Gleaning from a Week in London Schools

By Liba Peters, Coach, Sycamore Elementary, Talladega, Alabama

As a participant in the British exchange program, I spent five days as a "learner" in a London school along with 20 of my colleague teachers. I observed teaching and organizational strategies developed and implemented during the last five years of the National Literacy Strategy in their English education system. I used a journal to record my questions, reflections and ideas that focused in three areas: teaching, learning and the learning community. I recorded what changes I would make in my teaching strategies or school policy, making a note of how and why I would make these changes.

I learned new strategies to involve the learning community. For example, I saw the significance of the principal taking responsibility for some teaching and for much of the staff development and parent training. The hands-on role of the principal was a refreshing and powerful tool for moving instruction. I learned the significance of students taking responsibility for their progress. For example, students marked their progress on target sheets. The target sheets were written from the child's point of view. ("I can write my first and last name.") I learned the importance of teaching related to the individual needs of the children. For example, the instructional targets for each child were addressed in small groups or individual conferences. There was continuity and purpose throughout the whole learning community. As a leader, I was able to share the British experience with my colleagues, and I changed my practice as a result of this learning experience. I am advocating the implementation of many of these changes in my own school.

As a teacher, I made an impact on my students' learning by setting higher standards. Student expectations were high in England, and the students rose to the occasion and so did my students as I implemented some of the newly learned strategies. I learned the value of setting high developmentally appropriate standards. Through scaffolding strategies learned in England, my kindergarten children wrote poetry! And they were quite "keen"!

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LONDON EXCHANGE JOURNAL
Liba Peters

Focus	Observation	Notes	Advocate / Change
The learning community	Principal as leader in instruction, staff development and parental training Enhances change and moves instruction I can help principals/staff become more familiar with curriculum and instruction Parental responsibility Parents are expected to partner as educators I can train parents - tools to use at home
Teaching	Use of targets developed across grade levels - continuity Children played a role in their progress I will create targets for my students to use - written in their language (e.g., I can...)
Learning	High expectations Children rise to developmentally appropriate expectations (a matter of how it is presented) I can present content in a developmentally appropriate method and teach to higher expectations