ELE: Flex scheduling

[Toni Buzzeo <tonibuzzeo@TONIBUZZEO.COM>]

Karen wrote:

>HOWEVER I would like some advice from those of you who have moved from
>un-flexible scheduling to flexible scheduling.
>
>How do you do it? How do you convince the teachers that this is a new and
>wonderful thing and that it can really work?
>
>We are sure that we will never see some classes unless we schedule them some
>how, but that's not being flexible.

Well, first of all, let's take a moment to CELEBRATE this awesome turn of
events and a fabulous, forward-looking administrator who has STUDENT
LEARNING as his/her first goal.

My best advice is to find the "Oh Yeah's" in your teaching
community.  Every organization has them.  The theory is that there are
three groups in any organization: the "Oh Yeah's" who will jump on board
and try a new idea that shows promise; the "Yeah, But's" who will hold back
a year or two until the "Oh Yeah's" are experiencing great success; and the
"No Way in Heck's" who will have to be dragged by the hair kicking and
screaming :>  (I give credit to my beloved administrator in my first
professional library job, Sheila Guiney, for introducing me to this theory
of organizations when I had the How-do-we-switch-to-flexible-scheduling
conversation with her :>)

So, your first step is to identify the "Oh Yeah's" RIGHT NOW.  Start to
talk to them about the opportunities this change of operation will provide
and plan some really fabulous collaborative units for next year with them
that will blow the other teachers' ideas of have-to right out of the water!

All my best,
Toni


Toni Buzzeo, MA, MLIS <mailto:tonibuzzeo@tonibuzzeo.com>
Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year Emerita
Portland, ME 04103
http://www.tonibuzzeo.com
Collaborating to Meet Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for K-6
(Linworth 2002)

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