Making a Difference through Demo Lessons

People often ask me how Chets Creek Elementary became the school that it is.  Why did the teachers open their doors in the beginning and let their colleagues in?  Why did teachers agree to do  demonstration lessons?  Why did teachers come in droves to Book Study groups that were often scheduled off the clock?  What did we do to make the culture what it is?

Creating and sustaining the culture at Chets is not really my story to tell.  The inspiration and design for the culture building piece at Chets goes back to the founding vision and first Principal, Dr. Terri Stahlman and then to our current Principal Susan Phillips who was left with the mission of sustaining the culture.  How to create and sustain a culture in a high performing school is their story to tell.  However, what I can say about teaching in this school for so many years is that professional development has played a significant role in and continues to support the culture.  To me, the biggest pieces of professional development that have served to bind us together across the years are demonstration lessons, book-of-the-month, and book studies.  Through a series of three blogs, I would like to share my view about how each of these has played a part in supporting our learning over time.


Teachers watching a demonstration lesson as it unfolds.

Demonstration Lessons -  It is demonstration lessons that are at the heart of our PD.  These are lessons where one teacher teaches while other teachers watch.  After a demonstration lesson, there is always a debrief where those watching list all the positives that they saw and then also ask questions about things they didn't understand.  Some years we have called those Warm and Cool Comments and in other years, "Glows and Grows." With new groups, the comments are usually superficial, because they don't yet trust each other but in a Chets group they jump right to the heart of the matter and get to the core questions, the new information, and the wonderings for implementation. Regardless of the group, the conversation is always enlightening.  The teacher that presented the lesson usually stays to listen and answer questions and to reflect for the group on how she thinks that lesson went and what she might have done differently.

I am not sure who did the first demonstration lesson at Chets Creek, but it was Dr. Stahlman's vision that if we were going to get good at this work, we would have to learn from each other by opening up our classrooms and watching each other teach.  It was not easy to prepare a lesson and stand before your peers and present it.  I will never forget my own first demo lesson.  It was shortly after coming to Chets.  I was a 20 year veteran of the classroom, but in all those years I had only had a very small handful of people watch me teach and those were usually principals at evaluation time.  I was so nervous that Stacy McCollough, whose students and classroom I was using for the lesson, brought over a trashcan because she thought I might throw up!

I think if you ask any of the teachers that do demo lessons,  they would all agree that they were pretty shaky that first time.  It is risky.  What if you fail and the kids are terrible?  Maybe the others will find out that you aren't as good as they think you are.  I'm sure on some level those thoughts go through everyone's mind, so why do we even agree to do the demo lessons?  We probably could say, "No!"  but most of us don't.  You never want to disappoint the person asking, because they have faith in you, and... you know they will help you, if you need it.   I guess it seems like a compliment to be asked.  Besides Chets Creek is a place where it is safe to grow, learn and make mistakes!  And there is this mantra that if you know something, you have a moral and ethical obligation to share it for the greater good! Maybe that sounds corny, but we became a community of learners early in our history.  Instead of trying to be the best teacher, we became a community that believed our best was only as good as our weakest link and that we could only get better by supporting each other, not competing against each other, so... we have learned to work together.  We demo because we know that those watching understand how we feel, and that they know we are taking a risk and... they know they might be next!

Teachers debriefing a lesson they have just watched.

 Of course, as time went on we learned that having something unexpected happen in a demo lesson was  inevitable.  It was okay and that was most often where we learned the most.  We discovered that teachers don't want to see the "perfect" lesson with the "perfect" kids.  They want to see the lesson that doesn't go so well and the class with the "challenging" child, so they get some ideas on how to handle those things when they happen... and they always do!   In fact, it is those "unplanned" happenings that often exploded with the most honest, pure and deep conversation.

After teaching a lesson teachers
debriefing with an audience of teachers
at the professional development site.



Teachers at our county's PD site watching
 and then debriefing a lesson with the
teachers through videostreaming.

