TEA Collaborative Learning Group
Annual Report

Trummel
2001

Back to Login Page

How did your work with your team help you meet the professional growth goals you set for yourself?
I think one important thing was to plan a wide variety of types of meetings and activities/discussions in these meetings. This kept things fresh and lively, and kept interest sparked throughout the year. One thing teachers do not want is to dread a workshop or meeting, thinking that it will be a waste of their valuable time. We are all busy people. Maximizing the time we spent together, discussing/doing things that are relevant to our teaching situations and styles, and having fun are important to make the meetings and the relationships a success. You will see through the next two responses how the work with the team helped us grow as professionals, challenge ourselves to reach for new information and techniques, and become better educators. I feel we are better able to deliver a quality science program as a result of our interactions and exchange of materials, lessons, activities, projects and ideas.

How did your work with your team impact your content knowledge and pedagogy?
Impact on Content Knowledge: The work with my team impacted our content knowledge in many ways. First off, it impacted our knowledge of the science process by witnessing science in action through the eyes of TEA's involved in research experiences in Antarctica and to a smaller extent the Arctic. It impacted the content of what we teach because we had new materials and activities to implement in our classrooms that were exciting and full of information. I have to admit that we focus our teaching/meetings/discussions primarily on Antarctica as opposed to equal time devoted to both regions. Possible our continued interaction can yield similar actions involving the Arctic regions. Impact on Pedagogy: Review of curriculum materials provides us the chance to evaluate not only those materials, but also our own teaching styles and techniques. As we discuss ways to use new materials, questions, concerns, and positive feedback has an effect on our own teaching styles and strategies. We decide what materials work well in which situations. We can answer the question...what types of learners can benefit from what types of materials? As we address the concern of meeting the needs of all learners in our classroom, taking into account the various ways children learn, reviewing the materials becomes a HUGE part of professional development and impacts our individual pedagogy and I feel makes us better educators. The TEA web site, with its many journals, photographs, activities and resources impacts pedagogy, because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on our own teaching practices, view the practices of other key educators, and critique the work of others. All of those things impact us, and can be a unique form of professional development, not available to all educators. Most don't take time to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses. Goals are not always set for improvement. TEA has done this for me personally....in a HUGE way. I have taken more time in the last 3-4 years to reflect personally on my own role in the classroom, community of teachers/colleagues, and how I can be more involved in district, state, and national (and now international) education initiatives. I have grown by leaps and bounds, challenged myself to reach out to others and develop new opportunities for me to work with others, write grants, examine resources constantly, and it has been NON-STOP. I know that my teammates might not share all of the qualities that I have, but I don't share key qualities that they have....that's the beauty of working together and collaboration. We can learn from each other. Enthusiasm is contagious....and very effective in getting others to grow professionally.

