What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents

This article, recently published on CNN.com, is very intriguing to me.  I have seen this posted on Twitter and Facebook, but I have not heard any of the parents of my students talking about it.

So, I have been wondering if this is something I should share on the school blog I write for parents.  Is it too provocative?  Will it anger parents?  Or, will it help parents look into the mirror and reflect on their parenting skills?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Dave

According to her message, this mom is especially upset because the teacher did not contact her to advise her that the grades were “dropping” this trimester.

So, I will need to call this parent on Monday to explain my points of view which include:

• The student received all +’s in the more important areas of Work Habits and Socialization.  To me that is way more important than an A or a B.

• I have instructed our teachers to contact parents when a child’s grade drops significantly (e.g. from an A to a C).  I agree that there should not be surprises for parents, and that a significant drop may signal an issue.

• In my opinion, going from an A- to a B+ is not significant, especially at the end of the school year when the curriculum should be the most challenging for students.

• This is elementary school.  A child’s grades have no impact on his future.  (Makes me wonder if the parent is internalizing this as if they are HER grades…)

I am interested if you agree or disagree with me on this issue.  What would you tell this parent on Monday?

In the five classes I have taken so far, this is the first time the teacher has even acknowledged that the internet is an appropriate place to complete assignments.  Well, it’s about time.

Not only is this professor requiring blogging for assignments, he also is a blogger and he is on Twitter (tkanold).  On his Turning Vision Into Action blog he provides wonderful thoughts about Professional Learning Communities.  This is a topic Dr. Kanold should know a lot about because he was trained under the PLC guru Rick DuFour.  Kanold served as the director of math and science under DuFour at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois.  Then, after DuFour’s departure, Kanold took over the reigns as superintendent.

So, I am excited to finally be in a class where I do not need a printer!  But, more importantly, I love the idea that we are using the Read/Write web to interact with each other outside of the classroom.  This is a concept that is long in coming to post-graduate classes, and I hope  other professors in my program take note of this, and get on board.  The time has come for 21st Century instruction to take hold at the graduate level as well as in K-12 schools.

I have not posted on my blog for quite some time.  Why?  Because I finally crossed over into the land of “studenthood.”  Two years ago I wrote this post for Leadertalk in which I debated whether I should go back to school for a PhD in educational leadership or not.  I received some very good comments from some very smart people which made for some interesting discussion on line and at home.

Well, two years have passed, and I have given much thought to this topic. This fall, I finally took the plunge and entered a doctoral program.  I have to admit that I went into this venture with both excitement and trepidation.  I had not been a student in 20 years.  Did I have the discipline necessary to complete all the required work and still give my full attention to my responsibilities as a school principal?

After completing the first two classes, I can say that I am still alive and ready for more.  I learned a lot about inequity and social injustice in our educational system, and I re-learned the importance of paying closer attention to  legal issues as a school principal.

However, the most valuable lesson I learned is the difference between good teaching and poor teaching from a student’s point of view.  I experienced both this past semester.

As an evaluator of teachers, I talk about the importance of engaging students in deep, meaningful discussions and one of my teachers (let’s call her Teacher A) was a master at that, while the other teacher (Teacher B) simply lectured to us from notes written years ago.  As I work with teachers, I talk about assigning work that develops critical thinking skills and applies to the reading and discussions taking place in the classroom.  Again, Teacher A forced us to read, think, and write about topics applicable to the focus of the class and to our positions as school leaders, while many of Teacher  B’s assignments were unrelated to the subject of the class.  Instead, they were simply busy work.

Students need to have their work graded and returned in a timely manner with comments designed to help improve their learning.  I re-learned the importance of this basic principle of good teaching this fall.  Teacher A returned all of our work the next week of class, and it was filled with thoughtful comments for me to ponder.  Teacher B only returned one assignment to me all semester, and all she wrote was a letter grade on the paper.  How in the world was I supposed to improve my work when my papers were not returned to me?  (Did I mention that our hard work would be used for her own research?)

