Para-plethora

          Up to this point in my educational career, as a student and then as teacher, the number of paraeducators with whom I have interacted has been few and far between.  Thinking back to the times I have interacted with paraeducators as a student and later as a parent, I can only clearly remember the name of one of them.  She was my daughter's kindergarten teacher's assistant.  She was memorable because her role was well choreographed as an essential member of the instructional team.  My daughter mentioned her as often as she did the teacher and considered her "one of my teachers."  I remember how much I appreciated the positive environment the teacher and teacher assistant created and projected in their interactions.
          In contrast, the teacher's assistants from "back-in-the-day" when I was an elementary student, were like shadows.  I vaguely recall once watching a teacher's assistant cut out templates for our art class; and a time when our class rejoiced over her returning from making mimeograph copies (we liked the smell of the fresh copies) to distribute to students as the teacher gave instructions.  I don't remember her name and I think my only direct interaction with her was to get a band-aid when I skinned my knee on the playground.
          Our readings and focus on paraeducators has really enlightened my understanding of the examples I observed throughout my life.  I had not realized how NCLB had affected the qualifications required for paraeducators.  Friend & Cook (2010) presented a complex picture of what appears to be an evolving element of education in their explanation for teachers' understanding the role paraeducators play in education.  Their explanation of the benefits in having paraeducators' assistance in schools certainly seem to offset the additional responsibilities for teacher's to supervise and direct paraeducator duties. However, one of the reasons for the increasing use of paraeducators was disturbing, though logical, to me.  "In some instances paraeducators are employed to supplement the services of special educators as an understandable but sometimes questionable means of saving money, that is, the cost of employing a paraeducator is significantly less than the cost of employing an additional special education teacher (US Department of Labor, 2007).  I wondered if the number of paraeducators could become overwhelming for licensed teachers who must supervise and direct their work if school administrators are having to stretch their budgets to provide critical support for students with special needs.

No "buts"

During our role play for using contrasting statements, I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to formulate "good" statements.  It seemed that every phrase that I could think of to follow "I don't want you to think" was inflammatory or just insulting. For example "I don't want you to think that I consider you a slob...." would not be well received as a preemptive statement.  My realization of my difficulty with thinking about how to use contrastive statements "on-the-fly" triggered a deep reflection about how I have communicated in the past, and what I need to change for future communications.

With my new awareness at hand, I revisited our readings in Crucial Conversations about contrasting statements.  I began to better understand the results of my personal survey and how I could apply: 

Commit to seek Mutual Purpose
Recognize the purpose behind the strategy
Invent a Mutual Purpose
Brainstorm new strategies

AND

Share your facts
Tell your story
Ask for others' paths
Talk tentatively
Encourage Testing

These acronyms will be great tools for what I need to think about first, plan for using my crucial conversation strategies, and decide what wording would best convey what I don't want, followed by what I do want.

Through this focus, I have experienced some better conversations (one truly successful "breakthrough" conversation with my usually-silent teenage daughter), as well as some discourse I consider tutorial for further growth and development.

ESSENTIAL Insight

In my reading of Lawrence-Lightfoot's the Essential conversation,  three trains of thought carried my mind to various points to ponder for future application.  

First, I was intrigued by chapter 1, "Ghosts in the Classroom" and the doorknob phenomenon.  The idea of autobiographical stories potentially affecting the subconscious reasoning of parents and teachers was particularly poignant to me as I traveled back in my own memories.  I have found it beneficial to recognize the obvious powerful moments in my own formative education that shaped my philosophies and attitudes as a parent and a teacher, but the most valuable realization was that many of our autobiographical "meta-messages remain hidden, inaudible and unarticulated. They are raw, unvarnished subtext to the ritualized, polite, public text of the conversation.  They are the unconscious, diffuse backdrop to the precise words that fill the foreground dialogue" (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2003, p.5).  I will need to be watchful for when something "pops" out of my subconscious or for when a parent may act or react in an unexpected way. "If teachers are to learn to respond to the ghosts that parents bring to the classroom, they too have to learn to recognize the autobiographical and ancestral roots that run through their own school lives" (p.7).  Further, the larger cultural and historical legacies are running background influences of how parent-teacher encounters are shaped.  The warning that "there is a tricky balance here between foreground and background....a perilous equilibrium that must be struck between the ghosts of the past and the realities of the present, between adult retrospectives and child perspectives"(p.40) is imperative for teachers to heed and to examine in regards to their own process of dialogue.

