A bunch of my coworkers and I decided to end our week of
school with some libations and seafood this past Friday. Anyone who has ever
been in a bar with a group of teachers during happy hour has probably overheard
the loud debrief of the week full of stories about odd student questions and
frustrating behavior problems. We were no exception this week.
Towards
the end of the evening a smaller group of us began to talk about collocation. A
former colleague was present and shared her experience in her new school, a
public school, which until this year had shared its space with a charter
school. She described the more obvious differences between the two schools,
such as classroom appearances and materials, explaining that each of their
classes had interactive whiteboards, while only a small handful of classes in
her school had them installed in the classroom. We all expressed frustration
that our own schools did not have the financial means to provide each classroom
with such new materials, but understood that charter schools have the private
funding that pays for such items.
The
conversation then shifted towards the relationship between the two schools. My
friend said that the teachers at the charter school were incredibly cold to her
school and that they did not communicate, nor work together in any way. She
described one particular experience in which she was holding the door open for
the teachers from the other school and the group walked past her without
thanking her or even acknowledging her. Now, I realize that this behavior could
easily be chalked up to being incredibly enthralled in the conversation they
were having, or even simply poor manners. I am by no means suggesting that all
teachers who work at charter schools are rude people. This was simply a concrete example that
my friend could provide to show the divided relationships between the two
schools within her building.
My
immediate reaction was to think of my own building, in which we are collocated
with a District 75 special needs program. They occupy the top floor of the
building, while my school has the other three floors. The basement level, with
the gym, auditorium, and cafeteria is shared space. We are both public schools
within the New York City Department of Education; yet, I have noticed similar
experiences to the relationship gap described by my friend.
I would like to think we are slightly
more cordial in our building. We smile at one another when passing in the halls,
and everyone holds the door for each other. But beyond common courtesy, there
is not a relationship that transcends the two schools. As a self-contained
special education teacher, I want to talk to the teachers upstairs. They are
all special ed teachers and I know they could provide me and my colleagues with
an immense amount of ideas for how to more effectively educate our students. It
seems, though, that an imaginary boundary has been placed between us and we are
all too scared to try to cross it.
Despite
the difference between our students (most of the students in the District 75
school are on alternate assessment track while our students are all state
assessment track), the teachers act as if we are competing. It is almost as if we
share our ideas and share our materials and share our space better, we think
our students may not be as successful. Let’s rethink that: if we share our
ideas and share our materials and share our space better, than ALL of our
students WILL be successful.
Collocation
of different schools means that there are more great ideas floating around one
building. How can we share those ideas? If you work in a building that is
collocated with another school(s) and you do have great relationships, what has
your school done to foster that? What has worked and what has not?
--Teach
