Teacher Change Re: Welcome to Sustainability & Insitutionalization
Beverly Hunter (bhunter@bbn.com)
Tue, 1 Apr 1997 11:41:11 -0500
With regard to teacher change,
one strategy we (Vanguard for Learning) have found to be highly effective,
is to provide incentives for teachers to work in innovative teams (we call
them Team Action Plans (TAPs). In a school where teamwork has not been
common in the past, this can be a major catalyst for professional
development and creativity.
At 7:43 AM -0500 3/31/97, Michael Williamson wrote:
>Hi,
> ASs far as change goes I feel that there is no one way to make changes.
>Administrators and teachers are very different in motivation and goals.
>unfortuately, many have the goal to stay the way it is now. We need to
>reach and use the administrators and educators that are motivated to
>support a multi-point "attack" to bring about change. Change might have a
>chance if we take every in-road that is available to us.
>
>Mike
>
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> J. Michael Williamson
> Principal Investigator-WhaleNet <http://whale.wheelock.edu>
> Associate Professor-Science
> Wheelock College, 200 The Riverway, Boston, MA 02215
>voice: 617.734.5200, ext. 256
>fax: 617.734.8666, or 508.468.0073
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>On Sat, 29 Mar 1997, Ellen Miyasato wrote:
>
>> Hey, David...
>> Happy Good Friday everyone...on with sustainabilitiy and
>> Institutionalization.
>>
>> What??
>> Teachers will never change, so reform begins at the top? I agree with
>> you 1/2 ...IF we (teachers as well as staff development models) continue
>> with our current "view of education and learning-for both students and
>> teachers," we'll never change.
>> Reform from the top will last only as long as the leader lasts.
>> Throughout HERN, and entering into our third year...we are witnessing
>> several evolving patterns on teachers making changes:
>> - multiple dimensions of collaborative efforts among past
>> partcipants infusing their influence in other organizations
>> in Hawaii - like science, reading, foreign language,
>> professional teacher orgs
>> - multiple level resource collaboration among elementary,
>> high school, community college teachers and students
>> - teachers teaming with administrators in exploring the
>> restructuring of learning
>> During our third year, as the grant period ends, we're looking at two
>> leverages for the continued evolvement (more than sustaining) of the
>> reform efforts: engage educators in directing their own learning - an
>> opportunity to grow in a professional community focusing on developing,
>> providing ways of learning that are more in keeping with their
>> professional lives and building collaborative networks. The second has
>> been a challenge..during our first two years..
>>
>> What are your thoughts on David's statement: Teachers won't ever change
>> so reform should start at the top?
>>
>>
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>>> Ellen Miyasato phone: (808)
>>956-2854
>> Hawaii Education & Research Network fax: (808) 956-5025
>> ellenm@kalama.doe.hawaii.edu
>> http://www.hern.hawaii.edu/hern/
>>
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>>>
>>
>> On Mon, 17 Mar 1997 david@hawaii.edu wrote:
>>
>> > Aloha to you all!
>> >
>> > Ellen Miyasato and I have agreed to moderate this forum and look
>>forward to a
>> > lively interchange with you over the next several weeks. And who
>>knows, maybe
>> > even longer! Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to consider
>> > issues such as:
>> >
>> > Technology planning
>> > Administrative use of technology
>> > Bringing all players to the table
>> > Interacting with the bureaucracy
>> > Overcoming inertia
>> > The tension between politics and educational reform
>> > Harnessing existing funds for educational reform
>> >
>> > Of course, there are no grownups in the room so we can ignore these
>> > suggestions and take off in direction you would like.
>> >
>> > One of the benefits of being 5 hrs behind the East Coast is that this
>>is one
>> > of the last "welcome" messages to go online and I got to check out the
>>others
>> > before posting this. There's a lot of text and content on-line
>>already and no
>> > interaction yet. I'd say if we can get just a couple of lively
>>discussions
>> > going with *real* interchange among us that we can consider this a
>>success.
>> > So let me throw out a few provocative (I think) statements and see if
>>any of
>> > you agree/disagree. As this develops it may be useful to try to focus our
>> > discussion, but for now, let's just see if we have anything to talk about.
>> >
>> > Any technology plan with user involvement and buy-in will be obsolete
>>by the
>> > time it's completed.
>> >
>> > The only way to fund educational networks is to integrate them
>>completely with
>> > administrative networks.
>> >
>> > Unless we "fix" colleges of education then everything we do in the
>>field is a band-aid.
>> >
>> > There weill never be adequate technical support for schools, so
>>teachers must
>> > learn to support themselves with the help of their students.
>> >
>> > You can't change anything unless the teachers are all on-board.
>> >
>> > Teachers will never change, so reform begins at the top.
>> >
>> > The Universal Service Fund will solve all the technology problems in
>>our schools.
>> >
>> > Reactions / comments / corrections???
>> >
>>
>>
>>
Beverly Hunter
Program Manager, Educational Technology Systems
BBN Systems & Technologies Division
70 Fawcett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
http://copernicus.bbn.com