What materials / resources / workshops did you use / produce / host with your team members over the last year?
HOST: We hosted Gordan Bain from the Australian Antarctic Division and a reception/joint presentation at Husmann Elementary School here in Crystal Lake. In attendance were other teachers, all but two members of our Board of Education, Principals and Assistant Principals from schools in District #47, Curriculum Director, our Superintendent of Schools and the Assistant Superintendent who will take over full Superintendent duties during this school year. We had a few parents attend this reception/presentation as well. It went wonderfully with a great connection of TEA materials and program goals and objectives to science research expeditions of ANARE and the Australian Antarctic Division. WORKSHOPS: Regional Office of Education workshop/seminar in October ACTIVITIES: My team members helped offer good suggestions on my TEA activity "Recipe For a Core" and we made some adjustments for use in a fourth grade classroom. We bantered around ideas for a second activity, and had an integrated unit in mind. I've got that completed in a webbing format....and I include it in the Antarctic teaching trunk and when I give workshops and presentations, but it is not really a formal TEA activity to be posted on the site. The latest idea is to use an inquiry based activity to explore/create field research camps/sites. Students would use TEA information from previous field experiences (or on-going if the timing was right) to design and build a model of a field camp or research site in Antarctica. This is in the beginning stages of development and further meetings will move the project/activity along. Hopefully we can all test this idea/activity in our classrooms, even if only by a small group of students this year. MATERIALS: Well, I've introduced (AND PROVIDED) tons of new resources to Jan and Susie, but some of the most memorable are: ***Australian Antarctic Magazine ***Looking South (Australian Program) ***posters from the Australian Antarctic Division ***"Classroom Antarctica" a new curriculum program from the Australians ***the British Antarctic Schools Pack ***materials (calendars, photo cards) and books from Hedgehog House in New Zealand ***a HUGE collection of web sites that we have compiled (do you really want to know all of these? I'll have handouts at NSTA, and I give handouts at all of my workshops...but it would take hours to type all of those in here) ***assembling the materials for the Tasmanian Antarctic trunk, "The Ice Box," funded by Delta Kappa Gamma Society International's "Golden Gift Fund." The list of materials in this trunk is also extensive and available upon request. I tried to cut and paste the information here from Microsoft WORD, but it would not work. The trunk (as well as the IL trunk) contains books, videos, maps, laminated pictures, stuffed penguins, teacher resource books, CD's of digital photos, books on tape, and so much more. Susie and Jan have access to the Illinois trunk as they wish. ***TEA web site was used of course....as a main resource for classrooms. Since our student computers in class have only recently been able to connect to the Internet, this has been a difficulty, but actually I was able to get around it by contacting our technology coordinator in District #47 and she gave me the necessary passwords. Still, we lost a good portion of the TEA Antarctic season due to lack of availability. I see that improving immensely for next year. Students and teachers will have much more and certainly reliable access to TEA. ***Another resource we used were the photographs sent by Gordon Bain, following his expedition on the Aurora Australis. He sent over 500 photos this year with a comprehensive look at an Australian research voyage to their main bases in Antarctica. He included captions for each photograph. He also sent the daily sitreps from the voyage and those were forwarded to the team. In my class we plotted the location of the Aurora using the ship's latitude and longitude supplied in the daily reports. ***The ECW (extreme cold weather) gear was used in each team member's classroom. ***Please contact me if further details regarding materials and resources is necessary. At this point I'm not sure how detailed to get.

Based on the past year, what ideas do you have to improve the effectiveness of your team interactions?
Really I think the one key element that always impacts our team and any other group of educators is TIME to work together and meet, whether it is formally or in a more informal setting. Often teachers do not have adequate time during the day to complete the necessary tasks to run their own classroom, plan for instruction, grade student work, or read to improve their own knowledge or teaching style. When then, does a team have the chance to get together and SHARE, which is perhaps the most beneficial opportunity of all? It is always an issue, in every district I visit, and with every group of teachers I meet. We must fight for every minute of time together, and I just feel that it should not be this difficult to have productive time with colleagues. It is what I treasure about special TEA events... NSTA conventions, state and regional conventions, Orientation, Activities Workshops, and time spent on e-mail, phone calls, and visits when possible. It is my personal goal for 2002 to organize a TEA regional event, to bring colleagues together in a way that enriches their teaching, motivates them to expand their programs, and to get them pumped about the process of science and TEA....and the possibilities the program brings to educators. I hope that I can excite my team members to be a part of this experience/vision.

Total hours of collaboration with each team member:
63 hours with each team member

Additional reflections:
I think I've added quite a bit of extra thoughts and information in previous sections. Please feel free to contact me if more information is needed. I am truly inspired by TEA and the colleagues I've met or worked with as a result of this program. The continued interaction with my science research team is evidence of the impact TEA has had on me as an educator and personally. The amount of time I devote to TEA presentations, activities, and mentoring outside the realm of the formal 100 hours for two teachers should be proof that I am totally committed to the success of the TEA program and care deeply about the people involved in it.