After the weightiness of the "ghosts" warning, the second chapter's suggestions and advice for offsetting the "natural enemies" status of parents and teachers were refreshing.  I really appreciated the examples of teachers who were able to help  parents of their students feel comfortable and yet have boundaries that created a space for open parent-teacher dialogue.  I recognized many of the strategies from Crucial Conversations being used in the parent-teacher conference scenarios described.  Great care was taken by the teachers in the scenarios to start with heart and speak difficult truths to parents using tentative methods to soften the impact and to show care for parents and students.  When a line was crossed, the teacher reflected upon what happened in order to better understand how to communicate more effectively in the future with the parent in question. 

The third ponder-able destination was in chapter 3, "Truths the Hand Can Touch." The examples of evidences collected by teachers in the form of specific-to-the-child's-nature anecdotes, tangible pieces of work as well as students' self-evaluations (which, in one teacher's class, were delivered to the parent by the child himself at a conference) were convincing and effective proofs to convey that the teachers were "in touch" with their students.  
This chapter closed  with three skills that allow good "evidence" to be collected for better communication and trust between parents and teachers.

• Art of Observation--become a student of human behavior, body language, and nonverbal cues.
• Record Keeping Skills and Documentation--daily note taking and journal writing
• Learn to Listen--really hear-- the voices and perspectives of the parents.

Student Participation in IEP Planning

As we discussed the value of a student being present at his/her IEP meeting, a number of conflicting thoughts tickled my brain.  When I answered the question about the student's absence from the IEP meeting on the CD-ROM, my immediate stance was against the child hearing the deeper concerns and the strategies planned.  But during our class discussion and as I considered reasons why Dominic or any other child should be excluded from a meeting about helping them succeed in school, it began to dawn on me that my reasoning was not based in anything I knew of from my own teaching experience!

 Because I home schooled my children, they were in on everything about their learning; they shared their concerns and had the opportunity to ask questions and hear about our concerns.    A nagging thought continued to grow-- I am using a double standard! I was puzzled at the idea that I even had a double standard.  Where did I get it?  Why was I quick to exclude the children in our scenarios from their own IEP planning meetings?  I can think of children who would not be all that interested in more than a brief "drop in," but they should get to decide how much or how little they are involved.

 I began to think back to my experiences as an elementary student and how insecure I felt when my parents went to meet with teachers about various learning issues.  Even though I was eventually tested and placed in a GT program (today it is AIG) I believed the meetings were evidence that I was not doing something right, because no one would tell me anything afterward.  I remember asking and being told not to worry about it, I was fine.  I wonder if my experience with the insecurities associated with awareness of my exclusion from decisions about my education is one of the foundational reasons I chose to home school my children; it is a very  integrated education style where students enjoy daily open access to analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. 

These thoughts have begun to illuminate my double standard having its root in my subconscious, chewing on past scenarios and grappling with learning processes that had been indoctrinated throughout my public school experience.  This tradition of exclusionary planning coldly defined a student's role in their own education in public school as little more than that of a passenger, nothing more.

R*E*S*P*E*C*T

According to Webster's dictionary:
 respect: to take notice of; to regard with special attention; to regard as worthy of special consideration; hence, to care for; to heed.
 
Our class discussion of "respect" revealed a greater complexity in creating a standard definition for it than I would have guessed.  We all have varying concepts of what it means to be respected and how to show respect to others.  Through the listing of our different ideas, the case was well made for the importance of collaborative groups to establish a working definition of respect during the forming stage of their development.

