When I became a multi-classroom leader for the exceptional children’s (EC’s) t
eam, I expected to be able to use my 15 years of experience as an EC teacher and dean of students to coach teachers, especially special education teachers, and help them grow.
What was the key to getting everyone on the same page and making terrific progress? Scheduling.
–Charlotte, N.C., Multi-Classroom Leader Frank Zaremba, in Scheduled for Success
Stronger teaching overall, stronger student growth for special education students: At Frank Zaremba’s school, it came down to shifting the school schedule:
With the implementation of “inclusive practices”—in which a general education and special education teacher instruct students with and without disabilities together in a general education classroom—teachers must collaborate more than ever. Scheduling can help or hinder that collaboration, with big implications for student learning.
Read what his school’s Opportunity Culture design team did to give teachers the support they need, through planing and collaboration time, and the effect on their students, in the latest column in the Opportunity Culture series on Real Clear Education.
How many people would willingly move from a successful middle school in Queens to Syracuse’s largest and notoriously poor-performing middle school? Probably not many, but I was seeking a challenge. And I found one.
