"New Middle Schools for New Futures"

I just read this article on the NMSA website: http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/Articles/May2009/Article1/tabid/1928/Default.aspx

The article was a short version of the class I took this spring. The class and article were about how we need to be changing education so that it better matches what kids need to prepare them for the future. For example, our world is becoming more globalized which means that countries are more readily accessible than they were in the future. Our kids are going to need to know how to interact and communicate with people from other countries as part of their work and daily lives. Technology is rapidly changing also. We need to prepare them for using things that haven't even been invented yet. The list goes on and on.

The author of the article, Anthony Jackson, writes about how a decade ago, in 2000, he wrote about the need for change in education to better prepare students for the turn of the century:

Significant progress has been made in the journey to provide young adolescents with a developmentally responsive education. … Structural changes in middle grades education—how students and teachers are organized for learning— have been fairly widespread and have produced good results. … However, our observations suggest that relatively little has changed at the core of most students' school experience: curriculum, assessment, and instruction.

- From Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century (Jackson & Davis, 2000, p. 5)

He then goes on to talk about how still very little has changed and we have had 10 YEARS! Am I the only one alarmed? I feel like all we ever do in education is talk about the need for change, look at what we have, reinvent the wheel (with a lot of effort) and end up with something very similar to what we had in the beginning. I think we are stuck in a rut and as a favorite professor of mine says, "If you stay in a rut too long it can become a grave."

I have taken two classes now in my quest for a graduate level degree in middle level curriculum and although I do not claim to be any sort of expert, I can now say that I am aware there is a problem and I have some resources to turn to. I will agree to do my part to push real change forward instead of sitting back and accepting the status quo. I just need some people to join me. Are you up for the challenge?

Tools and Resources

Throughout the class, EDC 524, although short, we have used several technologies that I can foresee being useful in my classroom. The most useful to me is Google Docs. I can see using these to make documents available to my students to use and modify as they work together in teams. Since I don't technically teach middle school, my students do not have access to laptops yet and therefore have to work in the computer lab that is significantly outdated. Google Docs seem like an easy solution to getting groups to work together on the same project even while they are sitting at separate computers.

I can also see myself using Skype in my classroom as a means to communicate with teachers and/or classrooms that are not readily available. A teacher I work with has used Skype to have her students read to another reading buddy they had never met before in a school across the state. It gave the kids a new audience and allowed them some interaction with newer technologies. It was a great motivator and something I can see myself using in my practice.

Overall I will try harder to incorporate more technology into my classroom even though it isn't easy because the lack of materials in my school. I owe it to my students to give them as much exposure as possible so that they are ready for the future and as aware of what is available as other students.

"Good is the enemy of Great"

This quote by Collins (2001) took me some time to dissect. My first thought was that good is good, right? My second thought compared the words good and great. Wouldn't you rather be great at something than just good? In education we sometimes get stuck in a rut of things that work. When things are humming along (good) it can be hard to put everything in an upheaval in an attempt to make it great. The other problem is that what if what we try doesn't work and we are instead stuck with less than good?

We owe it to our students to never give up on trying to improve their learning and educational experience. As teachers we are required to keep up our teaching certificates by doing professional development and always working to improve our methods. Schools need to be constantly looking at the status quo of things and see if there are ways we can do it better.

I guess the biggest point is that education is not for those who enjoy going to work day after day, knowing what to expect and having it always be the same. Education is dynamic and always changing. We need professionals that are prepared for such a challenge, people that will not accept "good" when "great" is out there somewhere.

Shared Vision

Shared vision is something that my school has been talking a lot about because we have a new superintendent and are working on forming a standards based curriculum as a cohort school for the RISK program. More experienced teachers than I are frustrated because they have been through this more times than they would like to count. They complain that when someone new comes on board, they try to overhaul all the work that has been done, the shared vision gets shoved in a closet, never to be referred to again...at least until a new person takes over. I can understand their frustration, but I find it an interesting and inspiring process (ah the freshness of a newbie). The key to me is in referring back to the vision statement as decisions are made. It should not be a stagnant statement, once written and then posted, becomes something we have but do nothing with. I like the idea of a shared vision statement that everyone buys into and refers to frequently. As the staff and administration make changes the vision statement is taken out and before anything new is adopted, make sure it fits under that statement. In this time of more and more things being placed on our plates, we need to make sure that what we do adopt for new ideas and policies is moving us closer to what we envision for our school and our students. As this process of creating and agreeing on a shared vision progresses, I will be interested to see how it plays out and how veteran teachers and new teachers come together to adopt a vision for our school that everyone can adopt.