It wasn't long before the "demo lessons" broadened to groups visiting our school.  For about five years we hosted over 400 visitors a year literally from around the world who came to watch lessons!   Then for several years we video streamed 175 live lesson to our county's professional development site. The professional development instructors would let us know what lesson they needed when and we would match their needs with what was being taught at the time.  We tried not to present anything artificial, but instead we strived to present actual lessons as they were being taught.  It took leadership that was willing to say "whatever it takes" and lots of trust and collegiality between the school and professional developers to make those lessons a reality, but that was usually managed!  We would film the lesson live while it was happening at Chets Creek while a classroom of teachers taking a class at our county's professional development site from all over the county watched the lesson and then  the teachers who taught the lesson would debrief through videostreaming. While this might not seem like such an amazing task today, at the time the technology was so new that most of us had never seen anything like it. Talk about risk taking!

Professionals from all over the
world watching a lesson live
at a national convention in Hollywood, CA
from CCE in Jacksonville, FL!

One time we even videostreamed a live kindergarten lesson from Chets Creek across the country to a national conference in Hollywood CA.  You can imagine the headaches trying to do the lesson live with kindergartners with the time change and with the technology challenges of the time!  I don't know whose crazy idea that was, but, like I said, we had become risk takers!  Those years or videostreaming live lessons and doing so many lesson for visitors gave many teachers a chance to get comfortable with the idea of opening up their classrooms.  Most became comfortable with the transparency.

We also began having professional development days once a week so one grade level met each week and those days always began (and still begin) with a demo lesson.  I think if you asked teachers, they would tell you that this is a part of professional development that they look forward to - at least the observing part - and one of the activities where they feel like they have learned the most. It also opens up dialog between teachers.  It is not unusual to watch a demonstration lesson and then go back to the teacher later in the week to ask about a resource or a behavior technique or to ask for help in getting your class from where they are now to where you want them to be after watching the lesson.  We know that watching a lesson live is much more memorable than just telling a teacher about a concept. The advantage of the lesson live in your own school is that the observing teacher has ready access if there are questions about the lesson later on. The resource is right there to go back to any time! And that  leads to collegial friendships and partnerships.  From a leadership standpoint, when you have your finger on what the grade level needs, then it's easy to guide the demonstration lessons to meet the need.  Of course, that takes an experienced instructional leader (principal or coach or Leadership Team).

What demo lesson have done is to breakdown the walls of teachers' classrooms.  For years we taught in little isolated cubicles.  We never watched another teacher teach and we never had feedback on our own teaching except through artificial evaluations.  The practice of demo teaching allows us transparency, the ability to observe and take from the observation ways to move our own teaching to the next level.  It takes a lifetime to learn this work, and one thing I know for sure, it cannot be done alone. Demonstration lessons open the doors, provide the camaraderie for open dialog that continues to be a hallmark of our success.

How do we sustain the culture of collegiality?  By embedding demonstration lessons as a cornerstone of professional development! Learning at its finest!

Collaboration

I have written many times about how much I love working with my grade level.  We are a large group of different ages and abilities, but when we come together to work toward a common goal, we  do remarkable work.  I have always loved that about Chets Creek - that chance to imagine a project and then have others who want to make the journey with you.

Another way that I love to collaborate is when we have visitors in our building.  It's a chance to share our work, but it so much more than that.  When you share, when you are asked questions, it forces you to think through what you really believe. It forces you to put a voice to why you do what you do.  I hate teachers who check boxes and do what they're told without conviction or understanding.  I love to be around people that question and no matter how good they are, always want to reach higher and do it better. 

That's what I love about visitors, because they are usually there to ask questions and to learn and reach for that higher goal.  Thus, was my experience today.  I had three kindergarten teachers visiting from another school.  While they came to see my class, to just spent the time with me, they would have really missed the Chets Creek experience if they had not talked with my colleagues.  I work with incredible teachers who each have unbelievable skills and abilities.  The trouble is that you can't teach and be the tour guide at the same time.  It takes someone who understands the moral obligation we have to each other to be willing to carve out the time to make room for visitors in a busy schedule. 

Today, Suzanne Shall was that person.  She's technically the Assistant Principal and today the Principal was out- like she really has time for my little projects!  I had made arrangement for the visitors to review the RtI process while we had our Awards Ceremony (which I felt would be a waste in meeting their goals).  But at the last minute our RtI Coordinator was sick.  It happens.  Without a moment's hesitation, Suzanne stepped right in.  She gave the overview, toured the rooms and answered questions.  She could walk in any of our classrooms and pull out writing portfolios or explain what is in each child's individual reading bin.  She could explain  the Math Investigations program or where we pull our Science lessons, so by the time the visitors got to me, they were well grounded in our philosophy and already some of their most pressing questions answered.

