I just finished reading the first four chapters of Results Now by Mike Schmoker. It wasn't a motivator at all. My first impressions reading this is "how negative." I know this blog post is to look at our own school, practice and see if I can relate to what he does. There are some things I can relate to....but as a classmate (Ellen) pointed out in class, we are a profession that is quick to throw education under the bus....do other professions criticize as frequently and openly as current and previous educators do?
In our district, we do have curriculum. I feel that the majority of us do follow the curriculum. Our school district does quite well in state testing. I'm not sure I agree with Schmoker, that we should avail ourselves to the "Overlooked Opportunity" of state materials that would help teachers align their curriculum with state assessments. So what, we teach to the test, what happens with the creative side that Pink thinks we should provide more opportunities for in education. I would like to see Schmoker and Pink (maybe Friedman) in a room together to discuss education as a whole. I wonder if they belong to similar think tank types of research that it sounds like Schmoker makes a living at.
I do feel that administrators accept the mediocrity in some. Schmoker points out that not many administrators will honestly provide feedback to teachers to improve instruction. One change that could be made for administrators to follow is to provide relevant, pertinent, helpful observations to teachers. The mentality of administrators and teachers need to change. Professionals need to work together to improve instruction. Even the best teacher ever, can improve.
I do feel teachers are in isolation. That is one of my biggest problems with content area teachers. I am a special education teacher; therefore, I have the opportunity to work with many different teachers. I became a better teacher because of my work with other teachrs. I feel that every teacher should be required to observe at least three teachers every year. I have picked up many skills by working with very capable and not so capable teachers. I became better in my resource classes because of them. Administration can impact teaching by allowing time for other teachers to work together, share lessons, observe each other and talk during the school day.
In one of Schmoker's studies, he found that "They do not prepare lessons and assessments togher, and they do not test and refine their lessons regularly on the basis of assessment results." In our school, there are departments that do...it proves to be effective. The tests and quizzes are the same, how the students are taught is left to the teachers professional judgements. I just found him to be very negative....maybe, I'll give it another day or two and see if I can see more valid points.
Is the rest of his book, more complaints on education? If so, I'll wait until they are posted on Blackboard before I buy the book......ugh!
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4 comments:
I respect your point of view and the points you make. I think the strongest is the ones you made about administrators. How many administrators would you consider to be "educational leaders" vs. "managers". If they are more the former, I would wager to guess that those building tend to have less "buffers" and "knowing doing gaps" that those that are just well managed.
I understand what you are saying. After a week of hard work, the last thing you want to hear is someone knocking the job you do. In fact, prior to doing my blog work, I had just finished writting some pretty cool activities. Then, I read Schmoker and I felt badly.
Conversely, in order for things to improve the boat really needs to be rocked.
Thank you, Mary! You said everything I was feeling in a much more eloquent way than I ever could. One aspect that your blog brings out is the fact that most teachers are open to new and different ideas, but are just not often given the opportunity to work together or observe each other. If the system changed just a little to allow for more collaboration during our working hours, then perhaps less of these issues of isolation would occur. I also agreed with your points about administrators allowing mediocre teachers to remain in their positions without pushing them to improve. This is one of the main factors that motivated me to enroll in the supervision program.
I agree with you Mary that this reading was not motivating at all. I do think that you are also right when you say that administrators can give teachers more feedback. I feel it would help many teachers out including myself if administrators gave teachers useful suggestions. Teachers are also students. Almost everyday I learn something new. In our field there is always something new to be learned therefore we can always improve.
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