7-Teacher Collaboration
Beyond the school level, a team of our STEM teachers are part of a K-12 Math learning team that meets monthly. August 31, 2016 eighty teachers K-12 spent half the day in our building observing STEM classes, reflecting on grade level and vertical articulation across buildings (teachers from the four elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and the high school) and learning more about formative assessments together. The goal is that all students K-8, regardless of the classroom or the school, are exposed to the same level of rigor, take common assessments, and have the opportunity to bring a common skill set to high school. We then ensure the same level of fidelity throughout the high school classrooms. See sample agenda in appendix.
Peachtree Ridge encourages STEM collaboration at multiple levels. At the school level, teachers meet in course teams by subject areas, proficiency levels, grade levels, and/ or integrated subject teams to plan collaboratively, review student data together, and implement student safety nets appropriate to their student population needs. Specifically grade level STEM teams (Math, Science, CTE (Career and Technical Education)) meet regularly to integrate STEM curriculum between the subjects.
Physically moving teachers/courses with common goals/skills to close proximity makes real time collaboration easier for teachers. Classrooms belong to students (student learning spaces). Teachers float into the space so that teachers no longer “own” a space of their own. As a result, CTE and Science teachers have easy access for real time collaboration within a common space that belongs to the students. Often there is no need to setup formal collaboration meetings as collaboration happens each and every day within a single space.
When multiple STEM extracurricular events float into one place, classroom teachers learn more about the different STEM opportunities available for students. Teachers collaborate to find ways to use the various extracurricular competition events as different co- curricular content driven lessons to help students make a connection between the classroom and their extracurricular. For example, the sponsor of TSA (Technology Student Association) shares a learning space with SPIRE Physics. The SPIRE Physics teachers learned about the TSA Competitive Events for SY 2016-17. They immediately made connections as to how they could embed the engineering events into their classes.
CRB (Clark, Richardson, and Biskup), an established engineering consulting firm specializing in engineering design, procurement, and construction projects for the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Food and Beverage, and Technology Industries, has provided training to help us better integrate STEM curriculum across content areas. CRB even helped us recruit our SPIRE Chemistry teacher! In fact, word of what we are doing directly impacted the hiring of four new PR teachers SY2016-17.During SY2015-16, course leads focused on our local adaptation of AdvancED’s “ELEOT” (Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool). Each course lead used the tool to observe engagement in their course team’s classrooms and dropped their results into our course lead eClass page to be compiled. In the September 2015 meeting, course leads used a protocol to analyze the data collected. A transcript of their observations (What do you see?) and inferences (What does it say?) are included.
Our October 2016 meeting is an example of our ongoing (every 4.5 weeks) focus on analyzing student success reports for our courses. The SPIRE success report (see appendix) was loaded into eClass for accessibility only to the SPIRE course lead, who could then review the data and engage in conversation regarding any trends or patterns she noticed.
As part of a 1.2-million-dollar Innovation Project Grant the district received from the GA Department of Education, Peachtree Ridge competed for and was selected as the Gwinnett County Public Schools’ high school Professional Development Laboratory School (PDLS) Spring 2015. Since August 2015, Peachtree Ridge HS has provided a digital and physical location for leaders and teachers to “see and experience” effective STEM instruction through blended learning and problem/ project based learning. We have welcomed over a hundred visitors since Fall, 2015 from across our district, state, and even as far as China. This year we open our doors every Tuesday for visitors across the district to visit our SPIRE classrooms.
“As an instructional coach, I am able to allow Peachtree Ridge teachers opportunities to collaborate with colleagues, observe teaching, and then to work with the teachers to implement new approaches within their classrooms. By giving other teachers time to do high-quality collaboration and planning, I am able to extend my reach to students across the building. I also collaborate and co-teach with instructors in various disciplines to assist with the implementation of project based learning opportunities. Additionally, I have the opportunity to plan and implement new approaches to existing courses through the addition of language arts credits into SPIRE. Currently, both 9th and 10th grade SPIRE students experience an integrated curriculum of science and language arts (plus public speaking and foundations of engineering, as they move through the program). I work very closely with the ninth and tenth grade SPIRE teams to ensure that the courses remain engaging, rigorous, and aligned with the Gwinnett County AKS.” -Abra Summers