 They visited other kindergarten classes and saw some of the best we have to offer.  They asked a zillion questions and we answered everything that they asked.  I hope that we opened a line of communication that will be far reaching because in this group of teachers I found kindred souls.  That's what collaboration is about - being willing to open your classroom and be vulnerable and being willing to get out there and see what else is going on.  The seeds that we planted today between these two school will reap huge crops over the years. 

Thank you Suzanne for being the catalyst to make it all happen.  Thank you colleagues for never saying no and for always making me so proud.  And thank you to teachers who strive to be the best they can be.  I LOVE my job!

After the school day...

I got an e-mail this week from our Instructional Coach, Suzanne Shall. She forwarded an e-mail from a Teach for America teacher in an inner city school who asked for some writing samples from our students. I was happy to comply. This teacher came after school one day this week to pick up the samples. She is sharing them with a group of teachers that meet regularly to help them understand that we need to have high expectations of all of our students.

I had the opportunity to share with her my own "aha!" experience with high expectations. I had the amazing opportunity of being sent to Columbia University's Teachers' College for a Summer Institute to study with Lucy Calkins soon after I transferred to Chets Creek. Professionally, it was life changing. I had been with kindergarten students for several years in a high performing school and I really thought I had very high expectations for all students, but when I went to NYC and watched video after video of kindergarten students from some of the most diverse and poverty stricken areas of the city, who were able to talk about their writing and their reading in ways that I could never have imagined kindergartners doing, it changed forever what I would expect of our youngest learners. So I know what a difference it can make to actually see children doing things that you once thought impossible.

As I gave this teacher the writing samples, I invited her to tour some of our first grade classrooms, even though the students had left for the day. She spend the next hour with me walking and talking our way through first grade. We went first into Maria Mallon and Cheryl Dillard's classroom and they spent some time answering questions and sharing the way that they see things. I am always so proud to take visitors through our classrooms because I think - I hope, that it is obvious that we are collaborative, that professional development is embedded into the very pores of our existence and that we depend on professional conversation to make each of us better. I like for our teachers to also hear from teachers in other schools so that they can be as thankful as I am that we have made AYP each year and are not under some of the restrictive guidelines that would sap our professional time and energy. Because we have such freedom to envisions where we think are students should be, we sometimes forget what is going on in other parts of our country, our state, county. I also like for them to hear the different challenges that other teachers face and how their solutions and professional development, even though it is very different from what we do, can give us ideas to feed our own creative possibilities. We then went down to Debbie Harbour and Tenean Alleyne's classroom and even though they were getting ready for their Awards Ceremony the following week, they also stopped to have conversation with this teacher that they didn't know and hadn't expected. I think that's one of the things that we do well - we share and look to visitors as much to get information as to give it. We finished by stopping into Haley Alvarado and Denise Donofrio's classroom. Even though they had left for the day I felt completely comfortable taking her into their room, poking around in their student work and sharing with her some of the charts and work that I saw around the room. I am sure that they would have not minded because we have so many visitors walking through our classrooms that our teachers and our students are very comfortable with teachers snapping pictures, asking questions, and taking notes.

Of course, as so often happens, I was the one that really benefited from the visit. I was reminded of the enthusiasm and urgency that so many teachers at our inner city schools feel because they really are changing a generation of students. Their work is changing the direction of lives. Even with what must seem like insurmountable odds at times, they are making a difference and when you see the determination, the ability and the urgency in teachers like this one - who took her own time and initiative to come across town and look for answers - you know how fortunate our profession is. We would all be better teachers if we could find a way to collaborate in this bigger family of educators...

