Standard Ten:
Collaboration
The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.
Artifact: EdCamp
Performance: 10(f) Engages in professional learning, contributes to the knowledge and skill of others, and works collaboratively to advance professional practice.
Essential Knowledge: 10(n) Knows how to work with other adults and has developed skills in collaborative interaction appropriate for both face-to-face and virtual contexts.
Critical Dispositions: 10(r) Takes initiative to grow and develop with colleagues through interactions that enhance practice and support student learning.
10(s) Takes responsibility for contributing to and advancing the profession.
10(t) Embraces the challenge of continuous improvement and change.
Description: EdCamp was a six hour professional development event held at Mt. Blue High School that brought together educators from all around the state to learn new skills in a variety of areas. EdCamp is a collaborative event where the schedule is determined the day of the session based on what people want to learn and what experts and professionals are present. Technology and assessment are two of the largest training areas that were present during this session of EdCamp. After attending EdCamp I wrote a reflection about my experience and received a certificate of completion from the organizers of the professional development day.
Rationale: EdCamp brought educators from around the state together and allowed me to learn from others about technologies and instructional practice that I have never even heard of. I made a decision to take six hours of my time on a Saturday learning how to integrate meaningful formative assessment apps into my instruction as well as lending my knowledge about effective mathematics instruction with elementary and secondary mathematics teachers. Engaging in this collaborative environment inspired me to try new things and work with others to do what is best for my students.
Artifact: Weekly Staff Meetings
Performance: 10(b) Works with other school professionals to plan and jointly facilitate learning on how to met diverse needs of learners.
10(c) Engages collaboratively in the school-wide effort to build a shared vision and supportive culture, identify common goals, and monitor and evaluate progress towards those goals.
10(e) Works with school colleagues to build ongoing connections with community resources to enhance student learning and well being.
Essential Knowledge: 10(l) Understands schools as organizations within a historical, cultural, political, and social context and knows how to work with others across the system to support learners.
10(o) Knows how to contribute to a common culture that supports high expectations for student learning.
Critical Dispositions: 10 (p) Actively shares responsibility for shaping and supporting the mission of her school as one of advocacy for learners and accountability for their success.
Description: Each week the staff of Mt. Blue Campus come together at 2pm on Thursdays (some weeks we also meet as an entire staff on Wednesday morning during late arrival) to discuss the current state of our campus and students. The hour long meeting is designed to get us discussing the needs of our students and school and how we can help in meeting those needs.
Rationale: Coming together as one campus means that both the teachers of of general curriculum courses and the instructors of the tech center collaborate to meet the needs of all the students on the campus. Throughout my 16 weeks the biggest topics have been the issue of poverty and the upcoming budget vote. Coming together as a staff is not easy because all teachers have different philosophies and views; taking the time and effort to put minor differences aside and focus on the larger school population by creating a shared vision brings positivity and successful outcomes for the students. Making these weekly commitments to discuss issues (small and large) helps bring the entire staff together with a central vision and focus on strategies to meet the needs of our students.