"We Think We Can", Part 3
Helping Teachers Learn

Fortunately, that's not where this story ends. Terrie Geaudreau fell back in love with numbers when she was in college and took a math class for future teachers. "It made sense to me. I understood it. And I realized that I know from experience what students who are struggling may need to gain understanding," she says, her eyes glinting with enthusiasm behind wire-rimmed glasses.

Geaudreau, 44, has devoted much of her career to teaching those for whom math is a challenge. Before coming to Bemiss four years ago as a math facilitator for the primary grades, Geaudreau was a Title I math teacher at other schools in Spokane. She worked with students targeted for special help because of poverty and low achievement. While she saw some of her students make short-term gains, she concluded that pull-out assistance wasn't the best way to help them succeed over the long term. "I tracked my own students and found out that they weren't retaining what they learned (from special assistance), unless they were in a classroom where teachers could continue to make a difference." She became convinced, "You can't make significant changes without changing classroom teaching strategies."

Convincing teachers to change "happens slowly and takes patience," says Geaudreau. Her position is one of four peer coaching slots created by the Bemiss reform plan; two facilitators focus on math, two on literacy. Like her fellow facilitators, Geaudreau has had to win the trust of teachers. At their invitation, she'll eagerly model strategies designed to make math concepts more understandable through active discovery. But first, she has to convince teachers to let her in the door. "Some teachers were scared at first," Geaudreau admits. "They thought I was an administrator there to observe or criticize them."

When the first facilitator came to Bemiss through a district pilot program, many teachers felt defensive. Recalls Smesrud, "At first I worried, 'Is she here to judge my teaching? Does she think I can't do my job?'" But those fears faded quickly. "I admired her knowledge. I started wanting to model myself after her. But then I worried, 'Can I change myself enough?'"

Geaudreau and the other facilitators don't criticize or impose a "right way" of teaching. Rather, they try to build on each teacher's individual strengths. After a few classroom sessions with a literacy facilitator, for instance, Smesrud started branching out from the basals and controlled vocabulary lists she had always used to teach reading. "I realized my kids could check out library books, even if they didn't know all the vocabulary. I didn't feel so stifled or limited as a teacher," she says. "I was more willing to try new things." Most of all, facilitators encourage teachers to continue to be learners themselves. As Geaudreau adds with the hint of a grin, "I like to inject some disequilibrium."

On a late spring morning, for instance, Geaudreau pops in the door of Carren Peck's third-grade class. Right away, she turns students loose to work in pairs or small groups, using whatever strategies they prefer to crack the question: If five presidents are in a room together and each shakes the others' hands, how many handshakes are exchanged? "And don't just give me the answer," Geaudreau challenges the class. "You've gotta prove your answer, or I won't believe you. Tell me why.."

It's a noisy process. Some students act out the handshake exchange. Others make charts. Still others draw schematics on the chalkboard. When Peck studied to become a teacher more than 20 years ago, classrooms were more orderly and learning less noisy. But to her credit, Peck now jumps right into the messy learning process, testing out problem-solving strategies alongside her students.

Watching this active classroom scene unfold, Geaudreau explains, "I try not to give too much direction to the teacher or her students. I want to keep her learning, too. And she is. She's changing the way she's teaching." Peck's third-graders were among those who shined on the Iowa tests this spring. "I had butterflies the whole time they were taking the test," Peck admits, "but they were so well prepared. They did beautifully."

To convince teachers to change their classroom practices, the Bemiss facilitators rely on their interpersonal skills and intuition, along with their solid understanding of how to teach concepts. Geaudreau, for instance, has been honored by the district with the title of Distinguished Teacher. But within the Bemiss building, she's been known to bribe her way with chocolate.

Deb Portner, a facilitator for literacy in the primary grades, says part of her job "is to say to teachers, 'You're doing good work.' Teachers are people who need praise but seldom get it." Recently, for instance, kindergarten teacher Bobbi Wakely asked Portner for an opinion about a little girl's reading progress. Portner spent half of a class period with the child, listening to her read aloud and posing questions to test her comprehension. Her assessment? "This child was reading at the second-grade level—in kindergarten. Bobbi's obviously doing a wonderful job. She just needed another set of eyes to confirm what she was seeing."

Relationships are key to making the onsite professional development approach work, says Barb Miller, a literacy facilitator for the intermediate grades. "Some teachers want me to model a concept. Others are more interested in collaborating. They don't always tell me what they want, so I try to lead with questions. What is a teacher ready to try? What are her goals? If we have a good relationship, I can feel comfortable making suggestions."

What the facilitators and classroom teachers share, Miller adds, "is a belief that these kids badly need the best from us. So many areas of their lives are a challenge. This is one place where we can help." She remembers one boy wearing only a T-shirt and jeans on a day when it was 25 degrees outside. During a first-period writing lesson, his fingers were too numb to hold a pencil. Another boy, preparing to write an essay about a memorable day, jotted down these prompt words to organize his thoughts: Mom. Dad. House. Jobs. Money. Fight. Hurt. Hospital. Sad.

"But even when they come to school with incredible challenges in their lives," Miller says, "these kids can learn. We believe that in our bones." And because of the community of support that reform has helped to build at Bemiss, "There are others here to remind you that they believe it, too, for those days when you get frustrated."

1 2 3 4 5

This document's URL is:

Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics

© 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Date of Last Update: 9/28/01
Email Webmaster
Tel. 503.275.9500