Category: School based
School Based Activities
Rethinking”Best” Practices
Its a phrase that has become popular in education, “Best Practices”. Heard in staff meetings. Found in session descriptions at conferences. Used as justification for change in how teachers teach. Using the phrase “best practice” implies that other practices are inferior. Are they? Shouldn’t teaching practices be dictated by what is best for our students? How can someone articulate what is best for a classroom without ever meeting the students? Finally who is the authority labeling it best? A teacher, researcher or business person who has never taught a class?
Surely there are different ways to teach in a classroom. This diversity is needed. Our teachers come from a variety of different backgrounds and experiences similar to our students. When education labels something as a “best practice” districts often feel that ALL teachers have to follow this practice. The practice can be made a look for in teachers evaluations. Is this right? Teachers should not be evaluated poorly for not following a practice. Teachers often try the “best practice” and find it does not work for how they teach or their students. Educators need to have multiple paths to delivering their lessons, can’t be limited to what is currently labeled “best”. Administrators need to take the time to discuss teaching methods teachers to find out why they choose the practice that was observed.
The other danger in the “best” practice label comes in a mindset created by the term. Teachers can say they used the “best” practice, even if it doesn’t work. Teachers who use the advertised “best” practices will feel they are superior to those that are not using these prescribed practices. They will ask: Are the students to blame if I tried the “best” way and they failed? Surely not. Educators need to know that there are many paths for success. Professional Development needs to not just focus on what works but to focus on where, when and why a practice works.
It is time to leave the term “best” practice and adopt a better term for education. Practices can be labeled “good” or “next” practices.
But maybe by using the term “my” practice works best. Teachers can own their practice and label it theirs. Don’t we all take the best of what we see in the profession and make it our own anyway?
To Compete or Collaborate
Schools seem caught up in competition these days. When I was a student the competition was left for the sports fields and academic clubs like Chess Club, Quiz Bowl and Science Olympiad. These competitions promoted school spirit, pride and showed off student talents to the community. Competition is natural in between individuals, helping one strive to grow. This allows us to see if we are measuring up with others. Students feel pride with victory and return to practice hard in the face of defeat.
Now days schools are competing in more places. Since school of choice laws and for profit charters have popped up on every corner schools are competing for students, funding, rankings and staff. This competition is different than before, not friendly or for local pride but for survival. Similar to two rival businesses competing for consumers dollars. Is this new type of competition good for education?
District rush to be the first with a technology tool to market to students, many have forgotten to train staff and research best proposals. Money is spent on radio, billboard and television adds to lure students into choosing their school. Crafty vision statements and names have been used to make one school seem better than another. Wealthy district lure poorer districts top staff away by marginal increases in pay but hope for a future. It seems like we are running education like a highly competitive business.
Shouldn’t districts be collaborating? The majority of school funding comes from state school aid. All schools have the same goal to educate all students that walk through the doors. Should districts valuable financial resources be spent in competition as teachers re-create lessons that are being taught through-out the state? Wouldn’t we all be better served if lesson plans were shared. Instead of districts spend time creating their own PD each district could share their expertise with each other. Students would stay put, building strong schools in every community instead of leaving some districts abandoned.
Let’s make all schools succeed through district collaboration, leaving the competitions to the sports fields.
Nervous Educators?
As states create laws to hold teachers accountable for students learning, educators all over the country are getting nervous. Test scores are now making up a higher percentage of teacher evaluations. In some states up to 50% of a teachers evaluation will be base upon ONE score on a standardized test. It seems logical to a non-educator that if the school’s goal is for students to learn then they should do well on these tests. Is it this simple or should teacher be nervous?
Teaching and learning are two different things that are closely related. Teaching involves presenting ideas to students for them to learn; learning is excepting these ideas and putting them into practice. Teaching is like an engine and learning is like the tires on a car. The engine provides the power for the wheels to move. But there are many parts (variables) that can cause the car not to go. Gears, drive-shafts, axles and rims can all stop the car from going forward even when the engine is running perfectly. Teaching can be great in a classroom but the student can have many other factors in their lives that inhibit learning. Illnesses, divorce of parents, death in the family and poverty are just a few issues that can slow down student’s learning in our classrooms. Try as the engine might, movement may not occur at expected rate. On the other side of the coin, the engine can be running poorly, but the car still moves smoothly. At times despite of poor teaching many students learn on their own. Just like the car rolling down the hill due to gravity. The teaching engine has had no impact on the growth, but the students grows due to inspiration and hard work.
