Equity Spark!
Lightning flashes, deep in thought analyzing what others have brought to the table, trying to make sense of everything we’ve discussed in class and then all of a sudden like a flash, it appears in front of me.
After class tonight, Im not too sure what the finished product is supposed to be. I initially wrote about bullying in my advisory class and tying to establish some precursors to bullying that teachers can agree on to look out for. At my site, we are trying to find a way to put our Anti-Bullying campaign into action. We have the pledge, we have the t-shirts, now what are we doing about it. I talked to a few teachers at my site about further developing the campaign and I have a feeling that a few of them think it is a joke, as do a few of the 8th grade students. After talking briefly with a close teacher/friend, she stated that she did not feel that the administration would back up any bullying problems in regards to discipline of the students. Our teachers have this idea that discipline is not being carried out by the administration and it is a real hot button issue with my principal. Things have gotten uncomfortable at a few staff meetings in regards to teachers “calling out” that the discipline policy was followed for one student, but not for another, Major Equity Issue happening there....yea, don’t want to go there yet.
I think I could start to deepen the campaign with an action component that all of the advisory teachers could carry out. This would require a group meeting to discuss the lesson(s) we teach to our students about bullying and planning out the discussions to be had in each classroom.
I could also start to gather students thoughts about bullying from my own class. DING!!! DING!!!(2)
What if all advisory teachers asked their students to respond to the bullying campaign so far.
What do the students see?
What do they Feel?
Is it working?
Is there still a problem?
Brainstorm on these questions with Nicole....maybe it could come from a student?
Student Voice
IDEA! Use this as an opportunity to collaborate with all staff and students....Creating a culture of collaboration.
As Stacey and Rob said before, sometimes what your looking for just appears.
Here it goes......
The situation/need/introduction
This is the second year that our school has implemented a school wide 30 minute reading advisory block into our 4 period AB block schedule. I feel that the purpose of this advisory was not initially clear to the staff and that each teacher interprerets the requirements, expectations and purpose of the class differently. It is within the context of this class that I would like to attempt to reach out to my colleagues in a collaborative effort to tackle and support an issue students around the world are facing, bullying and equity. At the middle school level there are so many things that effect our students. A safe, welcoming, equitible environment needs to be at the top of the priority list for teachers and administrators. Unfortunately many times are schools are organized around student performance data and raising test scores. Each grade level is separated into three teams of students. Each student has the same three core teachers for the year. This helps to create a smaller community of students within each grade that become a support network in each of their classes. The only setting where the students mix with other teams are the elective and PE classes and of course at lunch. I feel that bullying has and will exist at every school at some level. If we cannot eliminate it completely, we must teach every student how to proactively deal with issues surrounding bullying and equity. I feel that most of our students on campus would agree that it is a safe and welcoming environement. Our digital literacy teachers have spearheaded this by starting an “anti-bullying” campaign within their classes. They created and shared a schoolwide assembly with every grade level. They also share weekly updates and support the campaign on the weekly school broadcast. This action is a first for our school and I am very excited for an opportunity to start collaborating with the entire school staff. As with anything new, there is always doubt. Will the students “buy-in”? Will teachers support it? What changes will we see?
In the weeks following the introduction of the campaign, I still saw some troubling behaviors with students. I saw students making a “mockery” of the campaign within my classroom, hallways and while at lunch. I would see kids teasing each other in the hall and then another student would use “that” voice and say “Take a Stand” the phrase chosen for our campaign. I was upset that students were making fun of the campaign but more upset that they did not respect the seriousness of the issue. I knew we would have students, mostly eighth graders that would say things like this after the campaign to their friends meerly for the purpose of going against “the system” and being cool. However, the seriousness of this issue for me as a teacher is that the stakes are too high for any student to be a victim of bullying. So after all this has gone down, what is being done?
In a discussion with one of my close colleagues we talked about the campaign and if she had had any issues in her classes. Are teachers talking about bullying in their advisory classes? What teachable moments have teachers experienced to address bullying? What do teachers consider bullying? It became apparent that different teachers may have very different views on what constitutes bullying and what does not and that a few of the teachers may have the same attitudes as the eighth graders but for a much different reason. An underlying issue is that our teachers have felt that for a number of years the administration has not followed through with discipline policies equally for all students. This has become a very sensitive issue within our staff members and although they may feel like the anit-bullying campaign is a great idea, the administration will not carry out appropriate discipline if and when a real issue arises. As a result of this lack of belief, I think we have teachers that don’t really do much to support the campaign. What is the purpose if it won’t be supported? We need collaborative action.
Action/Planning: Create a project/lesson plan that advisory teachers can carry out to further strengthen our community stand against bullying. First I want to meet with a small group of interested teachers to start a discussion on what bullying looks like and what behaviors are precursors to bullying. From this discussion we could stem discussion questions for the rest of the staff and get their input. I am also curious to know what students think about the campaign so far, so as a small group we will come up with a series of questions to discuss with our advisory students. We will have a student panel to help generate these questions alongside us.
Action/Implementation: To start the action part of the campaign for students and staff, advisory teachers will lead a discussion within their classes. From their discussions teachers will gather student input about the campaign and report their findings back to myself and the digital literacy team. This first interaction is more about hearing “student voice” than it is teaching about bullying. The subject of the discussion will be the anti-bullying campaign and it’s effectiveness etc...This will be a valuable process for our staff and students to work through together.
Goals: To create and teach a collaborative format/process/lesson generated by teachers and students. To address student voice and hear from students about the “AB campaign”. To address teacher issues about discipline support and open the doors to a collaborative process.
