“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must we want for all children in the community. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy” - John Dewey
As a parent I can really connect with this quote. All of the students that come into our schools and our classrooms deserve an education that we would want for our own child. My daughter is currently in first grade and I wonder what the educational system will have in store for her. As Darling-Hammond stated in the last paragraph, "As a country, we can and must enter a new era." Darling-Hammond states that we need the implementation of the following policies: The first is Meaningful learning goals. One of the main ideas I got from this was about assessment practices. Teachers so often teach to the test, when the policy in place is place that sets the standards low, we are not allowing our students to become critical thinkers or encouraging them to push themselves to a high level of achievement. As I think about this concept, I make connection to the brain science about creativity. When we assess a student, what is it that we are looking for? Are we looking for one correct answer or are we looking for the ability to come up with many possible solutions or make connections to things they already know, do we want them to analyze and think about a problem or to be able to follow procedure? When standardized tests change, naturally teaching changes with it. I feel like we have adjusted our testing, with that I wonder if we have given our teachers enough support to understand the shifts that they need to make in the classroom. This leads to the next area of reform. Intelligent, reciprocal accountability system includes Standards of Practice, Standards for Schools, and Standards for the System. If we change what we want our student outcomes to be, we need to support them in reaching these standards. I think this is one of the main reasons so many people hate common core; students are asked to perform differently and many teachers do not know how to get them there. Not only do teachers need to be provided the education in this transition, they also need the time to collaborate and the support of the school structure. For me, I have ideas and things that I want to incorporate into my classroom but I feel limited by time, and there is not enough support for students that need extra support emotionally, behaviorally, and/or academically. I believe that this is one of the places that money could have a huge impact. We, as a system are so short in manpower that so many people are stretched thin and can't maximize the great intentions and knowledge that they have. Equitable and adequate resources needs to be in place to allow students to excel. One of these resources is quality teachers. The system we have in place makes is so hard to fire teachers who are clearly not doing their job well. I think we need to provide support in becoming a skilled teacher and then make sure that they are held accountable. As I teach a class for future educators I go into many different classrooms throughout our district. It is so surprising to me that there is such a huge difference from one school to another. I know that it is even more extreme if you look outside of the district. This takes me back to the quote by John Dewey, my address should not dictate the type or quality of my child's education. I think this ties in with the fourth area of policy implementation, strong professional standards and supports. One of the quotes for Darling-Hammond stuck with me, "The best systems create high-quality professional learning opportunities, including time for teachers to work and learn together during the school day". As we are facing more cuts going into the next few years, one of the things that may be gone is our Professional Learning Communities. This makes me feel like we are definitely going in the wrong direction. We know through research that collaboration strengthens a school and we as teachers need to model what we want students to do. The systems need to be in place for that to happen. The last area, schools organized for student and teacher learning is something that I am excited to think about. I am so lucky to be in a school that has an innovative leader, he is driving us as a staff to rethink what school can look like. It brings up so many questions as we dive into the future of what education looks like at our site. Overall I agree with Darling-Hammond that we need to enter a new era. Education needs to adapt to the needs of our students.
1 Comment
Matt
3/18/2018 12:14:00 pm
I agree with a lot of what you said above. As all teachers can relate, we are always short on time. As we transition to these new expectations of what students should show through their learning, it feels that the resources to help them and us is going to become more scarce. It seems that it falls on us to fill in the gaps that the districts and the state fail to provide. I am also worried about how the cuts are going to effect our students. At a time when we need more investment in teacher PD, more resources for our kids, and the chance to learn from one another during PL time, we are moving in the opposite direction. Hopefully as we move forward, we will build on the things we know work in education, and away from the things that don't.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Kendra ParsonsAs a high school math teacher, I am passionate about bringing a joy of learning and of math to my students. Archives
April 2018
Categories |