Back in September, one of my own professional goals for this school year was to find a way to professionally collaborate more with my math colleagues. Being the 8th grade math teacher, I wanted to understand where my scholars were coming from in 6th and 7th grade math. Mathematical understanding is something that develops over time, and just like I wanted my 8th graders to be ready for high school math when they left me, I wanted my incoming 8th graders to be ready for 8th grade/ Integrated Algebra.
To begin working on this goal, I asked myself the question "What will I learn about collaborative professional development by getting together with math colleagues and doing math problems together?" and started this blog to document my action research journey. Beginning in October 2011, the JBA began meeting regularly after school, and in addition to talking about work and lesson plans, we began doing math together. Oftentimes I would be the one bringing math problems or tasks that I found to the group, but there were a few occasions where the other math teachers would bring in a math problem for the group to do.
Some meetings we started off doing problems and would spend 10-15 minutes on them, other times we would get so engrossed in the math, that our whole meeting would be simply doing the math, and talking about it. For me personally, it was a positive experience getting together with my fellow math colleagues and taking off our "teacher hat" and just be this group of people discussing and solving math problems together. I believe that my action research blogging journey shows that what I have learned most about collaborative professional development, so far, by getting together with math colleagues and doing math problems together is that you build a team by constructing community knowledge. One of my biggest fears back in October was that even though I was trying to bring the math team together, I wasn't trying to run the math department. As we continued to meet together every other week or so, I found that that became less of a concern and I think that doing math together was part of the reason for that. Doing and discussing the problems together made everyone equal on our math team.
I hope that as a team, we can sustain what we have been doing through the exhausting test-prep season. Even though we won't be able to meet as a whole group for a while because most of us will be out scoring state exams over the next few weeks, I am looking forward to collaborating with my colleagues to close out the year strong for our scholars and for ourselves as a team.
Anna, you have had a great experience. I enjoyed reading your posts and your insights from each session together. Reading your blog over time, I got a real sense of how you experiences blossomed over time and that doing math together really became a focus. I wonder, have you ever examined student work together. It would be interesting to hear the different views everyone has when it comes to assessing work.
ReplyDeleteBuilding a team by constructing community knowledge. That’s impressive.
ReplyDeleteAnd your awareness that just because you’re offering something doesn’t mean you’re “in charge” is important as you continue to nurture your leadership capacity, Anna.
In my mind, leadership doesn’t mean power; it means influence. And that’s what you’ve had this year—influence. I think it will sustain itself if it becomes important to your colleagues to continue to nurture each other’s “community knowledge.”