To carry or not to carry? That is the question. Here's my two-cents: There are so many people out there who want to make a statement by doing horrible things to other people. It is the world that we live in, unfortunately. To that end, should teachers be allowed to conceal and carry? What a loaded question. (no pun intended) There are sp many points of view on this issue. Here's mine: I took a gun safety class one summer. When school started that fall, low and behold, one of my student's mother and her father were in the class, too. I asked her how she felt about having a teacher who could use a handgun. Her response? "I think it's sweet!" She went on to say that she would feel her child was much safer if I was able to carry at school. This is how I feel. If an unknown person were to force his/her way into our building, I would want have the ability to protect my students, my fellow teachers, and myself. Would I die for my students? In a heartbeat! I've lived a very good life. My student's lives are just beginning.
So, if teachers were ever allowed to conceal and carry, I would be one of the first to make that request with district officials. I do believe that anyone who owns a gun should first pass a background check and take a gun safety class. Rest assured, the people searching for fame by shooting up schools, movie theaters, malls, etc. I believe that this is not a gun problem. It is a person problem and those people should be getting the help they need.
Many of my teacher-friends do not look forward to conferences. I am an odd-duck in that I look forward to conferences! For me, conferences are a time to touch base with parents, look at the strengths and struggles of each child, and form a partnership to help the students be as successful as possible.
This past week, we held parent-teacher conferences. Out of the 18 kindergarteners entrusted to my care, only one child's family did not show and that was due to a sudden family emergency, out of town. We will do that conference when they return, one day after school. Of those families, six conferences included both parents.
Additionally, I feel that parents can give teachers a huge insight to their children. One of the most important things that I can do is to make the parents of each child feel welcome and that their insight into their child will help me be a better teacher for their child. This is why, when I get my class list at the beginning of each school year, I call each parent, tell them I am going to be their child's teacher this school year, and invite them to Back-to-School Night. I also have a "secret" Facebook page, where I can share classroom news, pictures, updates, etc. Parents are also give my cell phone number. In the six years I've been doing this, not once have the parameters been breached. Those parameters include no calls before 6 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
14 years ago: We lived in the Kansas City area. My husband had flown to a meeting in Minneapolis, MN. He sat next to a Middle Eastern man who kept reading the Koran and shutting his eyes and praying. One of the hijackers? We will never know. I was home with our three kids. The girls were both at middle school and high school. Our son was home, watching Sports Center. His friend called and told him to switch to the news. We switched over just in time to see the second plane hit the twin towers. Our son said, "That looks like a good movie!" I told him it was no movie. I took him to school and went to the girls' school just to see their faces.
I went to the high school first. The marching band was out in the field, practicing for their halftime show. I pulled up to the curb. Our daughter came over. She asked why all of the jet-trails were in circles (the planes were circling Kansas City International, waiting to land) I told her that all planes were being forced to land, and that there had been a terrorist attack in New York City. I didn't know anything else.
Next I went to the middle school to see our other daughter. I sat at their lunch table and just visited with the girls. The principal came up to me and said, "We're not telling them anything. We feel it's best that this is a family conversation, especially without many details." He was an amazing principal and I agreed. I didn't want anyone else having that discussion with one of my children. The girls said that they heard there was a bomb. I could honestly say that no, it wasn't a bomb.
Because I was substitute teaching at the time, I was called in as just an extra set of hands and eyes in our son's elementary building-a floater. I was unable to reach my husband. All lines were clogged with people checking on loved ones.
After school that day, as were all dealing with the shock and trauma, our house cat ran away. While we were combing the neighborhood, looking for her, our son reached up to grab a neighbor's baseball net and pulled the entire goal down on his head, hitting the front of his head on the driveway and the rim of the goal clunking him on the back.
The next day, the two younger kids stayed home. Our middle daughter because she was distraught about her cat, at least that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Our son, because he had a concussion. Later that day, the cat came back and my husband was able to call.
He had no way to get home. All airlines were grounded, as well as bus lines. Three days later, he was able to rent a car and drive home.
