Tag: education

Where do we go from here?

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

As a veteran teacher I have been thinking non-stop about the next step in education lately. I pursed a career in teaching because I love working with young minds and molding the future. I enjoy the challenges of working with a new crop of minds to motivate each year. I now feel pressures like no other. I feel disrespect daily from the media, community and students. When I talk to colleagues I hear overwhelming concerns about where our profession is heading. Stress levels seem to mimic the ones I saw in my father, a cardiologist, when I was a child. I chose the teaching profession over being a doctor because I wanted to have time to spend with my family. My father never had that time. However now I feel like I am losing my family time to my other kids. The 125 or so students who I have at school. I need to plan more than ever before to make sure I reach all of them. It seems society forgets that teachers are parents too.

As I read about different “Ed Reforms” I grow concerned. Most ideas come from people who have not spent much time in the classroom working with students. The ideas come from business, think tanks, and short-term teachers who climbed up a ladder and never looked back at classrooms. These ideas do not have research or proven methods behind them. Teachers will have to burden the costs of implementing them. Whether it be a financial cost, time cost or professional cost. Race to the top has created ranking systems that have no merit in a work place where there are too many variables for student achievement. A teacher could be ranked highly effective in one school but if they were moved to a different school they would be ranked ineffective.

The United States education system needs to change for sure but not the way we are doing it now. Right now we seem to be looking for a silver bullet that fixes everything at once. We want to blame “bad” teachers and “praise” great school programs. (Read blame union teachers/praise charter schools if you will). If we continue down this road, the winners will be businesses that profit off of the change, the losers will be the rest of American Society.

There is a model that seems to work. Look no further than the medical professions for assistance. Doctors train as interns for 2,4 and sometimes 6 years. Studying under the TOP leaders in their profession. Their teachers actually show, hands on how to perform in the field. Medical students start by watching the best work , assist and then have a hand at showing what they learned with the best watching on. This is completely different from how we train out teachers. We throw them in a student teacher placement with who ever will take them, and then tell them we will come see them teacher every few weeks. No wonder some teachers are bad, they received bad training, blame the school of education they attended.

If a professor is teaching college students how to teach, they need to be active in a school teaching. Not all day but a class or two. If someone is going to be recognized as an expert in the field of education, they need to be actively teaching in the field. We can’t have experts observe and report out, they need to do, so students can see them practice what they are preaching. I know teachers work hard to become the best in their field so they can consult. Is it best for students to have the best teachers sitting on the sidelines? Would we want a surgeon who heard an expert speak one day? or the surgeon who watched, assisted and was critiqued by the best?

Let’s fix education!! But let’s make sure we do it right by listening to the teachers and giving them what they need.

Is teaching a job? or a career? or ….

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

As a teacher I often talk to my middle school students about preparing for their careers. Many times I have students ask What is the difference between a “Job” and a “Career”. My simple answer is that a “job” is a way to earn money (temporary, hourly pay), where as a career is a job where you advance your roll into leadership or require higher degree of learning (longer term, salary). I give examples of jobs as waiting tables or working cutting grass. Career examples I give are retail jobs where one can move up to management or police, firefighter, doctor. My students often respond to the retail example stating it is a job that could be a career if nothing else pans out. I have to point out that starting low in retail and working up is a time-honored tradition, giving the example of a friend of mine from college who worked in a Jockey Retail store and has worked his way up to a district manager position.

My view is a similar view of what Trent wrote in a blog “The Simple Dollar“. I have used this blog in the past help explain the difference in a career planning unit I have taught during middle school advisory lessons. Up until recently I have always thought of teaching as a career and not a job.

I have a masters degree that is in the field of educations. Check one-off in the career column. I have been teaching for 13 year. Check. I have a salary. Check. I work hard and want my boss to notice my work. Check. Sure does look like a career. But I think there is more to teaching than calling it a career.

After re-reading Trent’s blog, a few ideas stuck in my head. A career is “connected employment” leading to “higher pay and higher prestige.” That really does not happen in teaching. If I want higher pay and prestige I have to leave the teaching gig and head into management and consulting. I guess you can call those teaching jobs, I don’t really see it that way. I teach because of the students. Sure someday I might leave them for a different kind of student but I don’t want to go into management. I am like most teachers very dedicated to my students. We all work hard. Spend time outside of our normal working hours, working to better us at our craft. So I don’t see teaching as a career I see it as a LIFESTYLE. Sure we might know some who see it as a job, They leave the job after the first 5 years. Some see it as a career, the move up the ladder quickly forgetting how it was to be in a classroom daily. But there are some who live teaching 24/7/365 and to us it is truly a LIFESTYLE choice.

Common Core = College Core, should there be another path?

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

Like many educators I have spent time this summer looking over the “new” common core state standards. (In science they are called the Next Generation Science Standards) Overall I like the idea of having common standards between states, because up till now each state has had different standards. Comparing states educational systems has been very difficult. Some states have created rigorous standards, like Michigan where I teach, yet others have just left minimal requirements. Colleges have complained about students arriving with poor skills. Often so poor the students need to take remedial classes in record numbers. While I processed all of the information, I felt it would be tough as an college admission officer not familiar with all the different state standards. As a new college student I would be depressed if I was placed in nothing but remedial classes as a freshman. Core standards are needed. BUT are they needed for ALL students?

As I pondered these ideas, I started to notice articles about “Where the jobs are now.”  Sure you can find stories about unfilled STEM jobs that the Common Core will address. I noticed stories about jobs, I never expected: truck driver shortages and factory shortages. Does the common core help fill these vacancies? NO. What do we do with students who want to fill these positions? I believe the if the common core is the only avenue for them they will drop out! Is that what we want? I hope not.

We should not be telling our youth that the only path is College. Today more jobs do not require a college degree than jobs that do! Sure, I want to encourage everyone to get the best education they can, but there are many routes to success that don’t pass through college. As educators we need to be up front and honest with students. Tell them their options. Start them all off on the College Core path, IF and when it becomes evident that the path is not right, there needs to be another one for them to travel down.

When you ask a 5 year old what they want to be most will say: “Doctor, Lawyer, Fireman Police Officer, Nurse, or Teacher” as they gain knowledge about the many more professions it changes many times over. We need to offer core educational requirements that lead to ALL occupations: Musician, Artist, Cook, Truck Driver, Etc…. To do this we have to do away with 1 common core and create many cores that are as well defined as the common core. The common core is great for college bound students but not all students will go down that path.

Middle School Chat Starting Aug 9th 8 pm EST

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

I have been on actively on twitter as an educator for a little over a year, in this time I have found wonderful connections to educators from around the world. I have found incredible resources and insights from educators of all levels. I value all of the people in my growing PLN. One thing that seems missing is a chat/group dedicated solely to Middle School Issues. So after conversations with members of my PLN and encouragement from my principal. I am going to moderate a #mschat starting August 9th at 8pm. This chat will   be a twice monthly chat focusing on current middle school issues. I hope this will be a time where middle school teachers can share the great things that are going on at their schools and also talk about the challenges of teaching at this level. I look forward to learning and growing with all of the connected educators out there. See you in 2 weeks.