"The principals I've had here have been very willing to say, 'Do what you need to do, be creative.' Not just to me but to most of the teachers here. It's very supportive." -- Peter Knowles

Peter credits not only supportive leadership but several things, including a team of like-minded colleagues for giving him the extra boost needed to develop new ways of structuring his classroom and courses. A nontraditional school schedule and the larger context of school reform have also given Peter new opportunities for focused learning.

School Leadership
Columbia High is small and has one administrator, the principal, with no second-in-command. The principal is also vice principal, curriculum director, and dean of students. In Peter's understated terms, "he is incredibly busy." It's Peter's perception that any faculty member with initiative and a good idea, especially if it doesn't include a big budget, is given the go-ahead. With a small central office the door is open for sharing the lead on change.

"Our building faculty has slowly but steadily taken on more and more responsibilities that are often handled by a building's administrative team. Perhaps through overburdened administration or through overambitious staff members, we've slowly evolved into a building with a great deal of site-based decision making." --Peter Knowles

But the freedom to try something new is only the beginning; Peter also finds that risk-taking is encouraged and revising is normal.

Collegial Teams
Several years ago Peter served on a district Language Arts Curriculum adoption committee from which grew an informal, self-selected collegial team. Over the years Peter has continued to work regularly with two teachers at the middle school: Sally Wells a 7th grade Language Arts, Art, and Design Technology teacher and with Phil Brady who teaches a 5th/6th blend. All three share an interest in technology and have put countless hours into technology-related projects and committees. While each of them also works closely with teachers at their grade and subject levels, they maintain regular contact with each other, enjoying the perspectives of multiple grade and subject levels.

"What I find myself thinking about in my own classes is that for a lot of the time, the actual content is not the most important part. It's the process you go through to get there. And so, when we sit down and talk about things, Phil could be talking about something he teaches at the 5th or 6th grade in science. But the way he approaches it is something that I can latch onto and bring into my social studies classes." --Peter Knowles

"In that forum of three different grade levels working together we see how much there really is in common--setting deeper goals for learning, knowing what your important objectives are and constantly questioning each other about what we are doing."
--Sally Wells, 7th grade teacher

School Schedule and Project Learning
The adjoining campuses of Columbia High School and Henkle Middle School facilitate cross-grade team and committee work. The schools also share track and field space, covered bleachers, as well as a 90-minute block school schedule. The move to four extended periods per day was implemented in the Fall of 1993 and is now fully a part of the culture and practice of planning for student learning.

Peter acknowledges that the extended period schedule creates a compelling force to change classroom practice to more open-ended and student-driven project work.

"It changes everything. It's not just a matter of twice as much material or twice as fast through the text. You really have to restructure how you handle education and throw out your old notions--like your own role in the classroom. Because you can't talk and the students can't listen for 90-minutes. We just had to evolve into more student-directed project work. You start to develop these different approaches to learning and different approaches to teaching and then the students find different ways to come up with whatever is requested of them. In time it's no longer all from you--the teacher." --Peter Knowles

At the middle school Phil Brady teams with three other teachers in self contained, 5th/6th blend classrooms that share one 90-minute block. Phil acknowledges the learning benefits of an extended block for students at the lower grades as well.

"Among my team of three teachers in the blends we have one 90-minute daily block that we hold sacrosanct for doing larger units in science and social studies together. It has it's advantages: you can focus, you don't have to hurry to get things done, and students have prolonged effort in a single area. The students have a lot more responsibility for figuring out what their schedule is going to be, what components they put in the end product, and finding their own direction to get to the end product. For 5th and 6th graders it's pretty challenging to take that much control. They go to many more interesting places before they get to the end." --Phil Brady, 5th/6th grade teacher

At the end of the school year, Peter and a couple of students voiced the following thoughts about learning with the Global Challenge project. Their reflections are captured on video.

• Learning in the Global Challenge project (video--requires QuickTime 4)
  (text transcript)

Professional Development
When it comes to professional development, Columbia High faculty look to each other for leadership and learning. Peter works and learns among a resourceful faculty that shares expertise readily.

"Faculty members began sharing the weekly staff meeting responsibilities, planning, hosting, and running the meetings on a rotating basis throughout the year. From that, more and more initiative has come from the faculty, to reach a point where individual teachers, departments, or the staff as a whole becomes the agent of change in many areas of the curriculum." --Peter Knowles

Phil Brady speaks to the long-range advantage of this "hiring from within" when providing inservice or classes for teachers.

"And one really good reason for using someone within [the district] is that it gives someone, if they have taken a class from you, a chance to come back to you later and ask more questions. You are a known quantity and available-- in the district, the building, or a phone call away." --Phil Brady, 5th/6th grade teacher

Sally Wells appreciates both recognition of the time required for leadership involvement and the compensation the district provides.

It's important professional recognition that in order to get substantial work accomplished, you have to provide release time, or subs, or actually acknowledge that teachers need to be paid for curriculum development or teaching a technology class--we get paid for that kind of time." --Sally Wells, 7th grade teacher

School reform in Washington State has produced academic content standards with benchmarks that set targets for learning at grades 4, 7, and 10. Standards-based assessments and an accountability system for results are also part of the legislated reform system in Washington.

Peter created a set of tables that align the broad goals of the Global Challenge project with the Washington State standards and the benchmarks for his ninth-grade students. He also used other standards tools developed at the national and district level.

• Standards and Benchmarks and the Global Challenge project

Peter, Sally, and Phil all acknowledge that the standards are useful for appraising their own curriculum priorities without constraining classroom methods and teaching style.

"One thing the standards have done is get me to think about what I'm actually doing in my classroom--on a course-wide basis and a unit-wide basis, and even on a daily basis. I ask myself, 'Is this really what I need to be doing?' They have been helpful with seeing when I haven't addressed something. They give you a framework, a target to work for and there is plenty of freedom to get there." --Peter Knowles

"They give me a focus without saying you've got to drive this road or that road, so I find them helpful and empowering, actually." --Phil Brady, 5th/6th grade teacher

"You know the more I work with them the more comfortable I feel. I look at my curriculum and assess what I am already doing and see the places where I need to do more."
--Sally Wells, 7th grade teacher

For Peter, technical support begins with prevention and instilling good habits in both the students and himself.

"Some problems are real simple and I try to teach the kids some self-troubleshooting, such as being aware of what the error message was, or what they were doing when something went wrong." --Peter Knowles

When students learn a new application Peter usually prepares a tutorial that takes students through a content-related task while teaching the basic functions of the new application. He keeps in a three-ring binder beside the computers. Students can look up old tutorials and review something they forget how to do.

The high school began offering an applied technology course where students build and repair computers. The students provide technical support on prior arrangements by a classroom teacher. Peter has found this service helpful for the tedious and time-consuming things like software upgrades. These students can also be used for an immediate response but Peter rarely calls on them. Instead, he goes to a low-tech back-up plan--something he recommends for everyone, always have low-tech options when it comes to technology.