Whether serving on district curriculum committees, writing for Rethinking Schools, speaking as Wisconsin's Teacher of the Year, working on the SBM council, or teaching kindergarten at La Escuela Fratney, Rita Tenorio advocates for children. A founder of the new Fratney School, Tenorio is a proponent of whole language, multiculturalism and school autonomy. Ms. Tenorio interprets the professional life of the teacher through the lens of an activist.
Q: Congratulations on being Wisconsin's teacher of the year.
A: Thanks. The year's almost over. It's been a real chance to talk about what elementary teachers do. At the same time, I feel that thousands of people are doing the same thing I'm doing, and it concerns me that people come to me when they could find lots of other people to share the same idea.
Q: Do you think that being at Fratney helped put you in a position to receive the award?
A: Oh definitely. The innovations at our school and my having some leadership in the whole process of reopening the school, and the support of my colleagues and the parents at Fratney were all factors in why I was chosen. Fratney was a big part of it
Q: When you talk about innovations at Fratney, can you tell me how the Fratney founding committee came up with guidelines to establish its site-based or SBM council?
A: There are specific guidelines in Milwaukee Public Schools. What was exciting about our program is that it contrasts to other schools in Milwaukee where SBM meant a change - a decision by the group of people in the building to depart from traditional governance. Fratney began as an SBM school. It was known by parents and staff straight out that Fratney would be a site-based school.
It gave us a chance to try some new curriculum under that umbrella. With SBM, teachers have a much bigger voice in what happens. A good core of the teachers who came to Fratney were working all over the system where innovations were more difficult to implement individually.
Q: What organizational structures do you think Fratney has that help the teachers?
A: Starting out, we've been fortunate to attract people who are willing to take on the challenges. People have not been assigned to our building who don't know what they're getting into. People who come here know we use whole language and understand the task of organizing your own materials and deciding on your own curriculum. That is very different from somebody coming into the building with a traditional philosophy saying 'Where are my textbooks?"
Q: Do you believe that teacher empowerment is quite heavily linked with innovation?
A: It is! Traditionally, schools have been governed from the top down. And what happens in a system this big is that teachers cannot do many special things because they are bound by system-wide structures. The system has kept teachers from being empowered. We felt, in order to do our best for kids, we wanted teachers to be part of the decision-making in our school. As people take ownership for whatever project, and have a stake in it, they will work harder. They will care more about what's happening. And if their plans fail, then you go back and you say, "I think we better change this." Where as if someone mandates "Do this," and it fails, then you become much more cynical and much less likely to try.
Q: Are you concerned about teacher burn-out? As it is, you seem to juggle instructor, nursemaid, counselor, psychologist.
A: And activist. It's difficult. One of the things I'd like to see change is more time for collaboration, reflection, and evaluation. In most other professions, people have time to assess what is going on and plan for the next step. With teaching, you're with the kids all day long. Right now our teachers' contract has a total of 20 minutes a day that is paid planning time for elementary teachers. At Fratney, we've arranged back-to-back specials which give teachers an hour-and-a-half worth of time to sit together twice a week. But that's no where near enough!
Q: What do you do in that time?
A: My team teacher and I meet. We try to keep up with what's going on, think about the thematic units and what kinds of projects we might be doing. We keep up with the record keeping and the paper work. We share 52 kids, so we talk together about what's going on. If we had more structured time in the course of the week on a very regular basis, I think we'd see a lot more innovation take place.
Q: It seems that Fratney teachers voluntarily work overtime. There was a two month workshop on cooperative learning before school that had 100 percent attendance.
A: Yes, there was, because people felt it was a necessity. That speaks very much to what our staff is all about. Occasionally, there are perks as part of SBM, some dollars to pay for staff development. I am working on the whole language council at MPS, and the major portion of our budget next year is going back into the schools for staff development at the local level. The idea is that schools can decide what kinds of staff development they need. Teachers are certainly going to put in a lot more hours than what will be paid for, but the idea that somebody recognizes their time and respects their professionalism is really important.
Q: How could a new teacher learn about cooperative groups? Experienced teachers had a trainer come in for two months?
A: Whenever a new teacher comes in, somebody takes that person under their wing and says, "Let me tell you what's going on." That's what I did this year with my team teacher. I think that every one of the teams in our building has a situation like that, where one person is the veteran, and the other person is a new teacher. Mentoring like this happens when people work together.
Q: What troubles you about the future success for Fratney?
A: People are expected to do a lot in our school. At the same time, if we don't work to get those class sizes down, and if we don't work to get some time to talk to each other, to collaborate, if we don't continue to get materials and the resources that we need, all of that is going to be detrimental to the long-term success of the program. But I believe strongly that is going to happen. It is happening all around the country. People are saying that these things have to happen for teachers and for kids. The problem is that there is no money to do it.
Q: Are there implications from your program for other schools in the city?
A: Yes. We're really proud of the warm climate and the atmosphere in our school. The collaboration, the unity that we feel as a staff around our program, we like to share that with other people. When people have an opportunity to share a vision, it has positive effects in many different areas. For instance, we add afternoon recess to our lunch time. This little structural change in our school gives us an hour for lunch instead of 45 minutes. That can certainly be shared with other people in the system. Also, we have a curriculum committee where parents are involved and have worked together to make a homework policy, and the report card, and our multicultural statement. No matter what program you are using, these kinds of things can take place in your school.