Teaching Alternatively
CCEA, Teachers Appreciation Week, and Collaboration in the Classroom
Hi all,
April was a whirlwind. My site had 120 CCEA educators visit our two sites (continuation and community day school). It was so cool to showcase our site and the great things we are doing, while also being really honest in the things we are working to improve.
We got to showcase our Club day during advisement. I create a google form asking teachers what they would be interested in advising. Create a form for students to choose the optional club. Make rosters and students go to that club during advisement. There are also “no club” classrooms where students work on Thrively activities. If you all are interested I will write a newsletter just about our Advisement program and Club Day.
This is video game club
Tours got to see our Garden which our EFA classes maintain.
We toured our small community day school. Due to the large number of visitors, we discussed the program in detail outside. As you can see we are a very urban setting with apartments surrounding our school sites. Our community day school uses the BoysTown Model. If you are interested I can write about our total reformation and restructuring of our community day school to protect teachers from burnout and improve student social skills.
We showcased our two CTE pathways. This is a patient care pathway which leads to certification. Our other pathway is a photo pathway that earns college credit.
This is our Art/Photo classroom. This happens to be an art class with our brilliant Art/Photo teacher.
I created a lot of handouts and informational one pagers for our programs that you can see here.
Overall, the CCEA conference was fantastic. I got to see many friends that I have connected with via social media or from going to the conference for many years. I was blown away by some of the presentations and can’t wait to bring that learning with me.
Teachers Appreciation Week
Our sites have had some leadership change due to a retirement and leadership in alternative education is something I am passionate about and is SO important. It makes or breaks a school. At the CCEA conference I heard that some schools don’t have School Site Councils, poor leadership, or no leadership. Teachers do the best they can with what they have and it doesn’t move the school forward. What it does do is build burnout and those rockstar teachers leave for healthier work-life balance in the end. This work is hard, small school work is hard, and everyone has to pull their own weight plus support others to make this work.
I will refer back to my 2019 research:
My assets based research looked at what was going right in model continuation schools. I got feedback such as: ““when you 96 don’t have a good administrator it’s not going to happen.” (pg. 96).
and the take aways were: :The leadership in these schools was described as empowering teachers and counselors and nurturing a positive school climate” (pg.97).
Long-term leadership and distributed leadership was among the best sustainable ways to create a great alternative school.
Hope was tied into this for staff as well. When staff have agency, pathways, and goals they are less likely to burn out and are more likely to be student-centered and create better relationships within a school.
In the book: School of Hope, the author describes the hope work she did in her school as a teacher and how by year two, no teacher wanted to leave. No transfers were put in for the next school year and teachers delayed their retirement because the school was so full of hope.
What does this have to do with teacher appreciation? In alternative sites, student appreciation might not be there for a myriad of reasons. That appreciation usually comes at or after graduation in a nice note or email. So who is going to appreciate the teachers?
I will say that this is not a one day or week thing, but as leaders we can celebrate teachers in many ways. My staff still remembers a time that one teacher’s appreciation week the school leader only gave a tiny, like 1 inch by 1 inch thank you card that only had enough space to write their name on it. The teachers were disgusted. They felt like it was such a slap in the face to all of their hard work. So, during this Teacher Appreciation week I want to challenge school leaders to be creative in appreciating their teachers not just this week, but every week. It does not have to be high costs either, but let me be clear…jeans passes and other offensive gestures are just that…offensive.
Kind letters detailing how a teacher makes the school better goes a long way. I did this once during Valentines day that I labeled friends day and it did take a lot of time, but it was so appreciated.
Work with your campus food services for cost-effective food options. All year, request donations from your local stores and restaurants. By May, you may have enough for baskets for all teachers. Ask Trader Joe’s for Flower donations for teachers. Cover a teacher’s class for 20 minutes while they do something they need to do (This is good for your professional growth and their mental health). Have students make things. I have students make candles, smelly jelly jars, lotions, sugar scrubs, and treats. These can be learning things and fun things to give to celebrate teachers. P.S. If you are clever in your SPSA, you can use this to teach SEL lessons/enrichment and have your site funds to buy the supplies.
Good leadership=empowering teachers. I feel very strongly about this. It is a hill I will die on.
To anyone reading this silly little newsletter: I appreciate you, I see you, and if you need anything I am here to help. There is nothing more empowering to me than community.
Last, Collaboration
I was so happy to present on collaboration in the classroom at the CCEA conference. Here is my presentation. I will break it down in another newsletter.
I am available for consulting work if that is of interest to you or your school site. My expertise includes Vision planning and Mission planning, WASC or Model School applications, SPSA’s and strategically utilizing categorical funds, Project Based Learning, Student Collaboration, Equitable Grading, and Social and Emotional Support in schools. Feel free to reach out!
-jamie