Blog Post #9: Teacher Story of Toni Billingsley

In my teacher story book See You When We Get There I was able to learn about the lives of five extremely dedicated teachers. One teacher's story that really stood out to me was that of Toni Billingsley. The school she works at, the Technology and Communication Arts Charter School in Chicago, has a very interesting philosophy on education. The school, which was only 5 years old at the time of this story, has a major focus on community and character. One of my favorite parts of Toni's story was the depiction of a staff meeting at TCA in which all of the teachers sat around brainstorming ways for the children to feel a strong and proud connection to their school. This is not how staff meetings work at most schools so this display of passion from all of the teachers was very intriguing. Another interesting aspect of this school is their implementation of a conflict resolution program. While Toni does not seem too fond of this program, it seems as if it is a promising start to stifling conflict within the school. The process begins by having the two children in conflict take a few minutes to write about the incident. I found this very interesting. I feel that if I were asked to do something like this while in conflict I would be able to write out a lot of my feelings and frustration and afterwards find myself in a better place to solve the problem. Personally whenever I am in conflict I really just need some time to think about the problem and before I know it I see it as much less of a big deal. I think this could be the case for students as well. After the students have written out the incident, they each have a chance to explained what happened from his or her own perspective without using "I" statements. I found this interesting as well because by eliminating "I" statements it prevents the children from throwing too much of their opinion into the story allowing for less bias in their explanation. The students then talk it out. With a teacher in the room many times the children pretend to make-up, which is a major flaw in the program but the teacher really does help to create a civilized problem-solving environment. I think this program can teach students to work out their problems in a civilized manner, which prevents violence in schools. While there is still a lot to work out with the program, I believe it is a good start and that these type of problem-solving skills should be emphasized more often in schools. Since TCA is such a new school they are still testing out many of their theories, but they are clearly very open to new ideas and ways to keep the children learning and growing, which is a mindset important for all teachers and schools.