Garland, S. (2014, August 7). The Hechinger Report. Retrieved from Why is a Reagan-era report driving today’s education reform?: http://hechingerreport.org/report-1980s-driving-todays-education-reform/
Jehlen, A. (2010, May/June). NCLB: The Next Generation. Retrieved from National Education Association: http://www.nea.org/home/38770.htm
Kluger, J. (2014, August 21). The evolution of a narcissist. Time Magazine.
I believe that I can save the world, one child at a time. I believe that while I may not make an impression on the vast artwork that is our world, I can clean up my little corner. I believe that the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and that each step after that is just as important. I believe that children learn what they live. I believe.
Did you know that there are state SEL standards? Yep, they are right here: http://www.isbe.net/ils/social_emotional/standards.htm
Until I took this job (Student Engagement Specialist) this year I did not know they existed. Who would have thought that we would start looking at our students and trying to understand their background as part of our teaching process? And that we would actually come to understand that a student’s social emotional status would directly affect their ability to learn?
Case in point: I have a grade level this year that is truly a mess. Half of the grade is failing; that is not an exaggeration. Two of the students have had to be hospitalized, the gossip mill is horrendous, fights keep breaking out and the teacher’s are at wits end. This tribe, this community needs help coming together and learning to respect each other.
We are currently working at implementing 2nd Step at our school. It is our first year doing so and it is not going to give immediate results. I am also working as the CHAMPS coach to work on positive classroom management. All my work is motivated by SEL and the truth that children learn what they live. I believe that if my students can be taught empathy and skills to navigate life they will be successful in school and life.
Sugar and spice and everything nice…
Clearly, the person that wrote that rhyme was not a teacher, or even someone that came within five feet of a child. I would like to point out gently that our children are born sociopaths. I am not saying that it is a bad thing. The human race is hard-wired that way and without this we as race could not have survived. For more information on this, there is a fascinating article printed in Time Magazine last year, “The Evolution of a NarcissistJeffrey Kluger @jeffreykluger Aug. 21, 2014″. The article speaks about how we must teach empathy to children because they are not born with it.
Which comes round to my point (in a rather convoluted way). Children learn what they live. In order to teach a child you have to know that child, because you need to know why the children are manifesting their behaviors. Why is little Tommy suddenly becoming more aggressive? Do you believe it is just because he is bad or could it possibly be because the family unit has been broken up and he is mad and this is the only way he knows how tell people? Jenny is mouthing off to all the adults and stopped eating. Johnny is displaying highly sexualized behaviors. Are these kids the bad seeds? Not really, when you start to investigate the behaviors and the reasons behind them you discover that a large portion of your students are suffering from abuse at the hands of the people that should be treating them with love and respect.
Understanding my students stories informs a large part of my practice. I have learned that as a teacher, it is probably more important for me to listen than to talk. I know that to raising my voice to these students could be interpreted as a precursor to abuse because that is what they know. I do not always accomplish complete patience and love when I work with my students but I try. Kids know when you don’t like them, you know?
The more time I spend with children, the more I think our model of teaching is wrong. I do not think a teacher should have any more then ten students and six is probably the optimum number, because then the teacher could truly know the student and they could know how to teach them to the best advantage.
High-stakes testing means that for the most part the teachers will teach to the test. As teachers we need to stop this practice. Students who are taught to the test have a very shallow pool of learning. If we do this, then our role changes from that of a teacher to just a container of information. If we’re just passing out information with no pedagogy involved we might just as well let the corporations deliver their box ‘o knowledge on the front steps of the school and go home.
Even worse, these adults who should know better, cheat. If you put someone’s job, their reputation, their pride on the line, it’s not just cream that rises to the top. Case after case has come to light about adults who faked tests results just to make sure that their school “won”. In truth, because they cheated, no one one at all won and the students that were marginalized fell further behind. To read one such horror story, check out this link here: http://lewisvilletexan.com/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2970
High stakes testing has become a high stakes contest, sort of our reality show “Hunger Games”, something we need to win at any price without reflection on what the costs of our actions will be.