The Principal and the Politician

This has been a busy week! Yesterday we had a Principal-for-the-Day! We were fortunate to host Neptune Beach Mayor Frank Lee. Also spending a day with us shadowing our principal was Audrey Ferrell, an Assistant Principal in the Leadership Academy who is visiting our school and other schools as part of her quest to eventually lead her own school. On Monday and Tuesday we hosted 12 teachers and administrators from Arkansas. It's not at all unusual for us to have visitors in the building. I think from Chets Creek's inception our founding Principal, Dr. Terri Stahlman, imprinted on our hearts that it was our obligation to share what we were learning. She believed "to whom much is given, much is expected," and we have taken that directive to heart for these many years. It's not always easy. Hosting visitors can be a challenge. It often consumes Standard Coach Suzanne's Shall's entire day which means something in our own school doesn't get done, but it is our way of taking the time and being committed to the larger profession- our way of giving back and of being thankful for all we have been given. We give back in other ways - by sharing our work with anyone that asks in both written and digital form, by sharing our assessments and the many lessons we write, by doing demo lessons for anyone that asks, by taping many lessons and putting them on the Ning, by writing blogs and articles about our work... We are committed to being transparent. In the scheme of things, it may very well be the most important thing that we do, but there are push backs. Because teachers historically are more competitive than collaborative, I think they sometimes doubt our motives. More than once our own teachers have been verbally attacked at county in-services where they hear other teachers in the room say, often under their breath, but sometimes loud and clear, "I am sick of Chets Creek." Maybe I understand that at some level but it doesn't stop my belief that there are others who really want to be part of our international collaboration.

In conversation with Mr. Lee yesterday, who is also running for the School Board in our area, we were able to share some of our thoughts about education's needs and challenges. One of things that I realized during my year as state Teacher of the Year is that education is political. Like it or not, we must become advocates for our children. We have an obligation to educate our stakeholders because we are the ones who work in the trenches everyday and have the real scoop. I admire someone like Mr. Lee who comes to see for himself. I enjoyed hearing his views from a politician's point of view. We have much to learn from the political arena if we are to make the gains in student achievement that we all want. Mr. Lee would like to rotate his office among school sites if he is elected! (sort of reminds me of Undercover Boss! - Imagine what he could learn!) I admire our Principal, Susan Phillips, for taking a day out of her busy schedule to help an elected official understand our priorities and challenges. I admire Suzanne Shall for spending countless hours with visitors and for Susan Phillips for believing that she should! Understand that we get nothing from the hours and hours that we accommodate visitors except to take time away from the needs at our own school. We don't have a grant or anything else that provides extra money or time or personnel. What we do have is a mission. For me, that mission is crystal clear...

Visitors from across the Country in 2009

Today I watched our Instructional Coach, Suzanne Shall, in the midst of 20 principals from Texas, explaining our work as she walked in and out of classrooms, stopping by bulletin boards to explain how each board was a glimpse into the classroom, explaining our Diagnostic work and safety nets and how they effect our progress - I watched with sheer admiration. Suzanne hosts visitors at least one day every week. They come from all over the country and from inside our own county. Why do they come? In any given year we host about 400 visitors who come because they have heard of our work. They take pictures. They go through the artifacts in the classroom. They ask questions. They ask for handouts of... everything! It's not like the county provides money so that Suzanne can offer this service to these other educators. It's not like she has any less on her plate because she spends 20% of her time hosting. But many years ago, when Chets Creek was first established, we decided that part of our mission would be to connect with a worldwide audience so that we could learn and be prepared for the expectations of living in a global society, but we also committed to give back all that we learned. Of course, at that time, I doubt that we could ever have imagined that we would have so many "opportunities" to share!

In the beginning, all of the hosting fell on the shoulders of our principal, but as the years have passed, most of it now falls on Suzanne's shoulders. Of course, she has a passion for sharing and this work will only be carried on if someone has passion for it and a commitment. It will die of apathy with a leader.  Suzanne fields the calls from across the country, makes the arrangements, works with teachers hosting visitors in their classroom, facilitates all of the debriefs and generally is our "good will ambassador". As a result she is in classrooms watching teachers as she prepares them for visitors and then sitting through lessons that she's often coached with the visitors. She can speak as easily about the predictive results of our internal Math Diagnostic as she can about the kindergarten DIBELS. She knows our program inside and out. She knows where the Writers' Notebooks are in each classroom, how each teacher's ritual and routines work, where the Diagnostic Notebooks are kept, the type of anecdotal notes each teacher keeps, where to find the portfolios and what is in them this time of year. I am continually amazed as she speaks so eloquently across the curriculum and across the grade levels - whether it's telling the Chets Creek story, talking about out history or explaining our focus on technology this year.