A year later, I was lucky enough to be asked to go on an American History trip to Washington, D.C. At the Smithsonian, there was a tribute to 9/11. One of the things on display was answering machine recordings of people who were either telling their loved ones goodbye or of people trying to reach their loved ones. The messages were heartbreaking! I can't begin to imagine the fear, the deep sadness, the loss, the despair, of those people! It is unimaginable! I shall never forget!
Sharing this from another site. Before students can learn, they need to know you care. Make the connection! There's an embedded video by the great Rita Pierson that is well worth viewing!
Here I sit, on a Sunday night, with my classroom not done, an incomplete class list, and no firm schedule. Staff meetings begin Thursday. Open House is the evening of the 17th. Kindergarteners start, full day, on the 18th.
That sounds like a lot, right? Here are the positives:
I was blessed to spend big chunks of time with family, renewing and strengthening our family bonds, including a total (here and there) of SIXTEEN days with our beautiful, spunky, hilarious granddaughter. HEAVEN!
I spent a couple of days sharing ideas with some younger, energetic, teachers, which doesn't look like a lot on paper. However, planning with peers is ALWAYS energizing!
This is the start of my fifth year in this school district, in the same building.
About once a week, out teacher Bible study met to share, encourage, support, and cheer each other on!
Even though our schedule has not yet been finalized, I have plans typed out on a Word document, so that once we get a schedule, I can just copy and paste into the correct cell of my spreadsheet. That being said, plans are finished through September.
This year, I decided that I was not going to spend full days getting my classroom ready for the beginning of the year. I have been going in for a couple of hours each morning, while it's still cool enough for the dogs to be outside. I thought ahead to copies I needed for Parent Folders at Open House and got them copied over the summer. I also had copies made of some of my favorite activities to use the first few days of school. I also got ALL of the copies of take-home letters copied for our phonics program. Whew! That's a lot I didn't need to worry about! I have friends who are spending quite a bit of time at school. Sometime, I think to myself, "What am I missing?" Then I remind myself of the pre-planning I did at the end of last school year.
I am reading THE MOST FABULOUS BOOK--EVER about teaching. It is by an author I became aware of through an online book study/devotions/Bible study last summer. It's called, Unshakable: 20 ways to enjoy teaching every day...no matter what, by Angela Watson. If you are a teacher, reading this blog post, I highly recommend it. I'm only on chapter 3 and am already finding things I can change, as well as things that validate my current practices!
Two words: Essential Oils! There is a blend called "Serenity" and another called "Balance." Those are my two go-tos. Also, lavender, which is calming. I may diffuse it in my classroom, depending on what allergies I may or may not have.
Speaking of my classroom, although our class lists are incomplete, pending the transfers, over half of my class are siblings of older students in the building!! I already have strong relationships with those families!! BONUS!
So, bring on those new kiddos! I am ready!! It's going to be a GREAT school year! :)
Every summer, since I began teaching, it feel like I have been
involved in some sort of professional development, whether it be
committee work, continuing education, or work on my master's degree.
This summer, for the first time that I can remember, I am taking the
summer off! Yes! You are reading correctly! Everything has been sent
in for my teaching license renewal, so I don't NEED any professional
development. This is why I've made the decision to fall back, renew,
and re-energize by spending time with family!
The first step
was this past weekend, when I made an impromptu visit to see our son who
is three hours away. It was heavenly! The time was short because he
was in a golf tournament. Some time is better than no time and I loved
seeing him. He is always so full of fun!!
This next weekend,
I will be traveling to TX to see our oldest daughter and her family. I
will be able to watch our amazing granddaughter play softball and then
spend the following week taking her to and from Bible School, something
that has become a tradition with us! <3
The weekend after
I am in TX, our daughter, who works for Habitat for Humanity, in GA, is
coming home because she wants "to spend he quarter-of-a-century
birthday with the people who gave her life!" How awesome is that?!?
I'm going to help her drive back and spend a few days with her after her
visit with us.
On July 5th, our beautiful granddaughter is
coming to spend a week with us! I will firm up those plans while I'm in
TX. :)
The one of the last two weekends in July, our son and his girlfriend are coming here for a visit!
The first weekend in August, my husband and I will celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary!
