Confirmation of my attendance at the Belt School's PIR Day can be found at following link:
Every quarter, Belt Schools has one half day for
professional training: PIR. The students
are only in school until lunch and the classes are shortened to half-an-hour to
accommodate this. Then, in the
afternoon, all the teachers get together for some kind of formal training. During my time student teaching, I attended
two of these PIR days and got a real taste of what a teacher is responsible for
out of the classroom. This second PIR
day was especially helpful to me since it took place during my fourth-to-last
week of student teaching (rather than the first which took place during my
second week in Belt). At this PIR meeting,
I got to participate in helping the teachers create the school goals and
develop the school schedule for the 2014-2015 school year.
The PIR meeting was facilitated by Belt School’s
Superintendant. The first order of
business was to create school-wide annual goals. Apparently, at other meetings and in
discussions around the building, it has become clear to the administration that
the teachers are not aware of the school-wide annual goals. The Superintendant felt it was necessary to
make sure that all the teachers were aware of what they were working toward, so
to begin the PIR day, we began by creating goals. First, we had to come up with three goals:
one professional, one instructional, and one behavioral goal. Since my exposure to the school and interaction
with the other teachers and administrators has been fairly minimal (when
compared to the tenured teachers), I was unsure of what I thought the annual
school goals should be.
I considered my exposure to the school, however, and
formed some ideas. I felt that there
needed to be more of a policy in place for students who miss school for
school-directed extra-curricular activities.
I also thought that the behavioral idea of “being a Husky” (the school’s
mascot) needed to be incorporated more into the high school. I work with the elementary students after
school and I constantly hear teachers complimenting students on “being a
Husky:” reinforcing the behavioral model for students. I was unable to come up with a professional
goal because I was unsure what sort of professional goals could be set
school-wide.
After working individually, we got a partner and
pair/shared. My partner had been
teaching at Belt for two years, so had a bit more experience than myself. Her professional goal was to establish a
mentoring program for new teachers. We
also discussed the implementation of Common Core into the school. After meeting with our partner, we broke off
into three groups and were responsible for coming up with goals as a group.
My group contained teachers from different subjects and
ages, which provided a lively discussion.
For the majority of these discussions, I just listened to the
teachers. I did not feel I was well
enough informed about the different ideas that the teachers were
discussing. Additionally, these teachers
have a much more complicated and sophisticated outlook on their school and what
their school needs. However, just
listening to the teachers provided incredible insight and perspective on the
teaching profession and authentic thoughts of the teachers. Ultimately, my group’s final goals were to
implement Indian Education for All more formally and consistently into lesson
plans, implement the “Great 8” (behavioral models) into every classroom, and
establish a mentoring program for new teachers.
Finally, we presented these goals to the other groups. Now, the superintendant is going to send out
the different goals so everyone can review them and decide which they think are
the most important for the upcoming school year.
The rest of the meeting focused on new pieces of
legislation and requirements for schools.
Most of this involved the review and observation process for new and
tenured teachers. Finally, the teachers,
led by the superintendant, discussed the 2014-2015 school year. Belt Schools does not currently meet the
requirements mandated by the state for the number of minutes students must be
in school. To meet this goal, the
superintendant proposed moving to a seven-period class day (as opposed to the
eight-period class day). Making this
change would save enough minutes over the school year that Belt would meet the
requirement.
The discussion that followed was extremely interesting
(and slightly frustrating) to observe.
It became clear incredibly quickly that the majority of the teachers (at
least those that voiced their opinions) were opposed to moving to a
seven-period class day. The teachers
felt that that a seven-period class day would eliminate many electives and
cause too many conflicts between classes that students need to or want to
take. Also, the middle school teachers
were upset because the proposed model would eliminate the block of classes that
provides additional support for struggling Jr. High students. The teachers also questioned whether the
school calendar could be changed so that students would be in class for more
than the current number of days.
Teachers suggested eliminating President’s Day as a day off and
beginning school a day early.
What I found frustrating about this discussion was how
defensive the superintendant and teachers became. For instance, the teachers constantly pointed
out flaws in the superintendant’s proposed model of a school day even though
the superintendant constantly reminded them it was only a draft and not the
final model. Teachers were also looking
out for their own classes and not the school day as a whole. Additionally, the superintendant seemed
unwilling to listen to anyone’s proposals other than her own model. Eventually, no decision came to fruition and
the superintendant encouraged teachers to talk to her in her office and email
her with their ideas.
Upon reflection and after discussing the meeting with
some teachers, I thought that such a large discussion was not plausible and
possible with such a large number of people in the same room. Instead, a committee should have been
established that could create possible solutions to the problem. I think this would have eliminated much confusion
and bickering and produced a more successful and focused discussion.
More than anything, this PIR meeting demonstrated to me
teachers’ responsibilities out of the classroom. For the most part of my student teaching
experience, I have been in the classroom.
The PIR meeting was a great opportunity for me to see teachers out of
the classroom. I was impressed with how
much responsibility each of the teachers take on. Many of the teachers are on additional
committees. Additionally, the teachers have
to be aware of all the implications of their schedules and how their classes
meet the requirements of the school, state, and nation. Unfortunately, it seems that teachers have to
spend more time double-checking themselves against these requirements than
creating meaningful lessons.
This PIR meeting taught me just how much more information
I need to know in order to be a competent teacher. College prepares you as best as it can, but
there is still so much more knowledge to be learned. Most of this information is something you can
only learn on the job. However, this was
still a great introduction to the life of a teacher outside of the classroom
and a wake-up call for the breadth of information that must be attained to
become a successful teacher.
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