Teaching and Collaboration

1. What kind of teachers would you prefer to work with? Why?

I prefer working with people who are secure about themselves and what they do, and are open to new ideas. I've worked with a lot of different teachers (and some pretty amazing ones at that), and the easiest ones to work with are the ones who are confident about themselves, feel good about teaching, and yet are open to other ways of doing things. People who are negative, burned out, don't care, or who only see the merits of their particular way of doing things, are challenging to work with because they tend to belittle the success of others, or create a hostile work environment.

2. What are some personality characteristics you find undesirable in people?

I get along well with most people and am pretty open-minded about other people. My general assumption is that whatever they do works for them (even if it's not for me), but having said that, people who are negative, complain a lot, are self-centered, or very insecure are hard to work (so I try to avoid these people).

3. Who should be responsible for discipline in a school? Why?

Everyone! Discipline only works when it's a team endeavor. You need a united front when it comes to creating the kind of atmosphere you want to have. Otherwise, the kids basically run the show, and you spend all your time putting out fires. This is why it's important to decide what's important, and to have time to meet periodically to discuss what's working and what's not.

4. What needs and/or expectations do you have of the school administration?

I think of admin as being there to look at the big picture, so I can focus on the microcosm that is my classroom. I need an administration that will be there to support what is happening at all levels of the school. The administrators I've most enjoyed working with were good at communicating with both staff members and students (and their families), and were in touch with what was going on in the building, but did these things in a way that communicated that people were given space (and trust) to do their jobs, and the had the resources they needed to be successful.

5. How do you collaborate with your colleagues?

In a variety of ways. Sometimes it's as basic as just sharing resources. Other times, it has been based around students we have in common (for instance at my last job, I did a lot of collaboration with vocational instructors around particular students who were struggling either in my classroom, their classroom, or both). Sometimes it's been to synchronize areas of the curriculum (knowing what students are working on in other classes makes it easier for me to plan what they will work on in my classroom. For instance, if I know they are reading about WWII in history, we can be reading things that support that. We had a math teacher who made a big deal out of Pi Day every year, so I did stuff with my classes to commemorate Pi Day too). Sometimes it's been to plan school wide events. And other times, it's just to familiarize myself with what it is that they do--especially true for specialists, SPED teachers, and ELL teachers, who are a good resource in and of themselves.

For instance, I worked with another reading teacher last year, who was hired to fill in as an overflow classroom. We worked together to create a basic program, and I provided the curriculum. We came up with common work expectations, and he shared data with me (since I was in charge of scheduling student testing and doing the evaluations). Because we were right next door, and could easily share common resources, we started an informal arrangement between us where students could rotate between classes, and swapped students at times (when you had bad combinations of kids assigned to particular blocks). It was great because we could talk to each other easily being that close, and do a lot of problem solving about particular kids and situations. It was a great arrangement.