Collaboration and Leadership

I had the opportunity to meet up with 2 of my former colleagues and a former student that graduated in 2009. It was amazing to reunite with our student and hear all about her success since graduating from high school. My former colleague was putting together a district wide professional development about the unique collaboration, supports and services we developed at our site to help our students succeed. Listening to our student talk about her struggles with academics and how she found support from her teachers made the difference for her. She understood the importance of earning a high school diploma and she overcame her academic challenges by keeping focused and asking for help from her teachers when she did feel lost or overwhelmed.

It made me reflect back to our time as teachers at that site and the type of leadership our Administration promoted. We had supportive administrators that encouraged our special education department to collaborate and utilize our resources on campus. As teachers, we brainstormed how best to provide appropriate services that would benefit our students and also ensure staff would not burn out. This collaborative style helped us create a positive learning environment for all. The most interesting part of this student interview was when my colleague shared with her the work we did "behind the scenes" to ensure that our student was successful. We collaboratively planned her schedule and matched her with teachers that would be supportive yet still have high expectations of her. We also discussed the on going communication among teachers outside of the classroom about her progress. And when she wasn't doing so well, we had to re-group and re-strategize the best way to get her back on track. All this planning, collaborating, and ensuring we were providing the most appropriate supports happened because the leadership of our administration promoted and embodied a message of collaboration. Our administration empowered us as teachers to be creative and work together to achieve success for all of our students. Hearing our student share about her positive learning experience made me realize that we accomplished our school vision of success!