Shannon said...
As for teaching teachers about technology, it sounds like that is secondary to convincing or forcing teachers to open their minds to new ways of doing things that create a more modern or beneficial environment for the students.
I agree. I would start with a convention or meeting to discuss ideas among experts like consultants and respected teachers (idealy from within their own school) that have had visible and repeatable success in a specific area of teaching. During the convention they would be able to brainstorm and create realistic plans for possible improvements to their specific school as well as the government school system as a whole. The next step would be involving the teachers, administrators and government regulators, to support and implement a selection of these suggested changes in a way that is not too disruptive to the system. Hopefully this would happen with the majority of the input from teachers and the least possible disruption by the government. I read an article in our free-reading that said that this sharing of information among teachers has been very effective on the ground in the classrooms.
I agree that electives can and should become a "safe space" where students can demonstrate and exercise their apptitudes for subjects other than the basics. This will help keep students engaged who have difficulty relating to the typical curriculum.
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“Until they become integrated, current school reform movements will remain stuck in their own inertia, like other such movements of the past.”
–Wolf & Antinarella (Deciding to Lead, Ch. 5)
In your last post you bring about a point of creating a modern environment for students, thus creating a more beneficial environment for students. I wholeheartedly agree with this although the achievement gap that exists in lower income schools becomes widened when we discuss technology and modernization. At my school students must take a computer skills test that assesses basic computer skills on Word, Excel, etc. There were only 23% of our 8th grade students who revealed “competency.” We have one computer lab and two traveling laptop carts that are missing keys. Our wireless internet is less than sufficient and when one attempts to integrate technology into a lesson you must have at least 20 minutes wait-time for these older computers to boot up.
It is through community building and having conversations and meetings with influential people and colleagues (as you said) that can at least aid in remedying situations such as this. Many teachers would rather sit and complain and point fingers than be proactive and do the extra work necessary in coming closer to achieving your classroom vision and goals. This issue reminds me of the chapter “Teacher as Leader” in Deciding to Lead and Lisa’s class comments about teachers working for reform and being advocates for our students and community.
I am curious about your take on the issue we have recently read about: do you believe that a sense of high self-esteem is a necessary precondition for achieving anything? This chapter (5) makes me think about my beginning of year activities in my classroom the first week of school attempting to build classroom culture. I have lessons focused around explicitly teaching about the Achievement Gap, creating and sharing our Life Maps, Malleable vs. Fixed Intelligence, etc. I’ve created all of these activities in an attempt to raise students’ self-esteem and also their awareness about others in our class. My theory is that I cannot have a successful classroom without having students be a community of learners. Being a community of learners cannot happen when students lack the self-confidence necessary to take risks in the classroom. Any thoughts on this?
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