What is wrong with my school?
Public education in this state and nation is in dire need of an overhaul! Teachers are incompetent, and leaders are lazy and blind to the facts. All anyone wants is more money, when they haven't done an adequate job earning the money they currently are paid.
If you read many of the articles in some newspapers or listen to the statements delivered by the state leaders this is what you come away thinking. It saddens me that someone who should be the champion of teachers is the one most critical of them publicly.
As an instructional leader my job is to bring out the potential in my staff. When I see my teachers doing something well, I need to tell the world. When I see a teacher struggling, I need to tell the teacher. I need to go to her and help her gather resources to facilitate improvement. I don't need to set her up to fail, but need to find a way to help her succeed. The same applies to the leadership at the state level. Instead of demoralizing the educators in this state, you should be encouraging them. Instead of changing the cut scores on a test after preliminary results have been given out, you should show some integrity and consistency. Instead of telling teachers you want to give them a raise, then saying that local leaders don't want to support it, you should get your facts straight about how education funding works. Don't use the teachers and students as pawns.
Since so many are only hearing what is wrong in education, I thought I would share what is right. Here are a few things my teachers are doing that illustrates what is right in education.
1. Global communication and collaboration-using Skype, my teachers are increasing global awareness and allowing their students to learn about other places and cultures through direct communication. During Mystery Skype sessions, the students ask questions of students in some other part of the globe, then begin researching the answers to the questions until they have enough information to determine the location.
2. Peer Teaching-using Face Time, my students are "Reading Buddies" with students in other classrooms across the district. Once a week the older students read books to students in lower grade levels. They model reading to the younger students who are in the early stages of literacy.
3. Creativity-Students are using apps on their mobile devices to create presentations and movies. Science classes create videos explaining the science lab safety rules and procedures. Later they share them with the rest of the class.
4. Researching and Writing-using their mobile devices, students are able to research in class, cull through the results to find reliable resources. Students also have access to many more primary sources online than they could ever have hoped to engage with before. Some of the teachers encourage students to publish their work on a class blog.
5. Individualized learning-Teachers constantly monitor student progress to customize the learning environment for their students. Gone are they days of every student getting the same worksheet to "teach" the skill. When I was in school, we all worked on the exact same assignment and if we didn't pass we still moved on with the rest of the class. Now, the world of education is different. If students don't understand, we reteach in a smaller group. Sometimes we bring in another teacher to convey the material in a different way. Often different teaching techniques are used. Students not only hear it, they see it and model it. If some form of manipulative can be used in the lesson, it is added in as well.
6. Parent Communication-The teachers in my building are dedicated to maintaining as many avenues of communication as possible. Most teachers have a twitter account for sharing pictures & class updates out to parents. Every teacher maintains a webpage that includes lesson plans and handouts. Several teachers also have a blog to share class events.
I think many in the realm of politics forget that in public education we accept all students. No matter what their socio-economic status. They ignore the challenges that face most of our students when eighty percent of them qualify for free/reduced lunches. They come to school hungry because many of them didn't eat anything after they left school the day before. Many of them would not eat anything over the weekend if it were not for the backpacks of food taken home from the school from the food bank. I could go on about the problems and struggles that we are facing in education, but instead prefer to look at what we are doing right and well. I have many great teachers that I have the opportunity to work with. I appreciate all they do to make life better for the students they teach.
I wish that many in the political realm would follow the words of this song in the video. When we look at what we are doing well, we can begin to eliminate what we are doing poorly.
2. Peer Teaching-using Face Time, my students are "Reading Buddies" with students in other classrooms across the district. Once a week the older students read books to students in lower grade levels. They model reading to the younger students who are in the early stages of literacy.
3. Creativity-Students are using apps on their mobile devices to create presentations and movies. Science classes create videos explaining the science lab safety rules and procedures. Later they share them with the rest of the class.
4. Researching and Writing-using their mobile devices, students are able to research in class, cull through the results to find reliable resources. Students also have access to many more primary sources online than they could ever have hoped to engage with before. Some of the teachers encourage students to publish their work on a class blog.
5. Individualized learning-Teachers constantly monitor student progress to customize the learning environment for their students. Gone are they days of every student getting the same worksheet to "teach" the skill. When I was in school, we all worked on the exact same assignment and if we didn't pass we still moved on with the rest of the class. Now, the world of education is different. If students don't understand, we reteach in a smaller group. Sometimes we bring in another teacher to convey the material in a different way. Often different teaching techniques are used. Students not only hear it, they see it and model it. If some form of manipulative can be used in the lesson, it is added in as well.
6. Parent Communication-The teachers in my building are dedicated to maintaining as many avenues of communication as possible. Most teachers have a twitter account for sharing pictures & class updates out to parents. Every teacher maintains a webpage that includes lesson plans and handouts. Several teachers also have a blog to share class events.
I think many in the realm of politics forget that in public education we accept all students. No matter what their socio-economic status. They ignore the challenges that face most of our students when eighty percent of them qualify for free/reduced lunches. They come to school hungry because many of them didn't eat anything after they left school the day before. Many of them would not eat anything over the weekend if it were not for the backpacks of food taken home from the school from the food bank. I could go on about the problems and struggles that we are facing in education, but instead prefer to look at what we are doing right and well. I have many great teachers that I have the opportunity to work with. I appreciate all they do to make life better for the students they teach.
I wish that many in the political realm would follow the words of this song in the video. When we look at what we are doing well, we can begin to eliminate what we are doing poorly.
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