Meet -Up Groups are back and teachers are excited about the opportunities for collaboration and networking that will be afforded to them, by their participation in a selected group. Last school year, Meet-Up Groups met across the city for the first time in each content area. The Meet-Ups provided teachers with a venue for discussing content, instructional practices and socializing!
This school year a new Meet-Up Group has been organized to address the unique needs and concerns of teachers in Cluster 11. Cluster Eleven is comprised of the alternative school programs in DCPS. These include: The Incarcerated Youth Program, Youth Services Center, Luke C. Moore, Choice Academy, Roosevelt STAY, Ballou STAY, Roosevelt STAY and several other schools. The Cluster 11 Meet-Up Group will be centered on the following MEET principles: M-Meeting our unique needs, E-Energize, E-Excitement, and T-Teamwork.
Alternative educational settings are some of the most challenging and unique school settings to work in. Many teachers have felt disconnected by many of the experiences that are shared by colleagues at district meetings or work sessions. The Cluster 11 Meet-Up Group will give teachers an opportunity to connect with colleagues who can relate to many of the unique challenges that they face in their schools.
Energy is in short supply for many teachers, but in alternative schools it seems to dissipate even more quickly. Cluster 11 teachers will be provided with an outlet that will give them strategies for dealing with stress and ideas that will re-energize them. Excitement! Excitement! Excitement! Teachers want to feel excited and passionate about the work that they do each day. When you are working in a high stress environment the excitement you may start with at the beginning of the day, may quickly turn to frustration by lunch time.
This Meet-Up group will allow teachers to have fun in the context of learning more about how to make their work environment a place where students have fun learning and they have fun teaching. Lastly, no man is an island and working in isolation doesn’t benefit anyone. Being part of a team and feeling like you are part of a team are two different things.
My goal is make the Cluster 11 Meet-Up Group sessions a forum where teachers feel that they are truly an integral part of a collaborative team that values and respects them. Teams need the participation and input of every player on the team, not just the coaches. Cluster 11 teachers face many challenges each day that many teachers would never imagine could occur in a school environment. They do so each day with determination, persistence and the resolve to serve their students equitably and with excellence.
Our Meet-Up Group will empower, excite, energize and enable teachers to move beyond those challenges and use our collective voices to elevate the students in Cluster 11 schools to new heights.
Angelique Kwabenah, Reading Specialist @ The Incarcerated Youth Program
Cluster 11 Meet Up Group Organizer
