The Importance of Teacher Involvement at State Level
Mr. Funky Teacher embodies the essence of educational inspiration, as he seeks to empower both students and fellow educators through creativity and passion. Throughout this episode, we delve into the significance of teachers' involvement at state and national levels, emphasizing the necessity for educators to shape assessments and learning experiences rather than merely responding to external mandates. By engaging in the development of state assessments, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the broader educational landscape, which ultimately enhances our effectiveness in the classroom. Furthermore, the episode illustrates how such involvement fosters professional growth, cultivates meaningful relationships, and amplifies our voices in shaping educational practices. As we reflect on these themes, we are reminded of our collective responsibility to inspire greatness and remain actively engaged in the evolution of education.
The podcast episode presents a compelling narrative surrounding my recent experience in Lincoln, Nebraska, where I engaged in the critical task of writing state assessment items for the Nebraska writing assessment. This endeavor not only illuminated the intricacies of assessment development but also underscored the essential role that teachers play in advocating for effective educational policies. I emphasize that teacher involvement at both state and national levels is crucial; our insights as practitioners should inform the standards and assessments that shape the educational experiences of students across the state. This involvement is not merely a professional obligation but a moral imperative that reflects our commitment to fostering an equitable learning environment.
As I articulate the benefits of such engagement, I highlight the invaluable professional development opportunities it affords educators. The process of crafting assessment items requires an in-depth understanding of pedagogical standards, content accuracy, and the necessity to minimize bias. By participating in this collaborative effort, we gain a broader perspective on how assessments are constructed and the implications they hold for our students. Furthermore, I share anecdotes of the meaningful connections I have forged with fellow educators during this week of intensive work. These interactions stimulate intellectual discourse and inspire innovative teaching practices that can be implemented upon our return to the classroom.
Ultimately, the overarching theme of this episode is a call to action for educators to embrace their roles as leaders and advocates within the educational system. By stepping beyond the confines of our classrooms and engaging in state-level discussions, we have the potential to influence educational policy and practice significantly. I encourage my colleagues to recognize the importance of their voice in this process and to seize opportunities for involvement, as the impact of our contributions can resonate throughout the entire educational landscape.
Takeaways:
- The involvement of educators at state and national levels profoundly influences educational assessments and practices.
- Building strong relationships among teachers fosters collaborative ideas that enhance educational effectiveness.
- Participating in professional development activities allows educators to gain new perspectives and skills for their classrooms.
- Having a voice in shaping assessments ensures that teachers' realities are represented in educational policies.
- Engaging in leadership roles contributes to teachers' professional growth and extends their influence beyond the classroom.
- Collaborating with diverse educators can lead to impactful changes that benefit students and school districts.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
- NWEA
- Nebraska Department of Education
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Funky Teacher fam.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:I'm in Lincoln this week where I am working on writing state assessment items for the Nebraska writing assessment.
Speaker B:And it reminds me of how critical it is for teachers to be involved absolutely.
Speaker B:Not just in your own schools, not just in your in your own school districts, but at the state level and at the national level.
Speaker B:Those state level conversations and national level conversations is so important.
Speaker B:There's quite a few different reasons why I think about being involved at the state and national level is so critically important.
Speaker B:I'm giving up a week of my summer to be here.
Speaker B:Now.
Speaker B:It is paid.
Speaker B:I'll give you that full transparency.
Speaker B:I'm getting paid to be here to write assessment items.
Speaker B:They're paying for my hotel here in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Speaker B:But I also am sacrificing a precious week of summer and why am I doing that?
Speaker B:I think it's for the greater good of education and what I'm trying to do here.
Speaker B:One of the things that I think about is it truly does help me understand the bigger picture when it comes to writing state assessments.
Speaker B:This week I'm focusing on science and it's really helping me to gain truly a deeper understanding and how the standards are measured and why certain tasks are chosen, why certain tasks are developed and written in the way that they are.
