Relevant Work for Students

What Makes Kids Do Good Work?

In this article the author describes the following as relevant work for students: work that has purpose, relevance, gives students choices, and gives students ownership. These are the keys to making learning meaningful to students.

“When parents and educators talk about student work, two seemingly conflicting ideas enter the conversation. The first is that kids need more rigorous and meaningful work. The other is that kids need less work for the sake of work, and more time for authentic learning.”  

This article asks the question how much and what kind of practice kids need to master a skill or concept, what motivates students to attempt a challenge.  It asks what kind of feedback encourages more effort  and how much choice is really helpful. These are questions educators need to be continually asking themselves before asking students to do the work.

Since I have been teaching at the high school level I am well aware that students need to see the relevance of what they are asked to do. Give students a choice and they take some ownership in their choice. Show them that the work you ask of them is something they may use later. I do a lot of project based assignments simulating situations or experiences that they may encounter in the real world.

Taking students to the court house and having them prepare a mock trial was a good example of making work relevant. Students could see themselves in one of many roles as juror, defendant, witness, or attorney. I even had parents tell me they were surprised their child actually discussed what they did at school that day. It’s up to teachers to keep finding ways to make work purposeful and relevant.

Scherer, Marge. (September 2010) What Makes Kids Do Good Work? Educational Leadership, ASCD. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/What-Makes-Kids-Do-Good-Work%C2%A2.aspx

Teacherpreneurs

Teacherpreneurers

Ariel Sacks uses the term teacherpreneur. She predictes that the schools of 2030 will need growing numbers of teacherpreneurs, “which she described as teacher leaders of proven accomplishment who have a deep knowledge of how to teach, a clear understanding of what strategies must be in play to make schools highly successful, and the skills and commitment to spread their expertise to others—all the while keeping at least one foot firmly in the classroom.”

While keeping one foot in the classroom teachers could play numerous roles outside of the classroom as well. This could include roles as community organizers, freelance writing, policy worker, working in a think tank, or university role. The purpose would be to make education better, it would create new challenges as well as opportunities for rewards.

“The teacherpreneur is always engaged with students, while also investing know-how and energy into important projects, including those supported by the district, the state, or a partnering organization.”

“Teacherpreneurship is about propagating a new culture of innovation and creativity in a sector of education that has been woefully lacking in one. Most importantly, teacherpreneurship is not promoting a free-market vision for the profit of a few—but rather how our society can invest substantially in teachers who can expertly serve millions of children and families who are not in the position to choose a better school somewhere else or find the most erudite online teacher anytime, anywhere. Teacherpreneurship is all about the public good, not private gain.”

I think this is very interesting idea but I think this idea is already in place. The author is just coining a new catch phrase for the future. Most teachers already have many roles outside of their classroom that promote student learning. Most of these roles are performed free of charge with the only goal of making others teachers or students better in the classroom. I see teachers in my school sharing their technological expertise to other teachers after school on a regular basis. Many teachers already spend more time tutoring outside the classroom than they do teaching in the classroom. I don’t see teachers doing much more in my opinion since the demands of teaching (at least in our district) have increased. I don’t know a single teacher who doesn’t have to continually look for new innovative ways to teach their students. Teacherpreneurs are already in place.

Berry, Barnett. (October 6, 2010) The Coming Age of the Teacherpreneur.                                         Education Week, Teacher PD Sourcebook. Retreived November 12, 2010 from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01teacherpreneur.ho4.html

TA Supreme Court Decision

In a decision made in June 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parents could ask for reimbursement of tuition that they would pay at a private school for their special education child even if they had not received special education services in the public schools.

Up until now the” Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) prohibited private school tuition reimbursement for students who never received special education services in the public schools”, (Lewin, June 2009). But the recent ruling in the TA case concludes that free and appropriate public education (FAPE) was not made available in a timely manner.