Critics argue that nervous teacher don’t want to work hard to get results. “I taught it, but he/she didn’t learn it” is the quote often used to describe this attitude. Make it relevant and rigorous, critics argue, that this is the key for students success. Are test relevant to students if they are being used to judge the teacher? Is the learning relevant to students where education is not shown as valued in our society? Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are always introduced as college drop-outs. Film and sports stars are role models and are held in high esteem.Jobs that seem to require little or no formal education. On the other hand educators are constantly mocked in the media. Even our politicians argue about whether global climate change is a scientific fact. From our students vantage point education is not relevant. They know a diploma is needed but not the skills that a diploma represents. Our schools are a reflection of Our SOCIETY.
YES, educators are nervous because it feels like WE are the only ones making education relevant today. We can’t do our jobs alone. We need society to step up and make education a priority everywhere like it is in schools!
It can’t be educators vs the world anymore!
Rushing to Disney..
Over this holiday break, our family traveled to Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. Being a budget minded teacher, having a family of five the most efficient mode of transportation was in a car, driving 1,200+ miles from Michigan. We loaded into the car filled with excitement, ready to enjoy our vacation in the sunshine state on our first trip to Disney World. We departed Christmas afternoon heading south on I-75 with great excitement. As I piloted our Chevrolet Traverse down the interstate, I noticed numerous brown signs flying by the window. Signs for historic sites and national and state parks. The famed horse parks of Kentucky, Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and Civil War battle fields of Georgia. Were we missing something?
Disney World is a wonderful place, Walt Disney created it to educate and entertain. Should it be the sole focus of the millions that flock there every year? I began to question my planning of the trip. Should I have planned stops along the way to help my children understand all the wonderful places in the United States? To help them understand our country and its history? Maybe I need to schedule another trip to visit the marvelous sites we missed.
I began to notice a parallel in education. Teachers seem to focus on the end destination of standardized test scores instead of the journey of education. Tests like Disney World will always be there and are constantly changing. I see to many teachers abandoning great teaching activities to focus on test scores. It is sad to hear about students who are being rushed to tests, having fun engaging learning experiences lost to test preparation. How we travel to Disney or the Standardized test is our choice. Teachers need to make the trip a journey that students will remember, full of adventure and excitement, because unlike Disney World students don’t want to return to the standardized tests. A Teachers job is to make them to want to return to YOUR Classroom.
Reading Attitudes
I have been lucky. My parents instilled positive reading positive reading attitudes in my life ever since I could pick up a picture book. My mother was a teacher before she had children. I was lucky that my father had enough money made enough money so my mother could stay home with us when we were little. She read to us every day. We constantly went to the local library to attend children’s readings and to pick out new books to read. Growing up I had little exposure to television. We did not get cable until I was away at high school. Our summers were spent at a cottage in northern Michigan where a television was not even present. This lack of television created a need for other forms of entertainment. My parents encouraged books as the means to fill free time or as an activity to fill a rainy day.
The most vivid memory of reading comes from when I was in first grade. We lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The local NBA basketball team sponsored a youth reading program. The students who read the most books would receive tickets to a game. I remember reading tow or three books a day hoping to win tickets. I believe the program was “Bucks Love Books!” I was competing against my older brother. We raced through each stack of books that we brought home from the library. We ended up in a tie, most likely orchestrated by mom. I know I read over one hundred books and received tickets to a game. We went to the basketball game together with a since of pride for earning the tickets.
My family has always encouraged reading. My grandmother, who was legally blind for the last 30 years of her life. Enjoyed reading and listening to books till her death last year. When ever we would talk, she would ask questions about what I was reading or had read lately. She used to give books as presents for birthdays and Christmas. My family has done a terrific job of modeling reading habits. Even after my parents gave in to their children’s plea to purchase cable, they still set strict guidelines and hour limitations for its use. With these restrictions they forced reading upon me. I am forever thankful. Even though I did not enjoy being forced to read.
I plan on being a positive role model for my students and children. I will use references to literature in my lessons. By using these references my students might be encouraged to read for more understanding of the references. I realize most parents are not like mine. Many children come home today to a empty house. They have the freedom to turn on the television any time for entertainment. I hope to set up an after school reading program wherever I teach. This program will be for students as an alternative to going to a empty house.
Hopefully I can encourage students to gain a love for books. There are so many wonderful bools written each year that should be read by everyone. I feel that due to the increasing popularity of television, on-demand video and the internet reading books has declined. It would be a shame if the quality of books deteriorates. Students need to realize that all of the material on the web and television is also available at the corner bookstore.
*** Originally Written in 1998 for my Teaching Reading Class Eng 308 @GVSU for Professor Jill Warren. (with some updates)
Good to reflect on learning so many years later. Need to start up that reading program!
Sweat to Inspire 