Finally, students deserve a teacher who respects their opinions, allows them to share in class, and takes an active interest in their lives.  That defined Teacher A.  I could not wait to for the next class session to arrive.  I felt valued as a student and as a person.  Her passion for education was contagious.  Teacher B never really showed any interest in us as people, and she spent way too much time talking about herself and her professional and academic accomplishments.  No doubt she was an expert in her specialized field, but that never translated into good teaching.

So what is the biggest lesson I learned this past semester?  That is an easy question to answer.  I need to continue to help teachers in my school be more like Teacher A – student centered, caring, open.  I expect teachers to use student work for their own growth and learning by returning it in a timely manner and by providing insightful comments to improve learning.  In addition, as an evaluator of teachers, I need to provide immediate feedback, both positive and constructive, regarding their work as professionals.

What an eye opening experience these two classes have been.  I have witnessed the great and the mediocre in teaching, and I hope I am a better educator for it.  I will have both of these teachers again in future classes.  I certainly know what to expect from each of them.

I recently read a chapter from The Educational Imagination by Elliot Eisner.  The topic was Curriculum Ideologies, and one of the ideologies featured was “Progressivism.”  As I was reading this, I was taken back to my undergraduate days when we studied the philosophy of John Dewey from the early 20th century.  I respected Dewey’s ideas back then, and I still do today.

For the last five years I have been studying the principles of “21^st century skills.”  I have read, listened to, and spoken with some of the top thinkers in this area such as Alan November, Will Richardson, David Warlick, Thomas Friedman, and Daniel Pink.  The message they advocate is the same:  We must change the way we teach to meet the needs of 21^st century learners.  They espouse the importance of self-directed learning, authentic units of study, problem-based learning, metacognition, and students taking ownership of their learning.  These forward-thinking educators are some of the leading critics of the lack of change in teaching methodology in the current No Child Left Behind environment.

I believe that these concepts are child-centered and are the best practices in teaching, yet I continue to be frustrated with the contradictory policies that make up the high-stakes testing world of NCLB.  How can we possibly expect children to develop critical thinking skills or self-directedness when our schools are judged on the results of multiple choice tests given once per year?  The strain on teachers and administrators to prove their worth through standardized test scores is so great that we are compelled to continue with the “sage on the stage” mentality instead of turning over the learning to the students.  Teachers are feeling pressured to “fill up their students’ heads” with massive amounts of information so they will meet state standards on tests like the ISAT.

Interestingly, while reading the Eisner chapter, I was disturbed to read that the situation in American education has not changed much in the last 100 years.  The curricular ideology of Progressivism and more specifically the philosophy of John Dewey, rings as true today as it did in the early 1900s.  Dewey wrote about the “educational situations through which a child becomes increasingly able to deal with ever more complex and demanding problems.”  He clearly believed that education should be problem-centered, that children should be motivated to create the problems to be solved, that they should formulate their own rules for social living, and that the instruction should start with an understanding of the whole child including his social and emotional well-being.

Dewey’s beliefs conflicted with the more popular viewpoint of his day which revolved around the concept of running schools like factories where the outcomes of education were based on the achievement of standardized goals.  This “efficiency movement” in education was the foundation of the American public schools in Dewey’s era, whereas the concepts of Progressivism flourished only in small independent schools.  The similarities of early 20^th century educational thought and early 21^st century educational thought are striking.  As much as I am a proponent of public school education for the good of our country, I cannot help but wonder if the best place for children is in private, independent schools that do not fall under the auspices of federal and state mandates.  This thought frightens and upsets me, and I hope there is change on the horizon for the majority of children who are enrolled in public schools (like my own kids).

With a 16 year old and 13 year old (both girls) I am up to my eyeballs  in the “teenage drama years.”

