Collaboration = Priceless
So we all know the familiar credit card commercial – here is a new take for educators: lesson plans = 10 hours per week, grading essays = 8 hours per week, paperwork = 5 hours per week – collaboration with colleagues = priceless.
As a first year Instructional Coach, I have a unique opportunity to schedule time with my colleagues and work together to create incredible, engaging, and powerful 21st century lessons and projects for our students. I had just such an opportunity this past Monday as I worked with a team and created an amazing educational product (more to come on the specifics in a future post). We are fortunate to work in a district that welcomes and challenges us to collaborate in these efforts, when so many districts have eliminated these opportunities because of budget restraints. I have attended numerous area/county meetings where representatives from various school districts continuously say, “We can’t get release time for our teachers because the district won’t pay for subs.” I can’t help but think, “How incredibly horrible and disheartening for those districts, their teachers, and ultimately their students. “ I am so thankful that Salisbury Township School District has not gone this direction.
How can we pull this off when other districts are so restrictive? There are a couple of key reasons. Our district has done a really good job at budget management. It does not always please us that we have 0% increases year after year in our budgets and we are not thrilled when it comes to contract negotiations that we hear the same song again and again (“We have no money – don’t expect big raises – and we will be asking you pay for your health care”), but the district does manage the dollars and cents of education. We also don’t rely on huge amounts of money from the state of Pennsylvania. We barely get enough to pay for a first year teacher. So, we don’t have the same sorts of issues that large districts that rely on huge amounts of state dollars have. For instance, Bethlehem Schools were forced to lay off over 40 teachers this past August for the current academic year because of the budget impasse in Harrisburg. The main reason our district agrees to collaborative time and release time for our teachers is quite simple: WE KNOW IT IS IMPORTANT.
Our administration, teachers, parents, and kids all know we produce the best educational product for our students when we allow our professionals to put their heads together and create plans that will be truly engaging and meaningful to our students. This collaborative time has no monetary value because it is for the good our children. No cost for a couple of substitutes could possibly compare to what our teachers and students gain from these wonderful experiences. In the 21st century we continually ask that our students collaborate on assignments and assessments: should we not give that same gift to our teachers? There are places to control the budget, no question, but encouraging and providing the resources for your educators to work as a collaborative learning community is a non-negotiable item.
