By Luann
What would make your classroom a better place for students? I know
what I'd like in mine. Some things cost money; some save money; some
are suggestions for legislators, some for administrators. Some make
money. Some might even interest teachers.
1. Reduce teaching time for teachers during the school day. I did
not say reduce the school day. Just realize that I cannot possibly
plan for 3+ science lab classes, including an AP Biology class, look at
student progress and give some meaningful feedback, deal with student
issues, and attend to a pile of bureaucratic paperwork for 120+ students in 1 55-minute planning period per day. Public school teachers teach a fraction as
much as university professors. There are a zillion Teach For America
kids out there, and record numbers of recently RIF'ed teachers. Hire
another teacher to take 1 section from each person in my dept so we all
teach 4 of 6 periods instead of 5 of 6.
2. Trust that my many
years of education have trained me to detect progress in my students
and allow me to decide when they have met standard. I can tell you so
much more about what any of my students can do than can a standardized
testing company. Oh, and with the money saved from not giving the
tests, perhaps I can have some technology and money for some field
experiences for kids instead of those stupid worksheet books that
accompany our textbricks. No kid ever thanked me for the great
worksheet from which he learned so much and will remember all his life.
3. Technology. Open it up, please. Teach the responsibility
that accompanies social media instead of blocking it. There's a ton of free Web 2.0 resources out
there, but most are not available at many schools once the Network
Ninjas find out about them. Responsible use must become part of our
curriculum, starting with parents.
4. Cell phones are here.
Get over it already. Engaged kids don't pass notes, paper or txt.
Engage them and then learn to use these little hand-held
computers/cameras/videocameras/organizers/calculators/mp3players/webbrowsers/GPS/documenteditors
in classrooms.
5. Tax all pro sports teams heavily and give
the proceeds directly to high schools. Where, after all, do their
players get their start?
What would YOU do?
The problem is that districts throw money into technology, set it up in a classroom, then leave.
Don’t blame the technology! The problem is that districts throw money into technology, set it up in a classroom, then leave…you HAVE to give teachers TIME. It all comes down to that!
Tech for tech’s sake, as you say Mark, is a concern. I see a great deal of technology in my school and district that is unused or poorly used. Why do we need the fastest and newest computers and software for word processing. Truly, the computer from 8 years ago that my sons use word-processes just as fast and effectively as the new ones in my school.
However, this is not to say that we should not put technology in schools. I am a technology convert over the last 15 years as I have watched the benefits grow. I think technology should be in schools and I think that teachers should get the training necessary to make better use of that technology. A projector and
“ELMO” are a waste of resources if all the teacher uses it for is projecting worksheets. Technology is interactive, a classroom experience.
Luann, I know that you are not arguing for superficial use of technology. What I want to do is remind people that technology should be used and used effectively and then get their ideas on it.
Perhaps the taxation of professional athletes should be inversely proportional to their high school GPA.
And maybe I’m just plain socialist, but I think anyone who is owns, is on the board, or is CEO of a company with more than 1000 employees ought to also pay more income tax to help ensure that the families of the employees have access to quality education. I don’t know what people’s big deal is about paying taxes to support their community. Maybe because I’ve never been rich I don’t understand.
Kristen and Tom, I understand about the bad teachers. Sadly, for the kids, we all know them. By high school, I know, and maybe earlier, the kids know who those teachers are within a few weeks of being in their class. Perhaps the discussion needs to be how we can mentor those teachers, or move them into some less significant line of work if they aren’t.
#4 will take a change in school policy in most districts. Right now, our students are prohibited from having their phones during the school day, just at lunch. The rule is laughable, though, as phones are all over in the hallways and sneaky kids even get a peek or two at their text messages during classes. And some teachers don’t enforce it at all. I broke the rule last year to let my physics class video the yo-yos they made when we studied circular motion, and marine bio kids took photos on our field trips.
#5 needs a 503c set up so that players could contribute tax-free to public schools. Only a small part, say 5%, of their money can go towards athletics, though. The rest must go towards academics, ideally towards technology. My district just built a new MS, new commons, band and choir rooms (each used 2 periods a day; don’t get me started) and a lovely new stadium. I teach physics, AP bio, and honors bio in a regular classroom. My physics kids work on old computer lab tables that a shop kid added risers to so it was at a workable height. Any athletes out there want to buy me some new lab tables, or renovate my classroom into a lab?
I liked your suggestions but i don’t have a clue that whether your step 4 will succeed or not.
I love #5, although I’d amend it to taxing the players, not the teams. Taxing the teams would make it all too likely that tickets prices would go up even further out of the reach of the middle class. Along with the tax, give the players a tax deduction if they give money and time directly to the urban districts that support their franchise.
Of course, given how bad most professional sports players are at managing their money, one way to involve them with K-12 education might to have them take money management classes right alongside our high school kids…
Good stuff, Luann, but I have the same question as Kristin. Even though I may trust your judgment regarding whether or not your students are at standard, there are plenty of other teachers for whom I might not have that same level of trust. How do we know their students are at standard without a “standardized” test?
Bravo for #2. I would love to be considered a valid source of assessment for my students. On the other hand, I know plenty of really bad teachers whose assessment I DON’T think is valid.
How can we assess a child’s skills, but still have that assessment be accurate given the wide range of teaching capabilities?
#s 3 and 4 are good, but we must also realize that using tech for tech’s sake so we can say we did is not always the best way. I think, to a certain extent, there’s been some backfire about forcing technology into places where it is not necessarily needed. Blogging in the classroom, for example…there are a lot of classroom blogs for blogs-sake out there, where teachers simply add more work for themselves and their students by requiring blogging, when the same discourse could have been accomplished in good old fashioned discussion. Is the net gain–the experience in cyberworld–all that great and worthwhile?
On one hand, I’d love to be able to send a mass text or tweet to all my students reminding them of the evening’s homework, but I need to also live in the reality that despite what it may seem, not all my kids have a cell phone, and even fewer have a computer at home. When we get access to new toys, we’re like little kids…we assume everyone likes what we like and has what we have. We need to remember that technology IN the classroom is one thing, expecting its use outside the classroom is another. I live in an affluent district, but in my day one student surveys, I discover that still at least 15-20% of my students each year does not have a home computer and of those, only a small proportion have a neighbor or someplace nearby where they can access a computer on a daily basis, for typing papers let alone internet access.
It becomes real easy to just assume “they’re all doing it,” not unlike sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. But the fact is, there is a real inequity in access beyond our classroom walls.