School resumes, for teachers, on August 12th.
The end of anything is always difficult. I've watched my kindergarten babies grow from all-about-me, shy, or scared children to kind, confident, compassionate little people. The transformation in many of them over the course of a school year is mind-boggling, even after 29 years in Early Childhood Education! Once again, my heart of full with the memories of 27 beautiful, unique children.
As I reflect back on my many years of teaching, I think about the lives that have touched me. Those beautiful young children who hung on my every word. So many little people that I carry with me wherever I go. I have decided that it it not I who deserve any appreciation, but the families who have shared their most precious gifts of all...their children, with me. For that I will always be grateful and appreciative.
The struggles, both my own and the children's. The laughs. The "a-ha" moments when the lightbulb comes on. These, I will carry with me. I thought I would add some highlights:
Principal: Do you know where (student) is? Me: Yes. He asked to go to the restroom. Principal: Go look (with a smile on her face). I go to the restroom and there is (student), singing at the top of his lungs, standing on the toilet, stirring the water with his belt.
This precious child, at the end of kindergarten: Student: I was kinda crazy when I first came here. Me: Yes. You were afraid and didn't understand how much fun kindergarten can be. Student: My mamma said she knew you could tame me!
The superintendent of school's daughter was in my class in one district. We were talking about communities and houses. I shared that I grew up on a farm. Her mother shared with me, at conferences, that her daughter told her I was born in a barn!
The angry, stubborn boy who would just flip out and the work we all did to help him. When our school closed and I was transferred to a different building in the district, he came to that building, too, because I was his "other mother." (He lived out-of-district at the time and his mother worked for the district). He and his family even came to see us after we moved away!
The scary, prison guard parent in a former district, who's actions led to stricter security guidelines for our building. YIKES!!
The Christmas cards I continue to get for the families of former students.
Dinner with former students, no going to college away from home, but close to me, when they are feeling homesick.
The little girl who threw her math workbook (yes, in kindergarten) across the room, stuck her tongue out at me, and stated, "I HATE math!" This same child, at the end of the year, was one of the best and brightest at math. When I reminded her of our first day with the workbooks, she said, "Yeah. About that. I don't know what I was thinking."
The countless sporting events and dance recitals.
All of the hugs from former students as they are walking down the hall.
The relationship with not just the students, but their families, as well!
So, as Teacher Appreciation Week approaches, I don't feel that it is I who should be appreciated. It is the students that I appreciate. For their years of laughter, sadness, support, stubbornness , and joy. This is why I became a teacher. This is what I live for...every day!
Sandwiched between preschool and first
grade, kindergarteners often start school at very different stages of
development depending on their exposure to preschool, home environments
and biology. For states adopting Common Core, the standards apply to
kindergarten, laying out what students should be able to do by the end
of the grade.* Kindergartners are expected to know basic phonics and
word recognition as well as read beginner texts, skills some childhood
development experts argue are developmentally inappropriate.
“There’s a wide age range for learning to read,” said Nancy Carlsson-Paige on KQED’s Forum program. Carlsson-Paige is professor emerita of education at Lesley University and co-author of the study “Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose,” which criticizes the Common Core standards for kindergarten.
“Most five-year-old children are not really ready to learn to read,”
Carlsson-Paige said. “There are many experiences in the classroom that
are beneficial for building the foundation for learning to read that
will come later.” She favors a play-based classroom that gives students
hands-on experiences, helping them to develop the symbolic thinking
necessary to later recognize letters and numbers.
“Research shows on a national scale there’s less play and
experiential based curriculum happening over all, and much more didactic
instruction, even though we have research that shows long term there
are greater gains from play-based programs than academically focused
ones,” Carlsson-Paige said.
While Common Core aligned assessments don’t kick in until third
grade, many teachers feel pressure to make sure kids are meeting the
specified standards before they move on to first grade. That pressure
can mean more focus on academics, at the sacrifice of play time.
