Change, Hope, Skepticism

In our district, many opportunities are afforded to teachers for paid professional development. One week prior to the beginning of the school year, all teachers and paraprofessionals must attend 5 days of professional development in anticipation of the new school year. In order for me to appropriately frame all that has happened thusfar this week, I need to give a little bit of information about the workings of the school in the 2007-2008 academic year.

Last year was my first year in the building. The edifice itself was constructed in the 1920s, and hasn't undergone any visibly significant transformation or construction over the past 80 years. The school is located in one of the poorest area of the city and 91% of the students are considered to be from low income families. For 29% of us, English is not our first language. Close to 25% are considered Special Education students. We are about 30% African-American, 60% Hispanic, and 10% Caucasian.

The social and emotional problems that are often attributed to a life of poverty are the afflictions of a great number of our students. At least 10 windows were punched out last year, the number of fights would be difficult to keep track of, knives were brought to school, vandalism was unfettered, and the halls were full of students who wreaked havoc on the building property, staff and students during classtime. Our staff was disorganized, under qualified, and poorly led. Over the course of the year, two of the teachers on my team quit, along with other teachers from some of the lower grades. In February, our Principal was transferred, and our Vice Principals began to spend more and more time out of school. A phone call to the office rarely yielded any result, leaving my colleagues and I vulnerable and unsupported. The students didn't take the teachers or the administration seriously. Many students did what they want when they wanted and those who were exemplary students and young adults suffered. Every teacher needed to be a beacon of self sufficency or lose all credibility and any sense of control. No one communicated with one another and consequences were inconsistent at best and any attempts at prevention came too little to late.

A new principal arriving in a school in February has little change to regain decorum and change school culture in that year, but the woman who took the helm in this ship of fools was well liked by staff and students, and gave the teachers hope. Her situation was impossible, but as this school year begins, a staff of both young and old, skeptical and jaded has began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Even all of those who have "seen it all before" and say that "nothing ever works" are beginning to show small signs of hope and belief.

Our Principal has done a lot for our school in her short period as the leader. Her charisma and character have helped swing the opinions of some important people in the educational world and we have received a lot of funding and support from outside of our district. She has landed us a top notch and highly regarded Vice Principal from another school in the city who has made many promises and seems to be a man of his word. The morale of the staff is at an all time high within my narrow spectrum of one school year.

The specialists who have been brought in to help our school have proven that their work and their aid has helped bring up test scores and truly change the culture in over 100 other schools in our state and around the country. We are proud to now be a part of this grand network of school who are all in various stages of this progression of change and improvement. Our new colleagues have meshed seemlessly with the current staff and have helped us to develop a new way - a new vision of our school, a new code of character, and staff guidelines to help us be more productive and to keep morale high.

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Having not written over the first 3 days of the professional development, this post may be very general, but I think that in order for me to be able to tell specific stories as the year progresses, I need to make sure to build a good enough foundation by which one can contexualize and understand the importance and significance of any stories.