Casey Tate is the Instructional Partner at East Lawrence High School in Trinity, Alabama (Lawrence County School District) and a first-year participant in the Alabama Instructional Partners Pilot professional development program. A 11-year teaching veteran, he recently wrote this blog post in our online collaboration space, the Alabama Instructional Partners Community Hub. Casey gave us permission to share the post here.
First of all, I love this job! I am beginning to realize it is quite possibly the coolest job in education. I worried about “leaving” the classroom, but I haven’t left the classroom. As an instructional partner, I now have the opportunity to “get in on” the learning in more than one classroom. I’m all over the place now!
I have been blessed with many amazing experiences in my first six weeks on the job. I’m proud of the relationships I am building with our faculty and how welcoming they have been to me. I’m proud of the partnerships I have created with teachers, ranging from actions as simple as brainstorming, researching ideas and compiling resources, all the way to partnering with them in class and team teaching.
One of my proudest prouds would be our half-day PD Day. Our high school teachers worked diligently on affinity mapping of effective teaching and learning. They also gave us valuable and honest data on instruction in the classrooms through surveys and a “dot” activity. We are now working on the direction of our dots.
Another proud moment would be the opportunities I have had to plan together with teachers and team teach. This is huge for high school teachers who have never had an instructional partner and didn’t even know how to capitalize on this resource until a few weeks ago. I had a blast partnering with a 10th Grade US History teacher to teach a lesson and complete an extension activity on the Jamestown colony. I was also privileged to work with our Physical Science teacher to team teach a lesson on the States of Matter to a sometimes challenging group of students.
My proudest proud is a happy moment for me. I had been working with our Senior AP Literature teacher and the class for a few days on Poetry Analysis. She had pretty much designed the lesson and strategies herself with Expert Groups and kind of a World Café for the presentations (above). After class, I bragged on the teacher and the class for their hard work in the rigorous AP curriculum. The class clapped for me and said they enjoyed working with me and that I was welcome anytime. This senior class is the best!
Thanks to all of you for your help and support.
