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How to Start a “Kindergarten Cadre”; a.k.a. Professional Learning Community Inspiring Teachers to Be Their Best Here Are Some Random Thoughts in Response to Several Requestsby Nellie Edge 7-08 Hold the Cadre Meetings in Exemplary Kindergarten Classrooms Find the kindergarten models of excellence in your community. Visit those classrooms. Try to set up your first few sessions in beautiful arts-rich classrooms that honor childhood, involve parents, have high literacy standards, and exemplify the goals of your district or state (i.e. you will see photos of children, examples of “kid writing” and children’s art adorning the walls). See our Photo Essay: Joyful Accelerated Literacy for examples. Get to Know the Mentor Kindergarten Teachers and NBCTS teachers in your district. Most accomplished kindergarten teachers are honored to share their classrooms. Also, invite newer enthusiastic teachers (with all the right instincts) to host these kindergarten meetings. Their classrooms should be organized, joyful, meaning-centered environments. Teachers can reflect on what the environment is teaching. Seek to connect with new kindergarten teachers in the district. Visit their classrooms and personally invite them. Accomplished kindergarten teachers really enjoy the energy, eagerness to learn, and technology skills these younger teachers often bring to cadre meetings. Let your mentor kindergarten teachers (who hosts the meetings) share their passion and unique teaching gifts. Build part of your cadre meetings around what they love most about teaching kindergarten. This truly inspires others. Invite everyone to share. Honor the mentor kindergarten teachers with a photo essay of his or her classroom that is given to teachers as part of the handouts. (A sample from one of our cadre meeting handouts on kid writing is attached.) Teachers have repeatedly told us– they loved being in real kindergarten classrooms. We always invited the host teacher to give us a tour—highlighting our literacy focus. Here are some suggestions: Plan for 6-8 regularly scheduled kindergarten support group meetings during the year on the same afternoon of the week (i.e. Second Tuesdays, 4-6pm). September-November and January-April. Coordinate with the district so that your dates don’t conflict with other mandated staff trainings. (December and May are the hardest months for teachers to find time to attend, so consider skipping those months.) Intentionally Build Community. Use nametags and provide “get acquainted” activities. Play some favorite kindergarten name-games. Depending on the size of the group, a great introduction question after “Where do you teach?” is “What is the one thing that delights you most about teaching kindergarten?” (With a large group, consider shorter and simpler introductions: time goes by really fast.) Our meetings are completely voluntary and they vary in size. We have had awesome sessions with 8 teachers and inspiring sessions with 24 teachers. Don’t be disappointed if numbers vary depending on the topic of discussion—or even the weather! If we rekindled the enthusiasm, and help a few teachers become more thoughtful and engaging educators—great! Of course we would love to see an entire district with kindergarten teachers strongly grounded in literacy theory, positive discipline, and knowledgeable about how the young child’s brain learns best! Offer professional development credit to encourage teachers to pursue a meaningful practicum project in applying what they are reading and dialoging about. Districts should be delighted to reimburse teachers for continuing education credits. In our kindergarten literacy manual, Celebrate Language and Accelerate Literacy: High Expectations • Joyful Learning • Proven Results, potential project questions are highlighted with our In some of our Oregon districts a small group of 4 to 5 teachers (who share a vision of joyful learning through the arts) just informally agree to meet once a month in each other’s classrooms for support and inspiration. This happened very successfully with our colleagues in Eugene, Oregon. Consider inviting an experienced kindergarten teacher/presenter to speak at your first meeting. This can generate enthusiasm for the kindergarten literacy support groups. Always share favorite songs and rhymes at each meeting for relaxation and to remind teachers of the important oral language foundations. We demonstrate “shared reading” with language charts or Big Books and give teachers poem and song pages to copy for children’s “I Can Read” Notebooks. (There are over 100 of these pages free on our website.) We also hosted several small (limit 20) “Saturday In Kindergarten” Workshops from 9:00am to 3:00pm, as an opportunity for a more in-depth look at a topic. I facilitate these sessions, however, most of the presenting is done by the mentor teacher. We allow plenty of time for teaching, dialog, questions and opportunity to explore a real kindergarten environment, in depth. Working with some of our accomplished teachers, we have collaborated on literacy manuals highlighting the “best practices” and kindergarten teaching wisdom. This has helped build a cadre of mentor teachers who themselves continue to set high professional learning goals (see information about these workshops.) and become valuable resources within the district. Eventually the district or state may choose to publish and make these literacy manuals available to all kindergarten teachers; currently they are printed in full color and only given to workshop participants. After many years as a kindergarten teacher, and over 20 years of training, learning and coaching with kindergarten and early literacy educators, I have observed that some teacher-researchers come to meetings already having a firm philosophy and vision in mind as they make curriculum choices; others approach training looking for something to do the next day “that works!” I like to provide both practical activities and thoughtful new books or challenges to meet a range of needs. It is helpful to have an overlying focus (with one or two supporting resource books) for the year: Positive Discipline, Creating A Writing-to-Read Classroom, Joyful Accelerated Kindergarten Literacy, or The Daily 5 Literacy Framework. Most of