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By Anthony Cody.

We met this week for what must have been about the 200th time. This group, the Learning to Teach Collaborative, began way back in 1988, when I was in my first year of teaching middle school science in Oakland. For the next dozen years, we met once a month, and over dinner, and with a bit of wine, we learned to teach together.

At the start, most of us were fresh, struggling to cope with the challenges of the classroom. We wrestled with how to make sure all our children could read, how girls could get a fair shake, how our own middle class upbringing might affect how we related to students of different backgrounds, and how racism could be fought, in our own classrooms. We used the simple act of conversation. We shared our experiences and frustrations, and challenged one another to look at things in different ways. We wrote about our work, in our classrooms and with one another, in a book entitled “Teacher Research & Urban Literacy: Conversations in a Feminist Key,” published in 1994.

I was lucky to be invited to join. At the start there were a few more participating. All of us had gone through the teaching credential program at UC Berkeley, and Sandra (Sam) Hollingsworth had been conducting research looking into how teachers learned their craft. She and her assistant, Karen Teel, brought us together for guided discussions to find out how we were teaching students to read. I was a science teacher, but I found it reassuring to have a place to share what was going on in my classroom, even if it was not very focused on my discipline. Over time the degree to which the group was “led” shrank, and we became colleagues.

Leslie Minarik taught second grade in Richmond – she retired two years ago. Mary Dybdahl taught and then became a principal in Vallejo, and now works part time coaching administrators. Sandra Hollingsworth has been an international literacy expert, and retired one year ago. Jennifer Smallwood taught elementary school in Berkeley, ran the farm and garden program there, and now works managing a farm camp in rural Sonoma County. Karen Teel taught middle school history in Richmond, and then became a professor of Education at Holy Names college in Oakland. Robyn Lock joined us about a dozen years ago as Sam’s partner, and was a professor of Physical Education – now retired.

This group helped shaped my understanding of what it meant to be a teacher. We actively reflected on our practice, and allowed one another in on occasion to observe. There was an underlying commitment to our students, and to honesty with one another. This work helped me understand what it meant for teachers to be authors of their own classroom practice. We did not shrug our shoulders if we were asked to do something we knew was wrong – we figured out how to overcome the obstacle. When Leslie was told she could only use the grade level readers, and had to get rid of the high interest picture books her second graders loved, she figured out how to hide the books when the enforcer was due, and make them available once the coast was clear. And we learned to act with others to make change as well. I created a school-wide reading program at my school, and got funding for classroom libraries for every teacher.

I was the only science teacher, and the only man. But having been raised with three sisters I was used to being in the minority, gender-wise. Perhaps that is one of the reasons the teaching profession always suited me. For most of my career, my school was led by a female principal, and while there were men in the science department, the majority of my colleagues there were women as well.

One of the things I always took away from this group was the understanding that teachers deeply care about our students, and want to do right by them. Nobody ever paid us to meet, nor did we follow any fancy protocols. We were not a “PLC,” and after the first year, we followed no pre-set agenda. We were just teachers struggling together through the issues we faced, and that was enough to transform each of us, that was enough to allow each of us to reach hundreds of children we otherwise might not have reached.

We thought of ourselves as researchers. That meant we asked ourselves and one another questions about what we were doing and why, and we looked for data (and I do not mean test scores) to see if we could figure out what was working and what was not. This ownership of my own practice as a teacher is what allowed me to understand what was wrong when waves of top down reform came to Oakland.

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Our conversations now are a bit different. Partners have come and gone, children grown, classrooms now in the past, so we share what is happening on a more personal level. Health concerns loom large, and we all have seen the effects of time and illness. But when we came together again this week, for the first time in a year or so, it felt a bit different. How many people do you see year after year for 27 years? Unless they are family, there are not very many. And how many have walked with you through that fire of creating your first classroom, and helped you find your way? Again, not many.

So we probably do not have any more books to write together – at least not about teaching. But we are alive and kicking, and still learning from each other as we face the next set of challenges life throws our way.

What do you think? Who helped you learn to teach?

Author

Anthony Cody

Anthony Cody worked in the high poverty schools of Oakland, California, for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school science teacher. He was one of the organizers of the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC in 2011 and he is a founding member of The Network for Public Education. A graduate of UC Berkeley and San Jose State University, he now lives in Mendocino County, California.

Comments

  1. Juana Reyes    

    Great piece! It demonstrates the importance of professional development and collaboration in education. I still collaborate with my original group–a journey we began more than 20 years ago. It’s important to have support from peers when reflecting and planning with/for children. Also, it’s integral to collaborate when looking at data (also not referring to test scores)–the words, ideas, and work of children. It’s important to advocate for the many roles of educators including those of researcher and collaborator. Thank you for sharing your learning!

  2. Daphne Winders    

    I remember such gatherings as a first year teacher in 1984. Everyone supported me! I felt loved! Haven’t felt that for many years now.

  3. Daphne Winders    

    Nothing like colleagues to bounce ideas off of…if only we had the time now. So sad for my students!

  4. Larry Lawrence    

    This is a wonderful example of the power of working together. I began my career as a H.S. math teacher doing my own thing in my own classroom. After several years I had the opportunity to teach in an elementary school organized in teams of teachers. My experience mirrors yours, except we had the opportunity to meet weekly and observe each other daily. My teaching skills were transformed!

  5. Dale Lidicker    

    Very touching. That simply does not happen too often these days in our educational culture…

  6. Shannon    

    Anthony, this is a really great piece, and I’ll tell you why: You made the time, each month, to meet with a group of other teachers to improve your craft. It wasn’t mandated by the state or the school, and your group wanted nothing more than to support one another along your journey. And…you said that you considered yourself as researchers–and I’m not sure this is the the culture with many public school teachers today. Yes, we are pressed for time and yes, we have stale and boring and dry mandated PD time. But, I too have been meeting for over 5 years now with another teacher, monthly, and we share ideas and resources and struggles. It has made me a better teach in the end–but it was something that I initiated.

    Thank you for this and hoping you have several more years of meeting and discussion with your crew.

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