Speaker B:When you spend a day and a half putting together a question set of six, six prompts, six questions in a certain order in a certain approach.
Speaker B:It really helps you understand the process and thinking about is the content accurate in there?
Speaker B:Are you, is the content, are you minimizing bias when you write these assessment items?
Speaker B:That bigger picture of at the state level of man, we got to make sure These questions are good, not just in our classroom, but to all of, like in my case, all of the fifth graders in the state of Nebraska could potentially see these items that I'm working on.
Speaker B:And I definitely want to do a good job for all of the students in the state of Nebraska.
Speaker B:So understanding that bigger picture, writing state assessments is so important.
Speaker B:The second thing I think of is having a voice where it counts.
Speaker B:State level educator involvement.
Speaker B:It truly does ensure that our classroom realities are reflected in large scale decisions.
Speaker B:When we get involved at the state level, teachers should be shaping what assessments and learning looks like, not just reacting to them.
Speaker B:Shouldn't just be other people doing it or other like non educators doing it.
Speaker B:If we have an opportunity to shape the assessments and have it reflective of our own teaching practices, how powerful is that?
Speaker B:So it gives us a voice where it empowers us.
Speaker B:And that's what I think is so important, is if we talk about the importance of teacher autonomy.
Speaker B:Well, we can have teacher autonomy if we take some of these opportunities, these teacher leadership opportunities to step up and be involved when opportunities like this arise.
Speaker B:And so I think about how important it is for me to be here because it helps give me a voice where it counts.
Speaker B:I also think about growing professionally through real leadership, contributing to things like assessment development, curriculum review, state committees, is next level professional development for teachers.
Speaker B:And even when they were talking to us at the beginning of the week, the facilitators, they talked about how this is professional development.
Speaker B:This week they want us to take stuff back with us that will impact not only our schools, but our, our districts that we work in with the work that we're doing this week that they just don't want it just be like, oh, we're writing assessments and we're done and moving on.
Speaker B:No, we're making that bridge between the work we're doing here with writing these assessments and bridging out to our school districts and our schools.
Speaker B:And I love that thinking that, that professional development, that real leadership, that state level leadership through the work that we're doing here.
Speaker B:These roles give me influence and credibility beyond my classroom.
Speaker B:When I talk about how I've helped develop, I don't do it necessarily for like the status, but boy, it does give me credibility, gives me influence.
Speaker B:When I talk about assessments and what goes into assessments and sharing with other educators things to think about when we're looking at assessments or, or thinking about, hey, how do we prepare students to be successful on assessment?
Speaker B:Not teaching the test, but teaching students to be prepared for an assessment.
Speaker B:Those are conversations that it gives me credibility because I've been involved with state assessment development at a level like this.
Speaker B:I think, you know, another thing here is the fourth thing that comes to mind is building connections that fuel me.
Speaker B:This week I have built relationships with teachers across Nebraska, a few that I've met, a lot that I have not met.
Speaker B:And these conversations, especially there's a fellow fifth grade teacher, has really sparked powerful collaborative ideas.
Speaker B:As we're sitting and we're working and we're talking about about developing these specific assessment items, but then talking about what we're doing in our classrooms, that collaboration fuels me.
Speaker B:It's like rocket fuel to the work that I'm doing and I hope it's rocket fuel to other teachers who are here too.
Speaker B:While we're giving up a summer or a week in summer, we're adding rocket fuel to the work we're doing which will directly impact students and our school districts.
Speaker B:So whether and when we gather across, when we're coming together, teachers from all across the state are coming and gathering and we can bring our expertise in and collaborate and share ideas and take those back into our own districts.
Speaker B:Boy, that is where you get that compounding impact through the connections that we're building.
Speaker B:And it is bringing back energy and impact.
Speaker B:I want to bring back energy and impact.
Speaker B:I am the Mr. Funky Teacher and I want to bring back energy and impact into my school district now.
