C138: Specialist and Supporting Teachers: Myths about our Roles

​Welcome to our new series about specialist and supporting teachers.

I have been thinking a lot about this series over the past couple months, especially during a visit to Le Jardin Academy in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii.  I had a candid chat with the specialist team and it made me think that other specialist and supporting teachers might appreciate the same guidance.

​I want to clarify that these ideas are my personal opinion and not necessarily of the IB.  You need to confirm everything with your IB consultant and IB world school manager.  This is based on my experiences alone.  

Myths about specialist and supporting teachers

.​I have worked with many teachers over the past three years as an independent consultant leading many official IB workshops.  I have unraveled many misconceptions about how you might feel in your role.  Let’s take a moment to clarify the big picture of your roles.

Myth 1:  You are an add-on to the program

When I get to chat with a group of specialist and supporting teachers, they often feel like an add-on to the program, rather than a vital part of extending the learning. This usually comes about, because there is not enough planning time between homeroom and specialist and supporting teachers.  

Most of the schools I have worked with have the same obstacle: the homeroom teachers plan the units when specialist and supporting teachers have their students..  This is a universal problem.  I have seen this schedule in a range of private,international, and public/state schools.  

Having been a coordinator, I had the same schedule in my school.  I didn’t like it, but it was the only option for homeroom teachers to plan regularly.  But the situation had me think differently of how our collaboration might look.

Myth 2:  You have to request access unit planning documents  

All of the PYP planning documents are available to all teachers  in the school.  This sounds like a given, but I have met many specialist and supporting teachers who have to request access for the documents, oftentimes from the homeroom teacher.  This creates an imbalance of power, as specialist and supporting teachers are made to feel like they are not part of the planning process. 

Having access to the planning documents part of the IB Programme Standards and Practices, which the rubric that schools follow for authorization and evaluation.   Our goal is to make authentic and meaningful transdisciplinary connections between all the subjects, so document access crucial to the process. 

Myth 3:  Shared planning sessions

Most schools will complete a speed dating every quarter or half of year to see where their content will connect with the homeroom.  We need more systematic and regular planning sessions between the specialist and supporting team with the homeroom teachers.  This can happen at staff meetings and professional development days as well. 

When we speak of transdisciplinary learning, most teachers think it’s across their homeroom content.  The definition is across all disciplines, which includes specialist and supporting teachers.  

Planning sessions must include your unique content focus when writing central ideas, lines of inquiry, concepts, ATL, and learner profile attributes. If you are not part of the planning process from the beginning, it makes it more difficult to connect when handed curriculum documents.  Oftentimes, the big ideas do not connect as well as could have been part of the conversation from the beginning. 

Myth 4:  Content Coverage
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The role of the specialist teacher is NOT to teach the homeroom curriculum.  Instead, the specialist classes extend the learning and provide an additional way to explore the conceptual central idea, lines of inquiry, concepts, ATL, and learner profile attributes.  Imagine a learner going through their specialist classes and seeing examples of the same ideas as their homeroom.  It’s a wonderful way to bring the learning and provide a wider lens of how the big idea can be explored in all parts of learning, not just the academic. 

Supporting teachers have a different role, because most of the time you are providing remediation for learners who are not able to access the grade level curriculum.  Oftentimes, this comes in prescribed programs that must be taught in order.  There is still room to connect with the concepts, ATL, and learner profile attributes.  It’s about using them frugally, but repeatedly, so learners make connections between their practice and the big ideas. 

Next Steps

​This podcast series will address these issues and more as we navigate how to make your roles more connected to the unit of inquiry planning process.  There will be other issues that arise as we get into the flow of ideas.  

My friend, Yuni Santosa, provided many ideas to consider as we move through this podcast series that I will address as well.  More ideas the merrier.  Every week, I will create a post looking for your ideas that I can embed into the next episode.  I want this to be quite interactive and based on your current needs.