During the forming stage, the members of the group are learning about one another.  It is the best time "to take notice of" and to pay "special attention" to what each group member responds well to as well as what seems to cause discomfort.  As a group moves through the initial stage of polite, impersonal, watchful, guarded interactions (Friend & Cook, 2010, p.61), their collective definition of respect along with their careful regard of one another could serve as rails to keep the team moving in a productive direction.  Then, as the inevitable storming phase begins to unfold, some ground rules are already in place that might help the transition into norming occur more smoothly and more quickly than if the ground rules of respectful interaction had not been established.  Through the stages the team members can revisit their definition of respect to enhance it and to make it more pertinent to their needs.  The focus on maintaining respectful interactions within the group seems to be a good mutual goal to keep the group from unnecessary offenses and breakdowns in their functionality. 

I have been a part of a team that did not collectively determine the best way to interact. The group  had very general guidelines of respectful conduct, but there was no discussion of these guidelines. Without the benefit of a collaborative definition of procedures, members chose to shut down from communication or opted out of participation when conflicts arose.  Resentment over unspoken and unresolved conflict ultimately led to greater conflict and more serious disagreement.  Very little was accomplished by the time of adjournment.   I believe if the group had just taken some time at the beginning of their development to address their roles, procedures, and function,  the outcomes would have been much more successful; alliances could have been made and strengthened instead of strained and broken.

The beginning of a collaborative group begins with respect; each member chooses to value being a part of the group and decides to make an effort to regard other members with care; valuing the input and potential of every member of the collaborative, equally.

The Fundamentals of Collaboration--Attributes

Earlier this summer, I read a fascinating book about leadership in schools called Reframing the Path to School Leadership: A Guide for Teachers (Bolman & Deal 2010). The focus of the book was about how to consciously size up situations encountered by school professionals from different points of view.  However, a compelling case for the collaboration style of interaction between education professionals as a powerful tool for educational success was presented.  The examples in this book came to mind repeatedly as I read my current assignments on collaboration.
     
In their chapter entitled The Fundamentals of Collaboration, Friend & Cook (2010), present some defining characteristics that really seem to be symbiotic to one another.  The first characteristic--collaboration is voluntary--was interesting to contemplate.  As I tried to imagine being forced to collaborate, I imagined many tangles and scuffles I had as a child when forced to "collaborate" with my sister.  Unless we were both willing, it didn't happen.  "It is not possible to force people to use a particular style in their interactions with others"(p.8).  For five years, I was part of a volunteer teaching organization where co-teachers were assigned to a different class every year.  Each year the co-teacher pairing was different.  We each agreed to work together collaboratively to plan and implement the various elements of each lesson.  I learned that "collaborate" means different things to different people.  Though we volunteered to be co-teachers, not all had volunteered to use a  collaborative style of interacting.       
   
 The next requirement for collaboration--parity among participants--involves each participant laying aside his/her rank and/or seniority during a collaborative task.  Working with someone to find solutions is most successful when both parties have equal value in input and decision making.  In the volunteer teaching situation mentioned previously, many of the longer serving teachers had difficulty accepting input from those who were not as experienced.  The teaching atmosphere was usually strained and new teachers whose ideas were not valued did not return the following year.
       
 Collaboration is based on commitment to a clear mutual goal.  With a strong goal on which to focus, participants input is not weighed based on who they are, but on how well it supports the mutual goal which contributes to parity.  Problems can arise when the mutual goal is ambiguous or multidimensional allowing participants' personal preferences to come into play.      
      
The last three requirements are dependent upon sharing.  Participants must share responsibility for participation and decision making , share resources, and share responsibility for outcomes.  Participants who are fully committed to collaborating, willing to meet as equals, and focus on a common goal are also committed to accepting responsibility for the implementation of agreed course of action.  Individual resources may be scarce, but when pooled with other resources can achieve a collaborative goal.  Friend & Cook(2010) point out that if professionals cannot contribute a specific resource, their commitment may be questioned by the rest of the group and parity may be difficult to establish.  The outcome of a collaborative effort reflects on all participants of the group.  All of the participants are responsible and accountable for the outcome whether it is a success or a fail.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog of pondering, encounters, and reflections concerning Education in America's schools. As I travel through the wonderland that is graduate school on a quest to attain a M.Ed in Reading and ESL, I will be exploring topics of relevance and interest for those who venture to teach.