Why were our teachers out?

I love this question, because it invites a sharing of important information for our school community.  Often the question is coming from a place of frustration or confusion, as it is always challenging to have the classroom teacher out – even more so at the start of the school year.  Thank you to those parents that have reached out to ask this important question.  Your question helps us to share the important work that is happening for our adults in the building on behalf of our students.

Over the course of this month many different teachers will be out for a few days. Most recently, our Kindergarten teachers were out this past Thursday and Friday.  Our teachers were participating in a training designed specifically for Kindergarten teachers around the teaching of writing.  Developing students as writers is a big focus for our elementary schools this year.  Our staff was lucky enough to work with the person who literally wrote the book on early childhood writing development; Martha Horne.  Talking, Drawing, Writing(https://www.stenhouse.com/content/talking-drawing-writing) focuses on developing our youngest learners as storytellers and the guided shift towards becoming authors of rich stories.  We are lucky to have Martha, an expert in the field, working with our staff.

I acknowledge that having our teachers out at this early point in the year is a challenge.  I apologize for any difficulties it has created for your child as they are newly navigating the classroom routines, expectations, and relationship building.  I will note that the benefit of this professional learning happening now is that it will allow our teachers to implement these instructional strategies throughout the year with ongoing coaching from Ms. Horne starting right away.  Additionally – we must work within the availability of the professional trainers, consider scheduling across all grades, all schools and all district, while ensuring our teachers get timely training to improve their craft on behalf of our students.

Another challenge we encountered at Barrows this past week was a lack of substitute coverage.  Our amazing staff worked hard to step up and lend a hand in the classrooms, but this is a challenge that we do face.  If you (or a neighbor or a friend) have ever considered substitute teaching, I encourage you to reach out to Reading Public Schools HR department to learn more! https://www.reading.k12.ma.us/departments/human-resources/ (if not here at Barrows, then at least at another school in district!)  We have opportunities for teacher substitutes, paraeducator substitutes, and more!

I encourage you to revisit a blog post from last year about teacher professional development here: http://barrowselementary.blogspot.com/2016/12/teacher-and-staff-professional-learning.html

 

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.  Of course, we always want our staff in their classrooms with students. We also want our teachers to be the best equipped professionals with the most current knowledge and pedagogy possible.  In the end, this is the best way for us to continue to meet the needs of all our children!

Thank you for your support,

Heather Leonard