Kindergarten teachers try to interpret the standards and translate
them into developmentally appropriate activities. But they struggle when
kids still don’t meet Developmental Reading Assessment
benchmarks. “Teachers start to question themselves and waiver even
though they believe in doing what’s developmentally appropriate,” said
Colleen Rau, a reading intervention specialist at Aspire Berkley Maynard Academy. “So I think we really need to think about taking the pressure away and looking at student growth.”
Rau says under Common Core she’s seen positive shifts at her school
towards more thematic units and more hands-on learning, but she agrees
with Carlsson-Paige that pushing young children into skills they aren’t
developmentally ready for can have poor results. Students can develop
coping mechanisms that don’t serve them well later when they are
confronted with more advanced texts.
“The lightbulb goes on for students at different times,” Rau said,
“But if we make students feel pressure so that they shut down, then that
light bulb is not going to be as likely to come on and they aren’t
going to develop the confidence that they need to become successful
readers later.”
There are plenty of children who do learn to read in kindergarten or
even before, so for many parents the argument that young children aren’t
developmentally ready to read rings false. But not all learners are the
same, and what’s true for one child won’t necessarily be true for the
child sitting next to her. Young children learn differently from older
children, adolescents and adults, Carlsson-Paige said. Early childhood
educators have documented the progression of increasingly complex
symbolic thinking that leads to understanding letters make sounds and
sounds make words.
“If you present children with information that’s too disparate from
what they know then they give up or feel confused, or cry, or get turned
off,” Carlsson-Paige said. “Part of the art of teaching is to
understand where a child is in developing concepts and then be able to
present information in ways that are new and interesting, but will cause
a little bit of struggle on the part of the child to try to understand
them.” AN IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEM
Advocates for the kindergarten Common Core standards agree that
kindergarteners should not be sitting still all day doing reading
drills. But they are clear that the standards in no way require that
sort of teaching and were written with help and input from early
childhood educators around the country. They are meant to offer
challenging opportunities to advanced learners while supporting learners
who may be coming into kindergarten with very little literacy exposure.
“What we set out in the Common Core are those skills and concepts
that will help students learn to read in first and second grade,” said
Susan Pimentel, lead writer of the English Language Arts Common Core
standards. She says early childhood educators were adamant that the
language “with prompting and support” be used throughout the
kindergarten standards in recognition that young learners will be new to
school and won’t be left to answer dozens of questions on their own.
“So much of the concern is about the implementation,” Pimentel said.
And while she agrees that educators need to be vigilant about pointing
out poor implementation and working to fix it, the problem is not new.
Education standards have always been implemented in a variety of ways.
“What we’re talking about is teachers who have maybe not been trained
and some attention on that would be important,” she said.
Other advocates of the Common Core standards see them as an important
step towards education equity. “The strongest argument in favor of
reading by the end of kindergarten and Common Core’s vision for early
literacy is simply to ensure that children—especially the disadvantaged
among them—don’t get sucked into the vortex of academic distress
associated with early reading failure,” writes Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Many children start kindergarten able to identify short words or
aware of the difference between lowercase and uppercase letters, two of
the kindergarten standards. Pondiscio and others believe it is
completely appropriate to begin introducing these ideas in kindergarten,
albeit in fun play-based ways.
“If teachers are turning their kindergarten classrooms into joyless
grinding mills and claiming they are forced to do so under Common Core
(as the report’s authors allege), something has clearly gone wrong,”
Pondiscio writes. “Common Core demands no such thing, and research as
well as good sense supports exposing children to early reading concepts
through games and songs.”
Another literacy researcher says the critique that the standards are
developmentally inappropriate may be a misinterpretation of what the
standards require. For example, one standard says children should be
able to read emergent texts with purpose and understanding.
“The emergent-reader text is first modeled by the teacher for the
students, then joyfully read over and over with the students until
eventually the easy book is independently read by the students with
great joy and confidence,” writes J. Richard Gentry,
author of “Raising Confident Readers: How to Teach Your Child to Read
and Write — From Baby to Age 7,” and a former professor and elementary
school teacher. Gentry says this process emulates “lap reading” which
some children get with their parents at home and which helps students
gain confidence in their reading.