If you bring together a group of people and hold them in a setting, you will develop a tribe. Each tribe that you create this way develops its own sets of rules, beliefs and worship system.
The tribes that inhabit our public schools believe that learning can be shared, that it is what gives us freedom and that we must pass our knowledge on to the children.
I am not quite sure how we stop the stories told by the dominant powers; I only know that we must. We cannot afford to lose our public schools. We cannot allow the privatization of our schools. If the magnet and charter schools are all that we have, what happens to those children that do not make it in to those schools? Are we culling them? Do they just become the servant class? Sort of like an American version of Downton Abbey?
John Dewey has been a hero of mine since I started college and first read some of his writings. His belief in the power of the public school and the need for quality education for everyone has been inspirational to me. I have taken his words to heart and try to incorporate them into my teaching.
Can we look at Finland’s model? Can we talk about that teaching model and spread the word that teaching is an honor. That it is a hard job, but a job worth doing well. Could we teach new teachers how to manage their classrooms so they could actually teach the kids? Could we have administrators that were teachers instead of CEO’s so that they understand what we were talking about?
I think these things might help…
There was a wicked, evil woman. Her name was Renee’. Renee’ was a teacher. Renee’ had become a teacher because it was such an easy job. Earning money by pretending to teach the poor village children. Renee did not even work a full day and she had summers off. Renee’ held several degrees but it was known throughout the land that she could not really “do” anything, she could only teach. Poor sad, wicked Renee’.
This is the the story that we continually hear on the news. It is pretty much the only story. If people understood the sheer magnitude of work a teacher does, would they still begrudge them their pay? If they came in and tried to run a classroom where nine of the kids with IEPs have been pushed in (without any of their aides), where many of the students cannot follow directions; would they understand how hard the job is? Would they understand that the failure of a school is not all on the backs of the teachers?
Teachers tell themselves a story too. – It is the parents fault. I have a good lesson. I should not have to adjust. Those kids are just bad. If I had more (fill in the blank) paper, help, crayons, books, support it would be perfect. The other teachers before me didn’t do their job.
There might be some truths in these, just as we might find some truth in a stereotype; but it is not the whole truth. It is easier to listen to just one story. Then we don’t have to weigh the pros and cons, think about the moral dilemma, reflect on our own shortcomings.
If we believe the “one” story, we believe that there is one reason for school failure. Listening to the other stories helps to unlock all the issues.
There is a dichotomy in teaching. I have had parents come to me and ask me how to fix their child. What can they do to make him a better student, a better human being? I try to answer them the best way I know how while in the back of my mind I am thinking, “Why do you think she knows any more than you? She is making it up as she goes along!” These parents think I know the answers, it’s a trap to believe that they are right. Listening to these parents prevents me from reflecting on the work that I am doing and thinking about how to improve it.
On the other hand, I have parents that come in and tell me that I, we, the school are all wrong. Everything we do is wrong. I had a child hospitalized this week because she was suicidal. We knew there was a problem with the child. We had a safety plan in place for her and we have been begging the guardian since the beginning of school year to get her some counseling. The guardian told me that “it is perfect at home, it is the fault of the school that she is in the hospital”. When kids don’t feel safe, when their needs are not being met, we cannot teach them. If the parents/guardians do not listen or believe us, we cannot help them either.
Structure – First it was the ISBE State Standards and now it is the Common Core. I actually liked the state standards. They were pretty clear and they left enough wiggle room that you could build a magic lesson plan if you really tried hard. (Ask me about the tiny little village we built as a geometry project.) Then they upped the game. The states moved to Common Core. According to these new standards, students who had been tooling along just fine were now three years behind. Don’t get me wrong. It is important to have a framework to hang things on but it was as if we were playing a game and we were winning, so the other side decided to change the rules in the middle and make it harder for us to win. I think that we need to consider moderation in all things…including overhauling our education system.
Digital Resource Assignment 