"We need to prepare them for the real world" This is a response that many of us have uttered when explaining why we do some of the things that we do in the classroom, or why some of our policies exist. There are certainly aspects of this statement that ring true. Educators do, in fact, play a role in preparing students to function effectively as they navigate through life. However, what now gives me pause, and where my thinking has changed as a result of much reflection, is this: what exactly IS our perception of the real world and are our so called "life preparing" policies really serving that purpose?
Let me first address the complexity of the "real world", because one thing I have learned in my years as an educator is that many of our students face a reality that I can not even imagine. In fact, some students live a reality every day that I am not sure I would even survive. The real world for a 4th grader who was once sent to my office for fighting at recess included a $20 bill in his back pocket wrapped around a grocery list that included well more than $20 worth of food items which he was responsible for buying after school if he had any hope of feeding his brothers and himself that night. And that sweet blonde five year old with a shy smile who gave me a hug every day, but could turn violent and out of control at any moment? Part of his real world includes a memory of men with guns coming into his trailer at night while he hid under a blanket. We must be careful about making assumptions regarding what we may think we know about what the real world looks like for our children. This may involve either shifting or abandoning some of our "life preparing" policies.
I believe our true intention is to enact policies that will prepare students to be responsible in their future jobs. For example, when we penalize students for late work by giving them a zero or reducing their grade, we are preparing them to be responsible so that they will complete work on time in their jobs. This works fantastically for the students who are ALREADY conscientious, and who are concerned about having their grade lowered because of late work. For students who are not conscientious and not concerned about their grade being lowered, the result is often an opportunity for them to avoid doing the work altogether. We definitely want to teach our students the responsibility to complete their work on time, but first we must get them to COMPLETE THE WORK. Some schools have begun to build time into their weekly schedules for students to attend required extra work sessions (with support) where they complete work that has not been turned in. In many cases, they get full credit for the work because the school is placing value on the student completing the work. The consequence is being held accountable to spend the extra time at school to complete the work rather than the consequence being the grade.
Re-dos and re-takes are another example of a "life preparing" policy we need to carefully consider. Only allowing students one opportunity to assess or to complete an assignment is not consistent with the real world. There are all kinds of opportunities for do-overs in real life...on the ACT, the MCATs, the Bar Exam, the drivers license test. It is important to note in each of these cases, it is the highest score, or the passing score that counts. It is not a combination of scores, nor is there a limitation enforced as a result of the retake. As Rick Wormeli says in his article, Redos and Retakes Done Right (Educational Leadership, November 2011), a lawyer who passes the bar exam after several attempts is not limited to practicing law one day a week.
I do not know if it falls in "life-preparing", but the concept of averaging scores to come up with one grade is a policy that also does not align with the "real world" for which we are preparing our students. A salesman who meets his goal to sell 30 cars in a month for the first time does not report the average of his last three months. A teacher who receives excellent ratings on her final evaluation after working to make improvements to her instructional practices does not want her initial and final evaluations to be averaged. All milestones achieved in jobs and life are celebrated when they are achieved, they are not averaged with all previous attempts.
I could go on, but I think I have made my point. As we think about how we structure our policies, really how we structure our schools, if we truly want to prepare students for the "real world", it is important to be honest with ourselves about what that means. In my real world, I love going to work every day, I collaborate with peers in almost everything that I do. I talk A LOT during my day, I can listen to music when I need to relax, I have a lot of choice about how I complete my work, I have flexibility in my day, I receive positive feedback from my peers, but most importantly I am supported at home and I come home to a safe place every night. Seek to know your students' current reality, but also consider the future reality you are preparing them for and question the alignment of your policies.
Monday, May 20, 2019
Monday, May 6, 2019
Don't forget why you are doing this job.
"Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teacher, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system."- Sidney Hook
Each and every one of us who chose to become an educator selected this path for a very distinct reason. I can assure you that it was not the same reason for each of us, nor did this decision occur at the same moment in our growing up journey. For some it was the influence of an amazing teacher and for others, it was just the pure love of learning. There are some who started down one path and heard the call of teaching somewhere along that path. Whatever the reason and whatever the timeline, we decided we loved school enough to make it a life sentence. We made a conscious decision that we WANTED to go to a school building and spend our days in a classroom for the majority of our life.
In the summer of 2015, ASCD published a bonus digital version of the Educational Leadership magazine, which included a visual summarizing a survey of 20,000 teachers answering the question "Why did you become a teacher?" The top answers were: 85%- To make a difference in the lives of children, 74% to share their love of learning and teaching, 71% to help students reach their full potential, 66% to be part of those "aha" moments, 50% because a teacher inspired them when they were young. Educators do this job because they genuinely care about the success of children and because they genuinely love learning. Let me share a little secret- children learn best in classrooms were they can tell that their teachers genuinely care about them and genuinely love learning. Let me share a reality- teachers sometimes get so bogged down with compliance factors (see my blog from April 4) that they forget who they really are as an educator and why they do this job.
One year, when I was a principal at an elementary school, we had a lot of change happening all at once- we were shifting to a workshop model in literacy, we were completely changing our evaluation system, we were changing our math resources, and we were shifting our assessment practices. My very talented and dedicated school family was quite stressed and it was evident. After seeing an extremely strong, veteran teacher cut off a very rich, engaged discussion with her students because, as she told me, "I was concerned that my mini-lesson had surpassed the required maximum of 15 minutes", I realized that we needed a re-boot. It was clear that my teachers were putting themselves in a box that I never intended to build. I sent a survey to all of our parents asking them to think about a favorite memory they had from their elementary school years and something they remember learning in elementary school and how they learned it. Then I asked them to ask their child to do the same. I was pleased by the high level of response from our families. I took joy in reading their memories, then I compiled all of their comments and shared them with my staff. As you can imagine, the comments were filled with stories about fun and engaging activities, caring teachers, interactive projects, and relationships. We wrote some of the overarching themes on rocks and put them in jars that we kept in our lounge as a visual cue that we must remember why we do this job and that, first and foremost, it is important to make school fun for us and for the students. The constant change was still challenging, but I realized we needed to slow down and that I needed to remind teachers they had "permission" to be themselves and to have fun with and for their students.
