Jack of All Trades, Master of None

Nationally people have wondered why are we falling behind the rest of the world? What are we doing wrong in the U.S.? Many solutions have been offered to this problem:

"We need a longer school day or school year." Interesting when many districts in all states are considering 4 day school weeks to try and save money.

"We need more accountability, high stakes testing, grade level testing before advancement." Places have been doing this, especially increased testing. Has this worked? No. If you ask most teachers they would tell you that every time another assessment is added, instructional time decreases. Is this really the best way to make our students more competitive on the international level?

"We need highly qualified educators." Yes I would agree that the most qualified should be teaching our kids, but is anyone every going to decide what "highly qualified" means? The State Department of Education, our State Universities, and our administrations & steering committees, all answer the "highly qualified" question differently. Maybe once "highly qualified" has a meaningful definition it might start to make a difference.

So what is the problem? Standards.

I recently spoke to a middle school math teacher and asked her what the difference was between students now and students 10-15 years ago. She told me that they don't know basic facts & they know math concepts only at the most superficial level. I asked her how this happened? She told me that kids never masteedr these basic math concepts. She said that she spends most of her year catching them up to where they should've been when the year started, instead of getting them to where they need to be before they leave for H.S.

How did this happen? The answer once again is, standards.

Once standards became vast, we started to loose the depth in which we teach concepts. Our state standards are long, but not deep. Why touch upon 32 concepts in the course of the year when you could master 7? Furthermore, we preach engaging students through innovation, re-teaching the same things year after year will lead to student disinterest and frustration.

We need to make a decision in our state, will our kids be jack of all trades and masters of none, or will they be innovative, engaged, experts in the fundamentals.

Team Sports Are More Fun

After reading the first chapter in "Teaching the Best Practice Way," I wondered what was so different about the Waters school that made all that they did possible. I think the simple answer would be the people and the commitment they have made to good teaching, and by good teaching I mean engaging, authentic, hands on learning within thematic units. But I believe it's more than that.

So what is this missing ingredient? I believe that it's an affective team and team planning time. If you are a middle level educator then you know that common planning time is essential. Teachers, experts, and research all say that common planning is a must. But what these people aren't saying is that we need to want to work together as co-workers more than we need the time to.

I've been in two schools in the past two years. Two different districts, two different communities, and two very different schools. I have enjoyed this year much more then the last. The reason, the team of teachers I work with everyday. Comparing the past two years I noticed some very large differences:

Last year I had a paid mentor teacher, this year I have a more experienced teacher that willingly helps me whenever possible for free. Last year I routinely had teachers trying to dump work on me, this year I have teachers going out of their way to help me and make my day easier. Last year I felt out of place, this year I feel right at home. I attribute this to my grade level team.

I believe that team chemistry is the key to implementing most of what was said in the first chapter of "Teaching the Best Practice Way." A middle level educator once told me that change starts at your door, and if you aren't happy with your school then start right in your own classroom. Positive change is contagious. So I do think that many of the "best practices" can be accomplished right in your own classroom, but team sports are more fun. There is a certain level of satisfaction in knowing that you did something all by yourself, but my greatest moments in life have always been shared with others, and I think that is something that can be modeled by educators for kids to see.

When I think about the Waters school I imagine all the time spent brainstorming, planning, and coordinating. In order to do all that they did you have to have the time to work together, the want to work together, and enjoy working together.

Sometimes in education we forget that we go to a job everyday with our own version of an office. We often think of our students as the people we work with, but it's the other teachers that can make or break the climate that you work in everyday.

I know when you don't see eye to eye with those around you it's easy to wish that life was an individual sport. But the truth of the matter is that you are just one of many that work toward the common goal of offering a "quality education" through "best practices." Teaching, like life, is a team sport. Without a supportive team that enjoys creating exciting authentic learning opportunities for their students, coming to the "office" everyday isn't as enjoyable and our students notice this.

Integration: The New Tolerance

For the longest time we taught kids to tolerate others. Those that looked different then them, had different customs and traditions, and even those that did not share their sexual orientation. For the longest time parents, teachers, civic leaders all preached tolerance of others that were not like us. Why? Why did we separate ourselves from others with that nasty word? A few years ago it occurred to me that tolerating someone that was different then myself meant that I was putting up with them instead of embracing their differences. Why should someone different from myself be "tolerated" when I am just as different to them as they are to me? Last year I stopped using that word. I decided that tolerance did not mean acceptance, and ultimately that is what we should be doing. Accepting everyone for who they are and what they believe.

Today I find myself in a similar situation, but this time the password is..."integration." Integrated means to bring together elements that are normally separate. Is that how we see technology and education? Two separate elements that should be merged together. How will we every reach our students, who spend the majority of their day using technology, if we view technology as a foreign element in our classrooms.

We have to start looking at technology as the cornerstone of our classroom, not the portable classroom we ship in to accommodate an increase in enrollment. Technology is a cog in the machine that is our classroom. Technology has to be included in the blueprint of our courses. Technology isn't a class, instead it should be a vital element of all that we do. The sooner we toss away this idea of integrating elements that aren't normally in the classroom, the sooner we can get started on laying a foundation for our future classroom. I for one will not "tolerate" this notion of "integration" anymore, I encourage you to do so as well.