our kindergarten cadre had attended several of our foundation seminars on Excellence in Kindergarten Literacy the previous summer—this gave us a common language and focus. It is helpful to provide a series of in-depth literacy training for all kindergarten teachers, with cadre meetings provided as follow through during the year. Teachers love to see accomplished teachers who are applying research to practice. They deserve time to reflect, rethink, and be inspired again. Rather than sending a few teachers to kindergarten conferences that are a fun smorgasbord of assorted short workshops on many different topics, you will see more long-term professional development and build more camaraderie, if every teacher receives the same in-depth training within a philosophical and literacy stance that is shared. Ideally this can be followed up with expert kindergarten literacy coaching within classrooms and time for dialog, reflection, goal setting, and cadre meetings. Good teaching makes a difference. It is helpful to have the school district send out reminders to all kindergarten teachers one week prior to each meeting and have a master schedule posted on the Internet. I also personally had an at-home email list to send out Kindergarten Cadre announcements to. Sometimes districts offer incentives (i.e., free resource books, CD’s, etc.) to teachers who attend training. We believe it is essential for each kindergarten teacher to have a resource library reflecting best literacy practice. Here are some to consider:
It is really helpful to have one key person who helps coordinate the meetings from the school district office who understands the heart of the kindergarten teacher and child. (We loved working with Janice Wurgler in 2007/2008!) Some years, we have had district support. However even without district support, we have maintained our kindergarten cadre because as kindergarten teachers—we care! Our mentor kindergarten teachers have been very gracious about inviting new teachers to come by and observe their program in action. This often occurs before and after an energizing cadre meeting. It is sometimes possible to plan the visitation day in advance so I can also be there to help answer questions. We like to give teachers some simple yet powerful literacy strategies such as fingerspelling the L-O-V-E Spells Love song at every meeting. The positive response from children and parents motivates teachers to continue to thinking about how the young child’s brain learns best. (See the Consider requesting financial support from a local business or writing a grant to cover the cost of handouts or resource books. I would love to see school districts provide extra training to their most eager-to-learn experienced and passionate kindergarten teachers to build a strong team of accomplished teachers within each community. Their classrooms become a training model for new teachers to observe. It is valuable to have several different styles and personalities of mentor kindergarten teachers as models. These teachers all have the same district goals and high literacy standards, however, each bring their unique personality and organizational style into the classroom. All teachers can be encouraged to begin thinking about and working towards National Board Certification. Quality teaching makes a difference. Research shows that students taught by teachers certified through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) consistently score better than their peers on achievement tests. We like to ask teachers to reflect on their philosophy, and align their practices with their beliefs. As a practicum project, teachers can develop a photo essay: Who I Am In the Lives of Children. For several of our colleges this notebook was the beginning of their NBPTS journey. Other Questions
Refreshments at meetings? Yes, it’s a gracious touch, but if time and resources are limited (and where aren’t they?), ask teachers to bring their own coffee or water bottle. (If you do snacks – think healthy—like fruit and cheese or assorted protein bars.) How much time does it take to coordinate kindergarten cadre meetings? Wow – you can put as much time and effort into this as you want—just like being a good kindergarten teacher. You can also keep it very simple and invite teachers to do most of the planning and sharing. What if we are in rural areas and the kindergartens are spread out? Our friends at the NW Washington E.S.D. have solved this problem by having quarterly Saturday “get-togethers” on topics of interest in a central location. We had the opportunity of providing several days of Joyful Accelerated Kindergarten Literacy training for them over the summer to help build a shared vision. Kaye Marshall, kindergarten teacher in Bellingham, Washington coordinates this wonderful supportive group of teachers committed to great beginnings for their kindergartners. We are hoping that the video clips on our website, articles from soon-to-be published literacy manuals, photo essays, and training DVD (in process) will support kindergarten teachers and literacy coaches in pursuit of excellence. These free resources are given with the hope that they will be shared. You may find our literacy manuals especially useful as a part of your kindergarten cadre meetings, or other professional development training. They are designed to engage teachers in systematically examining their environment and instructional methods in order to improve teaching and learning. If you are a new kindergarten teacher, ask your district literacy team to help organize a kindergarten cadre. We have left examples of past sessions posted to present potential topics of discussion. See articles: Defining Excellence in Kindergarten and Early Literacy (3/08) Our goal at www.nellieedge.com is to provide inspiration and research with practical and proven strategies that accelerate literacy for all children. We see the arts as translators of meaning and are committed to creating classrooms that honor childhood, nurture emotional intelligence, and build independent and responsible learners. Reach for the stars with the lives of our children... |
symbol. (With our heart we know how to apply best practices while we reach for the stars with the children’s lives.)
video clips on our website for great teaching strategies.)