Henri vs. Reality

Reading the Henri article took some time and re-reading (mainly due to children demanding my attention a number of times or my thoughts drifting to my own TL experiences). The idea of collaboration seems to be a common thread that reverberates through my experiences and the article. Also the practice of integrated units which became a component of  Qld teaching with the introduction of Outcomes. The idea of teaching across subjects and student groups has long been on the agenda of teaching but from what I have seen is still a limited practice. I have not seen the TL in discussions with the principal and teachers to effectively facilitate and develop programs. There is some collaboration between TLs and teachers but not always effectively. I think flexible teaching teams is a great idea, especially in primary schools where specialist teachers are not always a part of the teams when teaching areas e.g. science, art, ICTs and as such this is an area that could be looked at in more detail. In one of my schools the principal has started to look at this and we have a specialist science, art, music and p.e. teachers now giving specialist lessons, with the TL also being involved at various stages (as long as the teachers are willing to collaborate). I don't think it has been defined specifically enough yet as it is in its infancy but this could be a good start to the idea of flexible teaching, especially across student groups but I must say I don't think it will go this way. At my old school there was a push to group students according to ability levels for Maths and English but again it was not followed through - deemed to hard when moving into Year 8. Middle schooling was looked at for the same reason but again very few schools seem to have gone that way or done it effectively.

But anyway back on track now - Henri's views are significant but are they manageable without a rethink across the schools. If teachers are not on board with this view it might not happen.