Results: A new approach to change within our school's professional development. School wide implementation of Take a Stand 1.0
BACK TO HOME
After class tonight, Im not too sure what the finished product is supposed to be. I initially wrote about bullying in my advisory class and tying to establish some precursors to bullying that teachers can agree on to look out for. At my site, we are trying to find a way to put our Anti-Bullying campaign into action. We have the pledge, we have the t-shirts, now what are we doing about it. I talked to a few teachers at my site about further developing the campaign and I have a feeling that a few of them think it is a joke, as do a few of the 8th grade students. After talking briefly with a close teacher/friend, she stated that she did not feel that the administration would back up any bullying problems in regards to discipline of the students. Our teachers have this idea that discipline is not being carried out by the administration and it is a real hot button issue with my principal. Things have gotten uncomfortable at a few staff meetings in regards to teachers “calling out” that the discipline policy was followed for one student, but not for another, Major Equity Issue happening there....yea, don’t want to go there yet.
I think I could start to deepen the campaign with an action component that all of the advisory teachers could carry out. This would require a group meeting to discuss the lesson(s) we teach to our students about bullying and planning out the discussions to be had in each classroom.
I could also start to gather students thoughts about bullying from my own class. DING!!! DING!!!(2)
What if all advisory teachers asked their students to respond to the bullying campaign so far.
What do the students see?
What do they Feel?
Is it working?
Is there still a problem?
Brainstorm on these questions with Nicole....maybe it could come from a student?
Student Voice
IDEA! Use this as an opportunity to collaborate with all staff and students....Creating a culture of collaboration.
As Stacey and Rob said before, sometimes what your looking for just appears.
Here it goes......
The situation/need/introduction
This is the second year that our school has implemented a school wide 30 minute reading advisory block into our 4 period AB block schedule. I feel that the purpose of this advisory was not initially clear to the staff and that each teacher interprerets the requirements, expectations and purpose of the class differently. It is within the context of this class that I would like to attempt to reach out to my colleagues in a collaborative effort to tackle and support an issue students around the world are facing, bullying and equity. At the middle school level there are so many things that effect our students. A safe, welcoming, equitible environment needs to be at the top of the priority list for teachers and administrators. Unfortunately many times are schools are organized around student performance data and raising test scores. Each grade level is separated into three teams of students. Each student has the same three core teachers for the year. This helps to create a smaller community of students within each grade that become a support network in each of their classes. The only setting where the students mix with other teams are the elective and PE classes and of course at lunch. I feel that bullying has and will exist at every school at some level. If we cannot eliminate it completely, we must teach every student how to proactively deal with issues surrounding bullying and equity. I feel that most of our students on campus would agree that it is a safe and welcoming environement. Our digital literacy teachers have spearheaded this by starting an “anti-bullying” campaign within their classes. They created and shared a schoolwide assembly with every grade level. They also share weekly updates and support the campaign on the weekly school broadcast. This action is a first for our school and I am very excited for an opportunity to start collaborating with the entire school staff. As with anything new, there is always doubt. Will the students “buy-in”? Will teachers support it? What changes will we see?
In the weeks following the introduction of the campaign, I still saw some troubling behaviors with students. I saw students making a “mockery” of the campaign within my classroom, hallways and while at lunch. I would see kids teasing each other in the hall and then another student would use “that” voice and say “Take a Stand” the phrase chosen for our campaign. I was upset that students were making fun of the campaign but more upset that they did not respect the seriousness of the issue. I knew we would have students, mostly eighth graders that would say things like this after the campaign to their friends meerly for the purpose of going against “the system” and being cool. However, the seriousness of this issue for me as a teacher is that the stakes are too high for any student to be a victim of bullying. So after all this has gone down, what is being done?
In a discussion with one of my close colleagues we talked about the campaign and if she had had any issues in her classes. Are teachers talking about bullying in their advisory classes? What teachable moments have teachers experienced to address bullying? What do teachers consider bullying? It became apparent that different teachers may have very different views on what constitutes bullying and what does not and that a few of the teachers may have the same attitudes as the eighth graders but for a much different reason. An underlying issue is that our teachers have felt that for a number of years the administration has not followed through with discipline policies equally for all students. This has become a very sensitive issue within our staff members and although they may feel like the anit-bullying campaign is a great idea, the administration will not carry out appropriate discipline if and when a real issue arises. As a result of this lack of belief, I think we have teachers that don’t really do much to support the campaign. What is the purpose if it won’t be supported? We need collaborative action.
Action/Planning: Create a project/lesson plan that advisory teachers can carry out to further strengthen our community stand against bullying. First I want to meet with a small group of interested teachers to start a discussion on what bullying looks like and what behaviors are precursors to bullying. From this discussion we could stem discussion questions for the rest of the staff and get their input. I am also curious to know what students think about the campaign so far, so as a small group we will come up with a series of questions to discuss with our advisory students. We will have a student panel to help generate these questions alongside us.
Action/Implementation: To start the action part of the campaign for students and staff, advisory teachers will lead a discussion within their classes. From their discussions teachers will gather student input about the campaign and report their findings back to myself and the digital literacy team. This first interaction is more about hearing “student voice” than it is teaching about bullying. The subject of the discussion will be the anti-bullying campaign and it’s effectiveness etc...This will be a valuable process for our staff and students to work through together.
Goals: To create and teach a collaborative format/process/lesson generated by teachers and students. To address student voice and hear from students about the “AB campaign”. To address teacher issues about discipline support and open the doors to a collaborative process.
Results: A new approach to change within our school's professional development. School wide implementation of Take a Stand 1.0
BACK TO HOME