Standard 5.

0 Professional and Ethical Behavior

Element 5.2 Model ethical behavior
Artifact 5.2.1 (Activity 5I)
Activity: Meet with group of teachers regarding morale, collaboration, sense of community.
Total Time: 6 hours
Artifact: Minutes from meeting, email to team members.
Description: I sent an email asking for interest from teachers regarding improving collaboration,
sense of community, and student motivation. I got interest from 3 teachers, with a 4th one
eventually showing interest also. I then sent multiple emails describing in more detail what I
thought the problems were. Three of the teachers were able to meet after school on April 26,
2016. Prior to the meeting, I worked on an agenda and flow for the meeting. Then we met and
discussed what the perceived issues were, the hope being that we could come up with a solution
to solve them.
Reflection: I was somewhat surprised at how the meeting turned out. My focus was on teacher
morale, collaboration, sense of community, and how all of that related to student motivation. In
my opinion, our students have few behavioral problems, but they also are not highly motivated
as a whole. We have a very small school, so we get to know each of our students personally. Its
possible that some teachers dont push students as hard because of how close everyone is. Its
also possible that teachers just dont know how to push students academically, or that students
dont see a benefit to working hard. Regardless, it seems that student motivation has to be
affected by teacher morale and sense of community. So I figured we would work on those things
and teacher collaboration first, with motivation coming along as a secondary benefit. Then we
could focus more heavily on student motivation after teacher community had improved.
However, during the meeting, two of the other teachers expressed that discipline was a primary
concern, and that with improved discipline, motivation would also improve. The discussion
turned from my original focus and moved a little toward how to improve student discipline. The
conclusion was that our current administration gives no support to teachers, and so its difficult
to improve it. A discussion ensued in which we considered ways to improve discipline with or
without administrative support. However, ultimately, it was decided that creating a discipline
team would be the best option. If our principal is supportive of creating a discipline team, then
more teachers would feel like that had input in that process, and morale may improve. Even
though this is just one part of morale, it is important to some of our teachers, and therefore it
should be beneficial. We also need to work harder on collaboration, possibly forming teams of
teachers to tackle problems rather than having the principal do everything.
During the meeting, I was very conscious of encouraging everyone else to participate and give
input. I did not want to be overly dominant because I wanted everyone to feel that their opinions
were valued. That being said, I did feel the need to refocus everyone on the subject at hand.
People easily got off topic, and so redirection was useful. At one point, there was a disagreement
on what constituted offenses that require discipline, and I worked to resolve that conflict by
expressing that I understood the other teachers opinion, and that this kind of conflict is going to

occur on a larger scale if we want all teachers to be on the same page regarding policies. It was
something wed have to figure out and work through if we are to be successful. I later met with
the teacher individually to let her know that I had thought about the disagreement considerably,
and that I understood her point of view. Teachers dont seem to be on the same page regarding
discipline or much of everything, and that is something that should be worked out and improved
upon.