Best of times...

Best of Times/Worst of Times

I think right now we are in a transition period in education. Students have every fact available at their fingertips…so where does that leave the teacher? As teachers we grew up in a different world (yes even us young teachers). There is a huge shift right now and we are finding that “traditional” learning where the teacher lectures, models and then the students practice is heading out the door. Teachers are becoming more of a guide and helper who are now teaching students to problem solve and be independent thinkers. This shift is creating problems where the students learning styles are not being met with traditional teaching.

It is the best of times for some of those same reasons. Students are able to access so much information and have the ability to communicate with anyone in the world. Students are becoming tech savy and are able to problem solve on their own by using their resources. There are so many educational resources that are being created daily that are engaging and great for individual learning styles.

Marzano agreed with the idea that our education system doesn’t always meet the needs of individual learning styles. Teachers may make differentiated lessons but the state still requires students to take state tests where every student needs to perform in the same way. He also pointed out that it is the worst of times because the system focuses on teaching the facts and lacks problem solving opportunities.

The point that really made me question his resources and ideas was when he quoted the reports about 12^th grade students not performing well compared to other countries. I want to know if other countries require their students to stay in school until 12^th grade. If not, you are only comparing students from our country who have to go to school until 12^th grade, to students who want to be or can afford to in those other countries which can make a huge difference in their data. He goes on to say that basically you can make data say whatever you want to which is similar to my thoughts above.

It was interesting to read about the school factors. I agree with each of those factors and I like the way he organized them into similarities. I could think of times when my school has had some of those expectations and the positive outcomes they have had. It also made me think of times when those expectations were not strong in our school and the struggles it brought with. Because I’ve seen leadership come and go I was interested in his view on what a strong leader is. When he listed what a good leader does it made me think of those leaders who were strong and did great things for our school. My district now also is huge on curriculum and rigor, which I was really intimidated by at first, but I can see the positive impact is has on students and the expectations teachers have for students.

            A viable curriculum has been talked about for many years in my new district. I think my old district lacked a plan and every teacher seemed to do their own thing. I don’t think we will ever be teaching the exact same thing every day but I also think we shouldn’t have to, it should be based on our kids. Our district worked very hard to align our curriculum with the standards and we created common assessments so at least we all knew to what rigor to teach and what would  be on the assessments. We are still in the process of doing this but our grade level seems to have a similar vision and plan as a whole which helps eliminate the holes in learning. I also agree with the time factor that Marzano addresses. There is no way to teach everything we are expected to. Our district got together across grade levels and came up with “essential outcomes” which combine or reorganize the standards into a more timely plan. I think this helps teachers know what we can teach in depth but still know the kids won’t miss anything because they will get it in other grades.

            While reading about the goal setting factor I found myself agreeing with Marzano about the powerful impact it has. What got me thinking was the part about common goals. In the past our school has set goals (actually the principal has) but rarely was there any teacher input for an all school goal. I think it would be powerful to involve all the teachers and agree on a common goal for the school. This would make the teachers feel involved and take some ownership in bigger goals. I also agree that goals need feedback. If there is no follow through or reflection with goals then there is no reason to want to achieve them.

            Family involvement, classroom environment and staff climate all set the tone for successful schools. I have seen the importance of family involvement and the values families instill in their students. I think some of this is cultural and we have to learn how families interact with the school based on their values. Either way students who have a supportive family have success in school. The school environment and staff interactions also impact the success. All of these factors makes sense when using them to calculate the success of a school. If one piece is missing I think it has an affect on other factors of the school.