Another black slash against NCLB

In reading This We Believe in Action, I was struck by chapter 13, "Organizational Structures that Support Meaningful Relationships and Learning", and more specifically, the following quote:

"The 21st century presents educators with shrinking resources and demands for increased accountability through No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The pressure of meeting adequate yearly progress has schools racing to make academic progress. Times dictate tough choices (p. 141)."

NCLB has been a thorn in the side of education since it was implemented. I have never heard anyone say that they were thrilled that our government passed such a policy, especially people that are in education. This We Believe, This We Believe in Action, and all of middle school philosophy is about being developmentally appropriate for the students we serve. NCLB has not taken this research into account.

Although my school has its faults, one thing it does well is have small academic teams. By having these small focused teams, we make sure that each student feels like a valuable member of the team where their teachers know them and their interests. I am sure that larger schools are struggling more and more with student:teacher ratios and are finding it harder and harder to maintain that intimacy that adolescents need.

"The hallmark of an effective middle level school rests in its capacity to personalize learning (p. 142)."

Fighting Fair

I’ve been doing some reading in the book, Coming of Age. It has been very interesting from both a teaching standpoint and the view of a parent-to-be in a couple of weeks. There is one section that struck a chord with me. It was basically about fighting fair at home and handling conflicts.

I had to teach health this year, a mandated curriculum paid for with a federal grant that was very scripted and difficult for me to teach. One thing included in this curriculum was a poster that had an outline for how to have a disagreement and settle on a solution with someone. All year in different situations we practiced this poster as a class (because the curriculum told me to). I had written the program off when I had to read, “One good reason for not drinking alcohol as an underage person is that it gives you bad breath.” SERIOUSLY? I put very little value in the remainder of the year but I dutifully taught it under the watchful eye of my curriculum coordinator.

After reading chapter 6 (especially the end), I realized that the health curriculum had not been a complete wash. The rules for fighting fair and the guidelines for resolving conflicts were spot on with what Coming of Age is saying we should be doing with our kids. Huh.

What I liked most about the rules was that they were developed by both the adolescents and the parents at a time when there was no disagreement. When you are in the heat of the moment, no one makes much sense, but if you have a formula you follow each time a disagreement arises, I can imagine it would go much smoother with practice.

I am filing this strategy away for when my son gets to be an adolescent and I am not longer considering the health program to be a complete waste of time. I will however, rework the section on underage drinking :)

It's all in how you look at it

There is an ad on TV where 5 blindfolded women are touching a rhinoceros. I know you have all heard the story before, but bear with me. They each touch a different part of the animal and they all come up with different answers as to what it is. One touches the tail and says it is a rope. Another touches the side and says it is a wall etc. None of them is right because they are not getting the whole picture. Most of life is like this. We are always told that there are "three sides to every story" and things like that. Adolescents are like that rhino. Without knowing all of the aspects of what makes them tick, we aren't getting the whole picture.

What I am talking about is the concept of deidealization. When children are young, they look at their parents as though they can do no wrong. Slowly, as they begin to mature, they look for flaws in their parents and play up their mistakes. Looking at this phenomenon on the surface, it seems like it would be a hurtful experience for parents to go through (I wouldn't know yet). Falling from a pedestal can be painful, especially when it is your own child picking apart your faults.

In the book, Coming of Age:The Education and Development of Young Adolescents, the author talks about deidealization in a new light. He says that because children look at their parents with such love and adoration, they start to think their parents are perfect. As they mature and realize that perfection is not attainable, they start to look for flaws in people they previously thought of as perfect. When they find the flaws, they call attention to them to prove that an imperfect person can become an adult. The following quote from page 97 states it best:

"Deidealization is not a personal attack but an attempt on the part of the child to make attaining adulthood a less daunting endeavor."

Make sure when you look at that rhino that you are looking at all the parts and thinking about all sides of the story. When you know the truth, it can be a lot easier to swallow.