I love going into classrooms where the students are engaged, where I can see the excitement of learning, where I hear laughter and see smiles, where I see students willingly engaged in productive struggle, where students groan when the bell rings because it is time to go home. Adding fun and excitement does not reduce rigor, nor does it mean that you cannot cover content. In fact, you may find that you cover more content because students are engaged and present! Why have students read pages and pages of a social studies book and answer questions on a worksheet when you can, instead, immerse them in the content by simulating what they are learning about and become the historical or governmental figures. There is no need to make copies of math worksheets for students to practice their facts when, instead, they can play games that require them to use their facts in the gameplay. Rather than giving students a test on potential energy, kinetic energy, centripetal force, centrifugal force, acceleration, deceleration, friction, etc...., you can have them build a model roller coaster and then label and describe how all of the forces and principles of physics make the coaster work. When teaching students about volume, you don't have to give them an algorithm, you can give them graph paper and scissors and challenge them to build containers to see if they can figure out on their own how to calculate volume. When reading to kids, it is okay, at times, to just read with joy and enthusiasm without stopping to talk about what they should be thinking, predicting, connecting or synthesizing. And sometimes....you can just do something because it is fun and you just want to spend time building relationships with your students.
Don't forget why you are doing this job. Love what you do and love how you are doing it. Believe in your passion- it will work for the students and they WILL learn.
Each and every one of us who chose to become an educator selected this path for a very distinct reason. I can assure you that it was not the same reason for each of us, nor did this decision occur at the same moment in our growing up journey. For some it was the influence of an amazing teacher and for others, it was just the pure love of learning. There are some who started down one path and heard the call of teaching somewhere along that path. Whatever the reason and whatever the timeline, we decided we loved school enough to make it a life sentence. We made a conscious decision that we WANTED to go to a school building and spend our days in a classroom for the majority of our life.
In the summer of 2015, ASCD published a bonus digital version of the Educational Leadership magazine, which included a visual summarizing a survey of 20,000 teachers answering the question "Why did you become a teacher?" The top answers were: 85%- To make a difference in the lives of children, 74% to share their love of learning and teaching, 71% to help students reach their full potential, 66% to be part of those "aha" moments, 50% because a teacher inspired them when they were young. Educators do this job because they genuinely care about the success of children and because they genuinely love learning. Let me share a little secret- children learn best in classrooms were they can tell that their teachers genuinely care about them and genuinely love learning. Let me share a reality- teachers sometimes get so bogged down with compliance factors (see my blog from April 4) that they forget who they really are as an educator and why they do this job.
One year, when I was a principal at an elementary school, we had a lot of change happening all at once- we were shifting to a workshop model in literacy, we were completely changing our evaluation system, we were changing our math resources, and we were shifting our assessment practices. My very talented and dedicated school family was quite stressed and it was evident. After seeing an extremely strong, veteran teacher cut off a very rich, engaged discussion with her students because, as she told me, "I was concerned that my mini-lesson had surpassed the required maximum of 15 minutes", I realized that we needed a re-boot. It was clear that my teachers were putting themselves in a box that I never intended to build. I sent a survey to all of our parents asking them to think about a favorite memory they had from their elementary school years and something they remember learning in elementary school and how they learned it. Then I asked them to ask their child to do the same. I was pleased by the high level of response from our families. I took joy in reading their memories, then I compiled all of their comments and shared them with my staff. As you can imagine, the comments were filled with stories about fun and engaging activities, caring teachers, interactive projects, and relationships. We wrote some of the overarching themes on rocks and put them in jars that we kept in our lounge as a visual cue that we must remember why we do this job and that, first and foremost, it is important to make school fun for us and for the students. The constant change was still challenging, but I realized we needed to slow down and that I needed to remind teachers they had "permission" to be themselves and to have fun with and for their students.
I love going into classrooms where the students are engaged, where I can see the excitement of learning, where I hear laughter and see smiles, where I see students willingly engaged in productive struggle, where students groan when the bell rings because it is time to go home. Adding fun and excitement does not reduce rigor, nor does it mean that you cannot cover content. In fact, you may find that you cover more content because students are engaged and present! Why have students read pages and pages of a social studies book and answer questions on a worksheet when you can, instead, immerse them in the content by simulating what they are learning about and become the historical or governmental figures. There is no need to make copies of math worksheets for students to practice their facts when, instead, they can play games that require them to use their facts in the gameplay. Rather than giving students a test on potential energy, kinetic energy, centripetal force, centrifugal force, acceleration, deceleration, friction, etc...., you can have them build a model roller coaster and then label and describe how all of the forces and principles of physics make the coaster work. When teaching students about volume, you don't have to give them an algorithm, you can give them graph paper and scissors and challenge them to build containers to see if they can figure out on their own how to calculate volume. When reading to kids, it is okay, at times, to just read with joy and enthusiasm without stopping to talk about what they should be thinking, predicting, connecting or synthesizing. And sometimes....you can just do something because it is fun and you just want to spend time building relationships with your students.
Don't forget why you are doing this job. Love what you do and love how you are doing it. Believe in your passion- it will work for the students and they WILL learn.
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