When students have strong social emotional skills, demonstrate high levels of engagement, and feel safe taking academic risks, positive outcomes are inevitable. TeachUNITED recently reached out to Michelle Witt, Principal at Barnard School in New Hampshire, to understand her perspective on the “collective responsibility” for every child in the school.
Witt provided context to the situation facing rural and small New Hampshire schools in similar circumstances to Barnard School. She described how implementing creative strategies to combat challenges, access to reliable and relevant data, and working side-by-side with education-focused partners can accelerate the trajectory toward success.
The Challenges.
Access to Resources
Small, rural schools often have limited access to resources such as technology, supplies, and qualified teachers. Schools in small and rural communities often face budget constraints that limit its ability to provide the same level of resources and services as larger districts. Due to small class sizes and limited budgets, small schools often need to hire part-time employees. Leaders must be creative with budgeting and must rely on careful use of grant funding to support staff and students.
Access to Opportunities
Small and rural schools often have lower engagement levels due to fewer extracurricular activities and a lack of access to before-school and after-school programming. Educators must work to create engaging learning experiences and foster positive relationships with students to ensure their success.
Limited Diversity
There is limited cultural diversity in many rural communities. It is important to bring the outside world into the school to expose students to differing experiences to better prepare them for their future. Technology is an exceptional tool for closing this diversity gap.
Funding Constraints
As with all small, rural schools, funding is always an issue. We have a limited budget that requires us to be creative with our spending and initiatives. Although our town is very supportive, I feel a great deal of responsibility to keep the operating budget as lean as possible. I have to provide an abundance of evidence in order to make any significant changes that will require an increase in the budget.
The Juggling Act.
Taxing Responsibilities of Teachers
It is difficult enough to find qualified teachers who are willing to work restricted hours with no benefits, but our teachers are then asked to go above and beyond on a daily basis. Because we are a small school with many part-time employees, we are all required to wear a lot of hats and fill in wherever needed. It is not unusual to find a teacher plunging a toilet, shoveling a walkway, or mopping the floors.
Multi-age classrooms
Due to small class sizes, our school has multi-age classrooms at the elementary level – we have one teacher per every two grade levels (i.e. grade K/1 teacher, grade 2/3 teacher, grade 4/5 teacher). While this provides a unique experience for our students, it can be challenging to provide learners with effective instruction to cover the wide range of needs in a classroom. All teachers have to support diverse learners, but multi-age classrooms often have a wider range of abilities and it can be challenging to support all of those needs in the course of a day. Creative scheduling with support staff helps to bridge the learning gaps that come with multi-age classrooms.
Professional isolation
Instructors don’t have other teachers at their grade level(s) with whom to collaborate and share ideas. We hold elementary Professional Learning Community (PLC) gatherings each week so teachers can share ideas and support one another. Additionally, we try to find other schools within our School Administrative Units (SAUs) to collaborate with to provide our staff with collegial support at their respective grade levels and content areas.
Few committees
Finally, it is difficult to have effective committees, as there simply are not enough bodies to support multiple committees. This requires staff to take on multiple committee assignments. As burnout is a real concern, I try to combine committees as much as possible so as to not overwhelm staff with responsibilities.
Keys to Success.
Access to Data
Data provides teachers and administrators with the information they need to make informed decisions about their schools.
- By having access to data, teachers and administrators are able to identify the areas where their students are most successful and the areas where they need improvement. This data can then be used to create action plans to help students achieve their highest potential.
- Data provides teachers and administrators valuable insight into the effectiveness of instruction and curriculum, allowing them to make adjustments as needed.
- Data can be used to help ensure that resources are allocated appropriately and that students are getting the best possible education.
Our Amazing TEAM
The positive outcomes demonstrated by our students are indicators that our teachers have provided effective instruction models including strong classroom management, safe learning environments, and engaging and personalized learning experiences.
And it takes a village. We are most successful when we collaborate to ensure that each student in our school is working to their fullest potential. All staff take a collective responsibility for every child in our school. There is no “my student” or “your student”— all students are “our students”. Every staff member is accountable for the growth and development of every child at our school to ensure that all students develop a strong sense of self-confidence and self-direction, enabling them to take ownership of their learning and become engaged and productive members of our communities. It is this level of commitment that ensures that our students are successful.
Parent and Community Support
Our school also relies on a strong parent and community partnership. We are successful when families, community organizations, and other stakeholders are involved in our school’s development. We rely on these stakeholders to help create a supportive learning environment and to provide resources and opportunities for our students.
Commitment to Professional Development
Our partnership and work with the TeachUNITED professional development program will engage our teachers in a collaborative learning environment where they can address the common issues of small rural schools. Due to the lack of access to colleagues at their respective grade levels and content areas, we are working with TeachUNITED to provide instructors with the collaboration that is needed to help bring them to the next level of teaching. Our teachers will:
- Receive the support they deserve and gain knowledge of best practices in meeting students’ 21st century needs through personalized learning and engaging teaching practices.
- Gain a better understanding of how to use data to make informed instructional decisions to meet the individual needs of their students.
- Build a network of teacher-leaders that will help to sustain growth and continuous improvement in our school. I personally hope to develop my own leadership skills to better promote equity and excellence in our school.
Our Barnard School team has an unwavering commitment to equity and diversity, including a focus on closing achievement gaps and providing all students with access to high-quality education, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Witt has always had a passion for teaching and education. At a young age, she found herself drawn to teaching and educating children and it quickly became her life’s ambition. As a kindergarten and first grade teacher, she excelled at creating and implementing unique lessons, connected immediately with children, and found teaching to be very satisfying and rewarding. As she grew as a professional, she became increasingly interested in curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and looked to develop systems to help provide teachers with the most effective instruction to meet the needs of the diverse learners in each classroom. Now in a leadership position, she loves being able to support staff in creating the most robust, safe, and effective learning environment in which students are able to grow socially, emotionally, and academically.
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