Speaker B:And I think that every teacher here wants to also, whether it's at the state or national level, experiences like this, writing assessments can stretch us and refill our cups to help make us better educators.
Speaker B:They truly can.
Speaker B:So when I return to my classroom, I hope to have a stronger sense of purpose and even have a wider lens on how I can impact students and how I can teach with purpose and teach with drive even more so than I already have.
Speaker B:Now, there have been some surprising moments here that I'd love to share.
Speaker B:We did this activity today.
Speaker B:It was a chopstick in M and M's icebreaker.
Speaker B:It was actually after lunch, you know, we had food on our belly.
Speaker B:We were feeling kind of sluggish coming back after lunch and our facilitator had this chopstick and M and M icebreaker.
Speaker B:And it was where we kind of competed.
Speaker B:We actually competed, competed for this USB fan that plugs into a computer.
Speaker B:This looks like a little personal fan.
Speaker B:And it was just kind of a fun little thing.
Speaker B:And there were some other follow up activities too for the competition, but it was fun.
Speaker B:It reminds me that even serious professional work deserves Moments of fun and play.
Speaker B:It's just a great example of high engagement.
Speaker B:That high engagement professional development has to have fun and play tied into it.
Speaker B:If, if we come here and it's all serious all week and everybody's, you know, no one's smiling, no one's laughing, everyone's acting all serious, there's no fun and play tied into it here.
Speaker B:People are going to want to come and do this work.
Speaker B:And so I have to give, give a high praise to our facilitator.
Speaker B:Her name is Harmony Out.
Speaker B:She's actually out of Portland, Oregon.
Speaker B:She's tied with the NWEA and working with the Nebraska Department of Education.
Speaker B:And she is top notch when it comes to assessment.
Speaker B:And just for her to bring in these, you know, some the fun and play into the work we're doing also, while it's serious work, we're also having some fun and play and that speaks to her understanding of helping us to perform at a high level by incorporating those things into it.
Speaker B:So that was a surprising moment today, the Chopstick and M and M icebreaker where you take these MMs and move them into a cup competing.
Speaker B:Another surprising moment that comes to mind is just this one fellow educator that I've been partnered with this week, that I've been working with her all week.
Speaker B:And we've really had time to share some wins, challenges and real ideas from our own classrooms, from our own work that we do in our own teaching, work that we do.
Speaker B:Ideas that I want to take back into my classroom right away.
Speaker B:And so I would not have that connection to this amazing fifth grade teacher out of western Nebraska that I would have never met.
Speaker B:She works in this mall, Nebraska town in western Nebraska.
Speaker B:I mean she lives to go grocery shopping.
Speaker B:She's got to drive over an hour to get groceries.
Speaker B:That's how far she is from when she does big grocery shopping.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so I would have never met her if not for something like this.
Speaker B:Never known how amazing of an educator she is in western Nebraska.
Speaker B:What an opportunity it was to get to meet Emily and to hear actually leaning into some administrative work too where she's going to teach part time, fifth grade, part time, going to be a part time administration, getting into the principal role.
Speaker B:Super excited for things that she's got ahead of us or ahead of her and the work she's doing, that's a win.
Speaker B:When we could talk and collaborate in that sense too.
Speaker B:And there's other, I mean I could go through the list, we got a room full of, I think there's what 12 to 14 educators in our fifth grade room looking at science assessments and I tell you every single one of them is top notch.
Speaker B:It just so happens I've been working most closely with Emily and really gotten to know her but just even working with some of the other ones, also top notch individuals and super excited all bring their own energy and personality and their own vibe into it and, and what a win that is.
Speaker B:So I just want to take that some surprising moments there to share, you know.
Speaker B:So if you've ever thought about getting involved, especially at the state or national level, do it.
Speaker B:Your voice matters, your perspective is needed and what you bring back, it will ripple far beyond just your classroom.
Speaker B:So with that being said, I want you to remember to inspire greatness in young people and be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah he's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah, yeah, yeah.