I understand the judge’s ruling but think that it is necessary for parents to give public schools the opportunity to address the child’s issue because they have the resources in place to assist the student. In the TA case the parents never gave the public school the opportunity to remedy the situation instead they elected to send their child to a special private school that costs over $5000 a month.

The public schools given the resources already in place provide the best economical choice to assist students. It is not practical to ask the public schools to fund the cost of private schools with the limited financial resources they are faced with every year. This choice made by TA’s parents is one that they decided upon with no collaboration from the public school.  Therefore the public school should not have to fund their choice when they have a resource in place but parents ignore it.

Lewin, Tamar, June 22, 2009. Retrieved from web based article in the New York Times Education Section  from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/education/23special.html?_r=1

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=105797012&m=105796997

Challanges in Special Education/504

I interviewed one of my assistant principals at my high school. I asked her what she believed were the two most challenging issues that she deals with in regards to special education, specifically 504's.

The first challenge she said was in the area of accommodations. Accommodations such as extended time, teacher generated notes, preferential seating, read alouds for tests, were requests that in her opinion and the opinion of the counselors, we reasonable. However, some parents tend to make requests that were just not feasible. Some of these were 200% extended time on tests, videos of all teacher lectures, calls to parents whenever an assignment, project, quiz, or test from the teacher was given, or expect the school to assign an EC assistant full time to their child when in fact it is not necessary. She runs into problems when parents make these request and when she has to say no and they insist it is necessary and their right by law.

Th second issue in regards to 504's was the amount of time she and counselors spend each week in IEP meetings. She on average attends three to four meetings a week (which she is required to do) and these meetings can take up to two hours, sometimes longer. Counselors have case loads of around 50 students per teacher in our school, some schools the number can be significantly higher. In addition to the meetings counselors have to follow up and ensure teachers are following specific accommodation for each child assigned to ensure compliance. The hours necessary for this can be at times overwhelming especially when you add the other responsibilities of an administrator.

Although she believes that this process is beneficial to most students however some students and parents take advantage of the process and insist upon accommodations that they really don't need and students can actually do themselves.

Teaching today and in the future...

The videos I decided to choose were somewhat related because each have an impact on the other to a degree. The first one is about the adolescent literary crisis (http://www.adlit.org/webcasts/makingroom), the second is concerned with how we can improve learning through free content usage through xml. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRymi-lFHpE), and the third video is on culture shock and how we need to mediate media relationships (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwyCAtyNYHw&feature=channel). 

Why I thought the adolescent literary crisis was important was because if half of the students in today's schools can never get past the 4th or 5th grade reading level then how can we ever expect them to become technologically savy and adapt to the future of how information might be shared and learned. This crisis should be dealt with at an early age, but students who enter high school that read well below their grade level will be "doomed to a life of second class citizenship" if educators can't get them into an effective literary program. I see students struggling in my school when I ask them to read from a textbook on how to construct decision structures in programming and all I get is a deer in the headlights look.

Richard Baraniuk is an advocate of open source learning which may someday be the wave of the future throughout the educational world. He gave examples of how electrical engineers have constructed a "textbook" through the use of xml where free content can be shared and customized. This can be produced economically, published on demand, at at a fraction of the cost of a regular textbook. Teachers Without Borders are using this type of learning tool to share content knowledge, teaching strategies, and a variety of related information in their organization. If this were available to me as a principal perhaps the freeze on purchasing new textbooks might not of had to happen and I could give my students the newest resources in learning their content area in a more economically way.

The last video is concerned with the cultural shock of new media and how we need to be concerned with mediating media relationships in today's environment. We need to ensure that the information we get in cyber space is somewhat controlled and not deceptive, transparent, or distracting. As we learn new ways to share information we have to ensure that the information is reliable. Advances in technology are constantly improving and these new connections will be changing the way we teachers have to teach.

I found the following website http://mashable.com/2009/07/24/education-social-media/ which discusses the initiative "The University of the People" founded by the UN's Global alliance for Information and Communication Technology and Development (GAID). This initiative is designed to offer higher education opportunities to people who would otherwise couldn't afford it. The cost would never exceed $100. The concept is based on the open source learning leveraging social media ideas and technology. This initiative is also under study by President Obama as an alternative means of educating in America.