We are so fortunate to have a school principal that supports her work, even though it is out of the box - an administration that believes that as educators we have a moral responsibility, an ethical obligation to work together to make a difference. And.. that's just one of the reasons that I love working at Chets Creek!

Skills Block in February 2009

We had about 35 teachers and administrators from Hawaii, Oregon, Georgia and Pennsylvania visiting Chets Creek today. I had the honor of escorting a group to Maria Mallon and Cheryl Dillard's first grade classroom to watch their Skills Block. They begin just like they do every morning, with the Class Promise, led by one of their students.

Then it is on to a choral reading of a letter combinations chart which is also led by a student.

Next comes the morning message which is a review of the skills that the children have been learning including vocabulary, punctuation/ capitals, misspellings, and contractions. Maria holds up each child's name as they silently get in line to make a correction to the morning message. As the correction is made, each child turns and tells the class the rule that he is using to make the change. This ritual and routine is well embedded. The children are on a timer and after 10 minutes, Maria finishes showing the children the corrections. While the children find many of the mistakes, Maria identifies 4 more that they have not found. She then turns that into a number sentence of 100-4=___. Each day the children try to beat their score from the day before!

Next the children review antonyms and synonyms before they play a game. The game involves calling several children forward. A word is clipped on the back of each child. The class sees the word but the child doesn't. The class then gives the child clues such as antonyms and synonyms until the child guesses the word! What a fun review of vocabulary!

The final game is a review of ur, er, ir using Jeopardy. The Jeopardy game is set up beside a chart of words that the children have been studying using the specified letter combinations. A child's name is called and he gets to decide on the category, such as "er for 20". Cheryl then reads a clue to help the children decide on one of the words. Each child writes the word on his white board and holds it up. Cheryl then pulls the yellow cover off the chart to show the class the word. If it is spelled correctly, the child gets the points. Each child keeps a tally of his own score. The children really seem to love this game and can't wait to tell the teacher their scores!

In just 30 minutes, Skills Block is over, the children are cleaning up quietly as Cheryl begins reading a read-aloud as a transition to the Writers' Workshop. What a joy to watch this duo share their Skills block! I hope the visitors enjoyed it as much as I did!

Visitors from Around the World

It's not unusual to have visitors in our Kindergarten classrooms several times a week. Last year alone we hosted over 450 visitors, not including the hundreds of teachers that visited us virtually by peeking into our classrooms during live video lessons every week! Visitors come from in county, from other places in the state, from other states and occasionally from outside the United States. Sometimes we see administrators and sometimes teachers and occasionally parents.

For instance, next week we have teachers and administrators scheduled from Texas and New Mexico. But last Friday we once again hosted a very distinguished early childhood educator from China, Ge Yang. She has a daughter, Betty Fang S. Bienert, living in Jacksonville and spent an entire day at the school earlier in the month. However, she was back on Friday to spend the morning in our Kindergarten inclusion class to see how we deal so successfully with children that have unique challenges. Her daughter speaks fluent English and Chinese but Ms. Yang only speaks Chinese. It was so interesting to watch her interact with the children. Smiles and laughter are the same in any language! She took pages of notes (in Chinese, of course!) and through her daughter asked many interesting, thought provoking questions.  There is no question that having so many visitors makes us better!

Sharing the Vision...

Last week we entertained a group of principals from Texas for the day. Today we enjoyed the fellowship of teachers from model schools in New York and Florida. We toured classrooms. What did I learn? I learned that all of our kindergarten teachers display an ABC Word Wall that this time of year contains the students’ names and a few sight words, but they also have word walls of Science words and Math words. We also saw word walls of word families. Our vocabulary study was front and center as most classrooms featured a vocabulary wall with picture cards. The best news was that kinder teachers had word walls for a specific purpose and that we have moved from compliance to doing things because we understand their purpose. Good news indeed!

 So why do we spend our time talking with educators from across the country? Because we want to continue learning – to continue looking at new and better ways to improve the academic achievement of our students.  And because every time we give a tour we learn something about them and about our own building and teachers! It’s as simple as that!