving from fall to winter. We hope to see that trend continue with the spring scores and students’ attitudes toward their learning continue to shine.

I hope that I always remember that education never pivots around one person but around our colleagues and most of all our students. This experience reminds me of a meaningful statement from Helen Keller: "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much."

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.

Bread Loaf Teacher Network

By: Christopher McCurry

The Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN) is a community of teachers, students, and administrators affiliated with the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Supported during the academic year by Bread Loaf staff and faculty, its primary goal is to encourage year-round collaboration among Bread Loaf teachers, faculty, and their students on innovative projects designed to promote culturally sensitive and transformative literacies. 

Kentucky BLTN, plans, organizes, and hosts bi-annual meetings that connect students and high school teachers with an international community of educators and peers, as well as showcases the collaborative projects designed by BLTN teachers and students. These projects are the heart of the network and the focus of the partnership between the C.E. & S. foundation, which provides generous fellowships to Kentucky teachers each year to attend the Bread Loaf School of English.

We are proud to say that several of our collaborations have received local, state, and national attention as innovative ways to teach standards and assess students. Brent Peters and Paul Barnwell of Fern Creek collaborated with their colleagues and the Navajo Nation to explore food literacy. Their ongoing partnership culminated in the creation of the Navajo Kentuckians. Other projects have included, student constructed community performances, and an online journal seeking to connect students through the idea of home.

BLTN is open to all teachers and students of literacy, no matter the subject or grade level. Educators interested in joining will find energetic, hardworking, student-centered network. Yearly projects are planned in the summer and implemented throughout the school year. The next Kentucky Bread Loaf Teacher Network meeting will be May 16th. If you’d like to attend contact Christopher McCurry: christopher.mccurry@fayette.kyschools.us.

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.

Connected Educator Month 2014

Connected Educator Month is upon us, and we have big plans with our partners again this year. We think it’s important to consider how far we have come since last October and recognize that connectedness extends beyond one month of the year. Connectedness also extends beyond our classrooms, schools, and districts. We have more Kentucky teachers and administrators connecting with one another online, engaging in conversations, supporting and learning from one another.

Kentucky is known nationally for our ability to bring in multiple stakeholders and also for our longstanding practice of having numerous partners collaborating. Connected Educator Month provides us a chance to highlight the collaboration. At the end of last year’s Connected Educator Month, The Fund, KDE, and Hope Street Group collaboratively blogged about the experience and how we met our objectives. Some of our reflection was focused on the tools and platforms we used to connect, but more importantly, we focused on the impact these connections have on students.

For 2014, we will continue the emphasis of connecting to improve student learning, and we will also emphasize the importance of considering how community leaders, business leaders, and education leaders work together to impact students.

Each day in October, we will highlight one connected educator, and we will also provide a few suggestions each day for how you can participate in connected educator month. Stay tuned and get connected!

Want to participate? Consider:

• Following our blog daily where we will highlight a different educator each day in October
• Attending our Innovate: Education Summit on October 21

Are You Ready for Connected Educator Month?

By:  Renee Boss

We are only ten days away from the launch of Connected Educator Month (#ce13). At The Fund, we have decided to participate, and we would like to encourage you to participate as well.

Not sure what being a connected educator means?  Basically, you are a connected educator when you are learning and connecting to other educators across school, district, state, and country lines.  By connecting beyond your own location you learn and develop your own professional learning community (#PLN).

Over the next few weeks we will finalize our plans about how we will participate and promote Connected Educator Month, but we'll let you in on a few of our ideas thus far.

During October's #ce13


We will highlight Kentucky teachers who are engaged, connected, continuously learning, giving, and receiving from others within our state and beyond our state.  We also hope to showcase collaboration globally because we know Kentucky educators connect with educators across the world.  While one social media platform over another is not necessarily best, we will be using Twitter, Facebook, our blog, Linkedin and perhaps some other online collaboration tools as well.   The point is to be involved!

Our staff members will continue with twitter chats launched by Kentucky teacher Donnie Piercy and encourage educators and community members to join those chats, too.  All of us together have the potential to impact education in positive and meaningful ways.  Join us Thursdays 8 pm #KyEdChat.

We will emphasize digital citizenship week October 21-25 by providing suggestions and ideas for teachers to try in their classrooms with students.

We welcome your ideas, feedback and participation in ways that makes sense to you.

Connected Educator Resources:

The Cruciality of Connected Educators
http://connectedlearning.tv/karen-cator-cruciality-connected-educator-month

The Connected Educator Month Starter Kit
http://connectededucators.org/cem/cem-getting-started/

District Toolkit for Connected Educators
http://plpnetwork.com/2013/09/13/connected-educator-month-district-toolkit-released/

National Association of Elementary School Principals
http://www.naesp.org/communicator-september-2013/sign-now-connected-educator-month-resources

National Writing Project
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/4195

Online Tools Essential for Collaobrating Across States

 Using online tools such as Google Hangout, Google Docs, WebEx, and Twitter, Kentucky teachers are showing they will do what it takes to make a collaboration project with Colorado teachers benefit their students.  As mentioned in the previous Common Assignment post, teachers are collaborating across states to create common units of study. 

While the bulk of the fall unit preparation was completed face-to-face in Seattle over the summer, teachers are currently refining and revising the units of study now that they have met their students and have a better understanding of what each student needs to be successful.  Anyone who has ever been a teacher will tell you, your work doesn't end when the final bell rings at the end of each day.  Kentucky and Colorado teachers are collaborating after school hours and even on the weekends to make this project a success.  According to English teacher, Sherri McPherson, the benefit of this collaborative project is the team of teachers from two states teaching at the same time and making adjustments based on feedback they provide to each other.  They are in this work together with "no lone wolves."

Lafayette High English Teacher, Sherri McPherson, collaborating online Sunday afternoon

Common Assignment Study

By:  Renee Boss

The Common Assignment Study is a research study bringing together teachers from Kentucky and Colorado with a mission of creating units of study that will meet the demands of learning needed to ensure College and Career Readiness. English language arts, science, and social studies teachers from both states gathered recently in Seattle to begin creating the first unit they will teach this fall.  Based on recent successes with Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) in our state and across the nation, the research study extends the use of LDC as it was always intended to be a module within a larger unit of study.  Though the units being designed include embedded LDC modules within a context of Understanding by Design (UbD), they also leave room for some teacher flexibility to meet the needs of individual students in each classroom.

With support from content experts at Stanford Center for Assessment Learning and Equity (SCALE), the teachers are emerging as teacher leaders who know what good teaching looks like.  With Kentucky’s new Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES) emphasizing the importance of every student being taught by an effective teacher and every school being led by an effective principal, one hope is that the Common Assignment Study (CAS) is in a unique position to inform the various measures.

In addition to the teachers working collaboratively with one another, there are numerous organizations collaborating to support the work.  Already mentioned is the support of SCALE; the Kentucky Department of Education serves as a thought partner on the project, and The Fund continues to learn from the Colorado Legacy Foundation (an organization similar to The Fund that was established several years ago).  Of course, a research study would not be complete without researchers (Center for Assessment and Research for Action), and none of the work would be happening without the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

U.S. History teachers share their unit overview

In an upcoming post we will share more details about the project partners.  If you have questions about the Common Assignment Study, please contact Renee Boss at renee.boss@thefundky.org.