Safe Schools

Schools have a responsibility to create a safe environment for all students. I think the best way to provide this safe environment is to do what schools do best, that is to educate students from an early age on what is appropriate and what to do if they encounter a situation that might make them feel unsafe. This includes all groups that might have been harassed, bullied, excluded, rejected, or abandoned, for whatever reason.  The anti-bullying initiative that CMS has implemented is a positive step in student awareness.

Community involvement is also a key ingredient so help can be in place as the need arises. Putting community resources into the school community is beneficial for a safe school environment.  Law enforcement (resource officers), security personnel, counselors, social services (DSS), can provide a way for students to seek help and support. With the proper support in place students know they have an alternative to skipping or even dropping out altogether. Strong family support goes a long way in providing resources for students but obviously this is not always the case.

 The school can help with many initiates including the “Safe School Ambassador Program” discussed in the video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mmOKbeCdoI). I believe this proactive approach provides for better opportunities for success in the long run.  Teachers are the best catalyst to student awareness and must lead by example in the classroom.

In some cases schools are the most logical place to address a variety of social issues, like drug abuse, gang involvement, pregnancy, etc., since all of these issues can detract from student learning. I think the role of a school will grow to tackle social issues in addition to learning math, English, etc. But teachers can’t be exclusively responsible to educate on these social issues. Rather these issues have to be dealt with in a joint effort by bringing in the necessary community support. Then this support can be put in a classroom situation by the real experts.

MELS 660 Decision Making Assignment

Decision Making At My School - Reyes


The first decision I want to present was a decision that affected all of the staff before school began. It involved a requirement of all teachers to attend a 4 hour “team building activity” at the U.S. National Whitewater Rafting Center in Charlotte, NC.

It was important for our principal to go forward with this decision as an opportunity to develop a positive relationship with all staff members. In her second year as our principal she is still developing the relationships with teachers and wanted to set the tone for the forth coming year.

She discussed this initiative with her administrative assistants and department heads and received input for the idea as well as asking this group if there were some other possible alternatives to rafting. The majority agreed to the rafting trip and a decision was made that all staff attend with no exceptions. Looking at the Maier Model in our textbook The Principal, Chapter 3, page 43, this decision in my opinion required stakeholder commitment but technical expertise is not required because the subject and decision is not all that complex. This may also be similar to the Vroom-Jago Decision Process Model (page 45). In a GII decision process elements of a consensus decision making with a small working group.

School was officially closed, doors locked, lights were out, and no business other than janitorial staff were in the school. There were no alternatives for teachers, they were only given the option to raft or watch others raft but all had to attend. Many teachers were not happy because the first day of school was just days away.

I think after the experience however, most teachers I talked to enjoyed the time away from school and were appreciative of the effort that was made from the principal. I think I would have made the decision in the same manner as she had. In the end it made a positive impact on the staff.

The second decision I want to address involved all teachers during their planning period last week. The principal required the staff to attend a 90 minute presentation from the Rutherford Learning Group out of Waxhaw, NC. Although the entire staff was affected, the decision was definitely a Vroom-Jago A1 Decision.

The principal having heard the presentation in the past knew that it would benefit the group. Despite leading the district in student achievement, this presentation focused on how talented teachers can improve even more. Focus was directed to things you do best and less attention to your “non-talents”.

Although the initial response from the staff was negative it proved to be very informative and was just what this staff needed to show that there was still room for improving the quality of teaching even with the staff we currently have. This unilateral decision seemed to be the way to go and I would have probably used the same process to make the decision.

References

Developing the artisan teacher (2010). A primer on talent [Pamphlet]

Rutherford, M: Author



Ubben, G.C., Hughes, L.W., Norris, C.J. (2011) The principal creative leadership

for excellence in the school (7th Ed., pp. 36-51) Pearson