All of these educators agree that it can be difficult to teach the
kindergarten standards in developmentally appropriate ways when teachers
are worried about how kids will do on standardized tests. While
Carlsson-Paige and others believe the standards are inappropriate and
should be thrown out, Pondiscio, Gentry and Pimentel are among those who
believe the standards are important to make sure reading gaps don’t
start young. They favor the idea that implementation is the real problem
and that more energy should be put into helping early childhood
educators interpret the standards and integrate them into class in fun,
approachable and developmentally appropriate ways.
*An earlier version of this story suggested that Common Core was
the first time academic standards were set for kindergarteners. We
regret any confusion.
My thoughts on parental involvement and support:
I feel that parents are a tremendous insight to who the little people are in my classroom! To that end, I have made it a priority to involve parents in the activities in my classroom. This is what I do. If you do not have a comfort level with my ideas, please think about picking and choosing.
As soon as my class list is finalized, I call each and every family. I introduce myself as their child's first teacher in the public education setting. I invite them to Meet the Teacher Night, which, in our district, is held the night before their child starts kindergarten. I also ask them if there is anything they would like me to know about their child and if they have any questions of me. I feel that this helps with their comfort-level. Additionally, if a concern arises, I feel that including them early helps the conversation be more productive.
At Meet the Teacher night, I have a sheet for parents to sign if they would be interested in volunteering in the classroom. Parents signing this sheet have done a number of activities to help make the school year go more smoothly. This can be anything from taking home things I may need cut out or pr-eassembled, helping with field trips, helping with classroom and/or school celebrations, giving students Accelerated Reader quizzes, and helping to man the stations for our annual Christmas Crafting Day.
I also give parents my cell phone number(No. It cannot be traced to your home like a landline can). I include a disclaimer that I will not answer calls before 6:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. Nothing I would say between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. would make any sense, anyway. My brain is shot by then! They are free to leave a voicemail and/or text me. (I put my cell phone on "vibrate" at 9:00 p.m.) In the six years I have offered this, not a single parent has EVER abused this.
I also have a "secret" Facebook group for my class each year. This is a good way to give updates, share information, ask for volunteers, and post classroom pictures without the whole world seeing it. Because of the "secret" status of the group, only group members can see the postings. Parents love seeing what is happening in the class and ways that they can help!!
I am a kindergarten teacher, with 29+ years of teaching in the Early Education field. both public and private. Originally I grew up on a farm in northeast Nebraska. Since graduating from college, I have been a teacher in Nebraska, California, Nebraska (again), Missouri, and Kansas, where we currently reside. I like to read, and would welcome the opportunity to ride horses again. I currently teach full-day kindergarten. The most important thing to me is family! My husband and I have been married for 25 years. We have three AMAZING children, a son-in-law, and a beautiful granddaughter!
According to the Kansas Supreme court, schools were already underfunded. So what does the governor do? Passes this garbage.....
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
For my friends in Early Education: Too good not to share!
http://www.kidscreativetoystore.com/colouring-painting-improving-pre-writing-skills/
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Here's a great organization I happened to stumble across. Thought I'd share!
http://easytigerparentsystem.com/do-you-love-me-2/
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
I am a kindergarten teacher. I have worked in the education field for 29 years, on top of raising three incredibly amazing children. There are several people who have influenced me on my professiona; journey that I would like to thank:
1. My mother. My mother is a retired speech/language pathologist. She was always behind my brother and me 100%. Interestingly, I had a high school geometry teacher who said, after I failed the first test, "I didn't expect you to do well. You're a girl." Mom didn't take that very well. She asked him to come out to the farm I grew up on and tutor me, while she was home, so that she could learn the content and help me on the other days. Day #2 of tutoring, he said to my mom, "I thought you were smarter than this." Obviously, he was hired for his coaching and not his teaching abilities.
When I was in college, the Service Unit (school districts contracted people from here because they could not afford/didn't need full-time support) my mom worked for was not hiring anyone who didn't have a master's degree. Mom decided that she should go back to school and get her master's. That was all well and good until my dad said, "...and live with you." Wait! What? We agreed that summer school would be our trial run. We ended up living together that summer, the whole following school year, and the following summer. She was an inspiration, taping her lectures and coming home to listen to them again to see what she missed. Who does that?!? My mom!!
2. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Maxine Moore, and the school's guidance counselor, Mrs. Beverly Schuman. These two amazing ladies were there for me when my father was killed in Vietnam. I was afraid to go to school. Eight year-old logic. If my father died while I was in school, my mother might, too. One of these two women would meet me at the door and let me help them get ready for the day. Even when I was going to college, Mrs. Moore would invite me over for dinner and call to check up on me. She was a sounding board for any questions I might have about what I was learning. Through there two wonderful women, I learned that teachers should be compassionate.
3. Mr. Larry Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher taught high school English. I was raised in a small, rural community. English was opposite Band, so only Band members were in this section of English. Mr. Fletcher taught us that it was possible to have fun learning. We would play "Password" with our spelling words. Naturally, it was boys against girls. What Mr. Fletcher, and the boys, did not know was that I had taught all of my girlfriends how to use sign language. We would just spell the words out, under our desks, and win...every time! I don't think the boys ever figured it out!
Because Mr. Fletcher and his wife (who taught 5th grade) were friends of the family, he would make sure I was one point from an A every quarter. Then he'd say, "I think some home-made cookies would get you an A." So, I'd bake them some cookies. My senior year, last quarter, it was the same thing. Being full of myself and thinking I was hot stuff, I refused. To this day, on my high school transcript, there is an A with four minus signs next to it. Mr. Fletcher taught me that learning can be fun! (Gasp!!)
4. Mrs. Fran Conneally. Mrs. Connealy taught high school government. If it weren't for her expecting more from us that we even believed possible, I would have never survived college. Mrs. Conneally was the only high school teacher that expected a full-blown term paper, complete with annotations and a bibliography. From Mrs. Conneally, I learned to set high expectations for my students.
5. An instructor during my masters program who shall remain nameless for now. I was part of a cohort of fifteen teachers from my previous school district that made the journey together. In most all of our classes, there was discussion, teamwork, and presentations....except for this one. The instructor lectured THE. WHOLE. TIME! No discussion, no collaboration. Just listening to him lecture for two and a half hours, for six weeks! Ugh!! However, there is a bright spot! He said that as teachers, we should involve parents early and in a positive manner. That made sense to me! That next school year, I began calling parents as soon as I got my class list, introducing myself as their child's teacher, and inviting them to Back-to-School Night. Additionally, I made an intentional effort to touch base with every single family at least every other week. I feel that this practice has made a HUGE impact in parental involvement and support. From this instructor I learned the importance of making families feel welcome.
These are just a handful of people who have impacted me and helped to shape the person I am today. I owe them, and so many others, a huge debt of gratitude.
Monday, March 16, 2015
By Barry Saide
Worth sharing...
You know the slogan and the company: “Ford: built to last.”
You also know the acronym: Found On Road Dead.
Which is right?
According to Forbes magazine, Ford has dramatically improved and
redesigned their cars and trucks, making them built to last 250,000
miles or more. If this is true, then the days of foreign car dealerships
talking about American made cars built for the balance of their lease,
versus the lasting of an owner’s lifetime, is no longer valid. And if
that’s true, then Ford has learned something we in education haven’t
yet: accountability as an overall approach to education doesn’t work.
Sustainability does.
Wait, a minute, you say. Don’t Boards of Education need to be
accountable to their stakeholders? Don’t central office administrators
need to be accountable to their Board of Education? Aren’t teachers
accountable to their students?
Yes. Yes. And, yes.
But, accountability models, in their current state, do not allow for
long-term growth. Let’s look at it on a grassroots level: the classroom.
When teachers create classroom rules with their students, and set
group norms for the way students will interact with each other, they
don’t expect instantaneous mastery. Learning doesn’t work that way.
Learning takes time, allows for mistakes, and expects refinement over
time. Many teachers know that students will learn at their developmental
pace, and that the best thing a teacher can do is to create the best
conditions for learning. If that is done, then there is a better chance
for good learning to occur more often during the course of the year.
But, nothing’s perfect, and educators know that, too. So, teachers
get the fact that many of the concepts and approaches to learning they
try to cultivate in their learners may not take shape in them for many
years after student educational experiences are over. The problem with
that, is how do you account for that?
