I sent out an email earlier this afternoon, asking our JBA math team when the next availble date to meet that works for everyone is. Because of PDs and Thanksgiving, I suggested Monday, November 21st or Wednesday the 30th, but opened it up to the group. Within an hour, the AP, ICT teacher, and 6th grade teacher got back to me! This was encouraging!
It looks like we may have a Faculty meeting on Monday the 21st, so I asked the AP if we could possibly have that time to meet and I am waiting to hear back from her. If not, it looks like Wednesday the 30th will be our 2nd meeting. I have already revised the agenda on Google Docs slightly to reflect this.
What am I learning about collaboration?
The feeling that I get from my colleagues is that they do want to meet and want to collaborate, but that isn't always easy. We all take our job and responsibilities very seriously and teaching comes first. I completely agree, and hope that future meetings can tie into what we are teaching. Again, I want these meetings to be practical and as useful for my colleagues and I as possible.
Showing posts with label preparing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparing. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Preparing for Our First Math Team Meeting
I am very happy to announce that the JBA Math Team will be having their first meeting on Wednesday, November 2nd. Unfortunately it doesn't look like everyone one will be able to attend, but my fellow colleagues have shown a real interest in meeting an a regular basis to make the Math Department as coherent as possible.
So how did this all happen?
Well, around the middle of October I sent out an email to the 6th and 7th grade math teachers, our ICT teacher, both assistant principals, and the principal, asking if they would be willing to meet as a department. The overall response I got (not from everyone) was positive, so I followed up asking everyone what days specifically worked best. We realized that there was no real time during the day that we were all free to meet, so we decided that it would have to be after school. Since we would be meeting after school, I emailed the principal and asked if we could get paid for any collaboration that we did, and she agreed.
Deciding on a date that worked for everyone wasn't easy, even with a department as small as ours, between after school clubs, grad school, and other commitments. Eventually we decided on Wednesday, November 2nd, and everyone except the 7th grade math teacher would be able to attend. Since it was our first meeting, we felt that we could fill her in.
In order to prepare for our meeting this week, I set up a Google Collection as a place to keep our team meeting agendas and any other resources we might out together. I chose Google Collection because this year the Faculty and scholars all have their own Google email addresses, and I felt that this would be a good place to centralize our materials. In our collection, I set up a Google Document with a tentative agenda, and encouraged, via email, the math team to add to it. I emphasized that I wanted our meetings to be as useful for us as possible. So far, one teacher as added to it.
What am I learning about collaboration?
I am excited to be setting up our math team meetings. I feel like I am being productive, and it feels good to have the support of my colleagues. As of right now, I don't plan on doing any math in our first meeting, but I do plan to do some math with my colleagues in future meetings. I am happy to see this finally happening! My assistant principal even commented that she is looking forward to seeing someone else besides her run the meeting, and that she happy she can focus on math once again (she was teaching Social Studies in the beginning of the year briefly).
So how did this all happen?
Well, around the middle of October I sent out an email to the 6th and 7th grade math teachers, our ICT teacher, both assistant principals, and the principal, asking if they would be willing to meet as a department. The overall response I got (not from everyone) was positive, so I followed up asking everyone what days specifically worked best. We realized that there was no real time during the day that we were all free to meet, so we decided that it would have to be after school. Since we would be meeting after school, I emailed the principal and asked if we could get paid for any collaboration that we did, and she agreed.
Deciding on a date that worked for everyone wasn't easy, even with a department as small as ours, between after school clubs, grad school, and other commitments. Eventually we decided on Wednesday, November 2nd, and everyone except the 7th grade math teacher would be able to attend. Since it was our first meeting, we felt that we could fill her in.
In order to prepare for our meeting this week, I set up a Google Collection as a place to keep our team meeting agendas and any other resources we might out together. I chose Google Collection because this year the Faculty and scholars all have their own Google email addresses, and I felt that this would be a good place to centralize our materials. In our collection, I set up a Google Document with a tentative agenda, and encouraged, via email, the math team to add to it. I emphasized that I wanted our meetings to be as useful for us as possible. So far, one teacher as added to it.
What am I learning about collaboration?
I am excited to be setting up our math team meetings. I feel like I am being productive, and it feels good to have the support of my colleagues. As of right now, I don't plan on doing any math in our first meeting, but I do plan to do some math with my colleagues in future meetings. I am happy to see this finally happening! My assistant principal even commented that she is looking forward to seeing someone else besides her run the meeting, and that she happy she can focus on math once again (she was teaching Social Studies in the beginning of the year briefly).
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