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posted by:
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Linda Mooney
on May 15, 2003
at 11:54AM
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subject:
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Legacy
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Hi Mark,
I loved your conceptualization of what's important about the work of
LSC's. I've never stated it the way you did, but our work with STEP-uP
has never looked at how STEP-uP would survive beyond the funding, but
instead how can we change how teachers think about teaching and how can
we implement structures that will endure beyond STEP-uP that will have
a powerful impact on students and teachers. Your article captures our
philosophy.
By our courses modeling science and inquiry(our teachers become
scientists in the field and in labs)our teachers discover a whole new
way of teaching and learning that is exciting and mentally stimulating.
They leave our courses saying that they will never teach the same way
again and they take more of our courses (some even pretend that they
haven't completed the 135 hours, so they can continue taking more
courses without having to be on a wait list).
One structure that we're particularly please with is Critical Friends
Groups. Right now our topics are science related, but these
professional dialogues/protocols can be used to enhance a culture of
inquiry in all academic areas.
And you're right in everything we do we (as in all LSCs) cultivate
leaders who can continue the work after funding for STEP-uP ends. We
have 90-hour Principals' Institutes knowing that whatever is achieved
with these leaders will continue as long as they are principals or
central office folks. We certify "Critical Friends Mentors" who are
classroom teachers so they can lead the CF groups independently. We
work with teachers, kit trainers, and scientists to create conceptual
and assessment storylines. We've scholarshipped 81 teachers in
Colorado College's Master of Arts in Teaching in Integrated Natural
Science so they will be creditential science ed leaders for years to
come. Well, every LSC has these and other examples of how they leave a
legacy of leaders. By the way, we actually call this tier of our
project Tier III: Leadership Development, so we're quite open with that
goal.
I also wanted to mention that my district has adopted a "continuous
improvement" model of elementary science curricular adoption. That
means that periodically we trade out "kits" based on teacher feedback
and student achievement in those kits. We will never do the 7-year
cycle of complete curricular change that has existed in the past. I
believe this model of curricular adoption will sustain the use of these
research-based curricula for years to come.
Thanks again for your insightful article. I look forward to hearing
from others.
Linda
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