How do you use grades, standardized test scores, and other
measurables of this ilk as evidence of learning outcomes when they are
something that really shouldn’t be measured in the short-term? How about
flipping the narrative, so the education system districts put into
place are built to last, like the Ford motto states?
What I’m asking people to do is to think long-term, and that’s hard
to do. I get it. Board of Education positions are one, two, or three
year terms. There’s a reason people who run for positions don’t use
slogans like “If I do my job right, we should see growth during my
second three-year term.”
Superintendent and assistant superintendent contracts run three
years, but they will know after two years whether they’re getting
extended or not. The impetus is clear to them, too: results now. How can
central office administrators, many with families of their own, be
expected to put their job on the line and preach patience, when
stakeholders clamor for immediate change and evidence of growth. There
are no bootleg videos on YouTube of stakeholders and constituencies
giving the slow clap to a superintendent who says, “We’ll get there.
Give me ten years. Let me build something that’s foundationally solid,
research-based, and good for kids. We’ll see a dip for a few years while
we’re retraining our staff and reframing how we connect with our
students, but in the end, everyone will be better. Trust me.”
Thing is, if we’re ever going to win in education everywhere, we need
to change in order to grow. Our accountability models can’t look for
quick wins. Institutional change, with adults within, and involved with
the system, takes time. We need to account for all when flipping our
narrative. And, when things get hard, because they will, we need to
stick with our script. Backbones aren’t built overnight. But, they can
be easily stripped away if we allow others to operate on us.
How do we change from a short-term accountability driven model to a
long-term sustainable environment so our new and recent initiatives
aren’t Found on Road Dead with our other recent and new initiatives:
1. The Eitner Rule: I can’t take credit for this, so I’m not going
to. Jay Eitner, who puts the super in superintendent, once stated:
“Growth and change takes time. It’s like cooking food in the crockpot.
You need to go low and slow.” For change to work, we need to follow the
analogy Super Jay aptly said. Take time, evaluate often, revise as
needed, and get it right.
2. Focus on the Whole Child: in a recent webinar I
did for Education Week on social-emotional-learning, I stated “We don’t
test drive cars and only make right turns. If we buy a car with all the
options, we use them, otherwise we’re not getting the most out of what
we purchased.” With students it’s the same thing. If our primary focus
is only on delivering the academic content to students, we’ve lost the
entire battle. Students are entire people, with an entire set of needs.
We need to understand each one on our class roster and let them know we
care about them as people first, and learners second. When students
believe that message, they will achieve for you.
3. Focus on the Whole Teacher: successful business models cited in The Chronicle of Higher Education focus
their hiring practice on always looking to add value to their
organization. What can a potential new employee bring to us that we
don’t already have? How can they make us as an organization better? When
we look to not only add people who can move our entire organization
forward, but leverage the strengths of the people we already have to do
the same, we are building for long-term success. There’s a reason
(besides videotaping sidelines and deflating footballs) the New England
Patriots win so much. They look to add value to all areas of their
organization, and leverage those strengths week after week, year after
year.
4. Remember Rule #1: in the movie Fight Club, the first two rules are
the same: “You Do Not Talk About Fight Club.” The rules repeats to
emphasize the importance of the first two rules. I don’t want you to hit
anybody. I do want you to remember: change is a process, personally
investing in people will be challenging but worthwhile, and remembering
we’re in it for kids will prove helpful when something doesn’t go right
and you feel you’ve been punched in the gut.
We aim as educators to create students who will be successful in a
society that doesn’t exist yet. We do this through teaching students and
communicating to families the importance of communication,
collaboration, working as a member of a group, being a problem solver,
being willing to fail and learn from it, and more. As educators, we need
to model and live what we tell others. And, we need to do it when it’s
uncomfortable to do. Many can talk this talk and walk this walk when
it’s easy. There are fewer that will stick to this mindset when the work
gets hard. That’s what makes you special. And, built to last.
Upon the urging of my husband, I am taking the plunge into the bloggin world. Any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Bear with me on my new learning curve.