Yesterday, I took my daughter to get her driver’s license.  OMG what an experience that was.  Off she went with some crabby old guy (and by old, I mean at least 60) to drive around an unfamiliar neighborhood.  She looked like a lamb to the slaughter… she was so nervous.  But, I was equally scared as I watched her follow him like a lost puppy out to the parking lot where my car was parked.  (Note: my car, not my wife’s car.)

So I sat and waited, texting my wife throughout that long, terrifying wait.  As other 16 year olds came back from their road tests with giant, happy smiles on their pimply faces, I sat, waited, and worried.  These kids had left and returned after my own kid left.  What was going on?  Did she crash?  Is she redoing the 3-point turn over and over again until she gets it right?

One thing I do know is that she is not parallel parking.  Today’s suburban teenagers are not taught that time-honored skill.  Nobody parallel parks in the suburbs, and how often do they drive into the city?  (Never with my car!!)  BTW – I am an awesome parallel parker.

Well, she finally returned from the road test with her own smiling face.  Phew…  We sat for the picture and then she received her license.

An hour later, I totally freaked out when she left for her first solo drive.  Then, it occurred to me that we now have our own little errand girl. “Hey, please go pick up your sister at camp… go drop off the  books at the library… go drop this bag off at your grandma’s house.”
Pretty cool!

Why do I only play golf once a year?  Simple.  It is the hardest game ever invented.  That dimpled little ball just sits on its cute little perch mocking me to give it a good smack, and no matter how hard I swing the club, the ball will not go where I want it to go.

This year, like I always do, I purchased some raffle tickets in support of the foundation.  I never win raffles, but what the hell.  It’s for the kids, right!

So I am sitting in the clubhouse after 18 grueling holes of swing and miss golf when they start the raffle.  And, lo and behold, whose raffle ticket is pulled first?  Yours truly, of course.  I got all excited at the thought of a free dinner at the local Red Lobster.  But no.  What do I win?  A one time chance to hit a hole in one for a million bucks! From only 175 yards!  Piece of cake!  What should I do first with all that money ($650,000 after taxes)?

Well, that may sound awesome to you, but to this duffer, all it meant was another opportunity to embarrass myself on the glorious links.  Picture this, if you will:  Little Dave standing in front of a teed up little white pea, with a crowd of colleagues, parents, and community members all cheering me on and hoping I will give it a jolly ride right into the center of the hole.  Did I mention that they were videotaping this momentous event?

So there I am, doing my best Ralph Cramden “address the ball” shtick (am I dating myself?).  My heart pounding through my striped golf shirt, my knees shaking, with three simple prayers running through my head “Please don’t let me whiff; please let the club head actually make contact; please let the ball rise up more than 10 feet off the ground.”

Well, I took my best swing with 1 million dollars on the line.  And I am proud to say that the silly little ball jumped off that tee, rose up in the air, and flew a good 175 yards right into the …

…trees 40 yards to the left of the green.  I was so proud of myself!  I hit that ball like a real Tiger (well, not exactly, but a boy can dream, right?).

Anyway, I am not a millionaire, and I am not quitting my day job anytime soon.  I might just get out on the links again this summer, however.

I finally won a raffle, and it was one that I could not win.

(Illustration credit: http://www.sonicgolf.co.uk/franchise.htm)

BP Sucks (But not enough to fix the leakage).

Mr. Escalante may not make the list above as one of the most influential teachers of all time, but he is at the top of my list of teachers with whom I would love to sit and talk shop.

If you have not seen the film “Stand and Deliver” go rent it now.  If you saw it a while ago but you do not remember much, go rent it now.  This is a terrific story of one man’s struggle to raise high school students up and out of the barrios of East Los Angeles.  Sure, the film is a product of Hollywood, but  Escalante described the film as “90% truth, 10% drama”.  It is a realistic interpretation of his story.

Escalante was a math teacher, who, against huge odds, successfully taught Calculus to students with very limited math instruction.  Over the years, Escalante’s students scored incredibly well on the AP Calculus test.

Jaime Escalante died yesterday at the age of 79.  RIP Mr. Escalante.  You have left your mark on the world.