Schmoker writes about the "buffer" that surrounds public education. What I'm interested in knowing is, how do you define the buffer and how do you work around it or do you shelter yourself in it? Is the buffer from teacher to teacher, between you and the adminstration, or between the outside world and you?
The next thing I'm interested in knowing is how do we deal with those that aren't engaged? Its easiest to ignore them, isn't it? But then are we truly doing our jobs? And what can we do about students that aren't engaged in our lessons?
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The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
~John Maynard Keynes, English economist
~John Maynard Keynes, English economist
12 comments:
The Buffer...
I see the buffer between the outside world and teachers first. I do agree that there is a buffer between the teachers and administrators but the most significant buffer for me comes from the "outside world." I think there is also a buffer between teachers but our common planning, teacher meetings and collaborative observations helps that somewhat...or at least TRIES to help that. But, in the book, it said "in most classrooms, half or more of the students are clearly not engaged or paying attention." Teachers must motivate the students but when education is not supported at home, it makes our job so much tougher and seemingly impossible at times. To me, the real question is why are the students not engaged? Is it the teacher's teaching style? Is it the teacher's "fault?" Or is there another factor affecting the student's behavior? I know it is tough to call home and get in touch with parents. I know that many parents don't or can't come to open houses. It makes it tough to reach the outside world. I think thats our toughest buffer because the administators and teachers are here at school. They may not come into my classroom as much, but they can very easily. I can go talk to them instantly. I can't always do that with parents and the outside world. To me, that makes it the biggest buffer.
I do agree it can be easy to ignore those that aren't engaged. But, you are right, we wouldn't truly be doing our job if we did. The author stated there is "an alarming tolerance for mediocre instruction, work sheets and busy work." Maybe the change from 90 minute classes to 50 minute classes will change this? I say that in a question but the less time in class will hopefully not allow for the busy work. Maybe the shorter classes will help keep the students engaged? I know there is no simple solution but maybe the shorter time will help those with a short attention span. Teachers will have to adjust their lessons and maybe there will be no time for the worksheets and busy work. Another note, support from administators can help those who aren't engaged. Often students know they can sleep or not do the work and their consequence for that action is not severe enough. Finally, I know we need to motivate students who don't care and I know we can do that through compassion, humor, enthusiasm, adventure, confidence and common sense. We can vary our styles. How do I know that? I just took a class called "Motivating Students Who Don't Care." : )
Engaging students--that's tough. You know, some subjects just "don't matter" to students, like English! I approach my classes with the comment and admission that in 20 years, it won't matter if they can remember the definition of metaphor or who killed Duncan in Macbeth or how Jay Gatsby died or the six rules for using commas. What is important is that they learn to think, reason, analyze, and communicate effectively--and texts are one of the ways we learn to do that, whether we read or whether we write.
Many students tell me that the material turns them off. That may be true to an extent, but I try to find ways to link the old material to their current lives. What child hasn't either experienced the loss of a parent through death or divorce, or has known someone close to them in that situation? They can understand Hamlet's anger at Claudius and Gertrude? What student has not like-liked someone that his or her parents didn't approve of? Then, they can relate to Romeo and Juliet. I like the idea of pairing current literature to the classics. We can even find current TV shows, movies, and songs that borrow the classics for part of their plot lines.
As for the buffer--I think there are several reasons for the buffers that keep teachers out of classrooms of other teachers and administrators out of classrooms. First is TIME. I feel that I am caught up in so much administrative tasks, especially as the English as Second Language teacher. I have to monitor students who are not in my classes; I have to keep up with test scores, accommodations, and the like. Some days I have little time to plan my own lessons, much less walk across the hall to observe someone else! And then, there are administrative demands on our common planning time. How many times has that time, time we are told at the beginning of the year will be "sacred," coopted for some other purpose, such as looking up data to bubble in on answer documents for some high-stakes test or to prepare some report that probably no one will read. (Regie Routman calls these "shelf documents" because they sit on a shelf and collect dust--have we revisited our SACS report/SREB report we worked on last year?)
Should teachers be the sole motivation in the classroom? Yes, we have a responsibility to present lessons that are engaging, but much of the motivation must be intrinsic rather than external. Some of the responsibility has to fall on the students' shoulders as well as the parents' shoulders. Teachers cannot do it all.
When I first started reading chapter one, I was somewhat indignant at the suggestion that this so-called buffer made us not try to improve the education system. I was looking at the buffer as being isolation within each classroom and as a conscious ignoring of educational research. But as I read further, I realized that this buffer really does exist because I may want to do great things in my own classroom but I may not share those things with my fellow teachers and I may not get many chances to question them about what is working in their classes. I agree that NHS has made some effort to encourage teachers to collaborate more frequently but I'm still not convinced that much of it really occurs. For one thing, our opportunities are usually after school when most of us are already quite exhausted by the normal events of the day. Also, it seems that any time we are given time to collaborate, most teachers are watching the clock in order to get home at a reasonable hour. When I think about our assignment to observe other teachers, I wonder how often any of us really consider which teachers to observe. Do we really look for best practices and engaging teachers or do we just visit the teachers that are our closest friends in the building? I am afraid that we are often rather comfortable in the buffer that exists between teachers and their colleagues, the administration, and the general public...
As far as engaging students is concerned, I believe that the teacher is responsible for things like not allowing heads on desks, sleeping, doing obvious things other than assignments. However, I don't think any teacher can engage all the students all the time. When I went through WOW (Working on the Work) training, the trainers from the Schlechty Foundation said that more than 50% of students should always be engaged and all students should be engaged some of the time. Even this is difficult at times. Also, I believe that the best way to engage students is to give choices and to simply ask students about what they want to do to cover required materials. There is a marked difference in doing what is assigned and being engaged. If my students do the assignments, I frequently assume they were engaged in the work but if I ask them later about what they learned, they may not have gotten the point at all. I think we need to constantly communicate with our students to make sure that they are truely engaged in what they are doing. Again, Schlechty says just ask them and they will tell you!
My biggest concern from this chapter is still a question. Can we ever hope to improve or to engage students at NHS if their foundations (elementary or middle schools as well as home environments) send very different messages about education in general as well as what makes a "good" in-class assignment?
The Buffer...
I see the buffer between the outside world an teacher first. I believe the buffer comes from things that we as teachers cant control. Poverty for example is one of those problems. The author has shown significant increase in acheivement in schools that have high poverty rates. I think this is where we loose the students and have no control. The students come to school hungry, beaten and abused and we wonder why they dont acheive. The author says that is an excuse and maybe it is. I would like to see South Carolina students take the same test that the New York students had taken. I think we try very hard to get parents involved but when education is not valued in the home we have lost control. In poverty, education is not valued. I also believe there is a buffer between the people that run the school and teachers. Many classes do busy work, and the majority of those classes were probably 90 minutes. We should move to shorter class periods and I think we would get more information to them. Quality not Quanity.
To me there is a much greater "buffer" between students and teachers then between teachers. Maybe I have had good experiences with this so far, but I feel like I get enormous help from other teachers. Everyone here seems more than willing to help with lesson plan ideas and interesting projects.
Maybe, like Mike said, the buffer is much greater between teachers and the outside world. There are many times when I think that others don't understand what we go through on a daily basis. It almost makes me resent those who constantly comment that we have great vacation time and we don't do anything at school. People don't understand the struggles that we go through simply trying to engage students.
Engaging students..I agree with Olivia that teachers have a certain amount of responsibility, but it must also require the STUDENTS to put thew effort into working and learning and becoming engaged. I always feel guilty giving students too many worksheets. But how frustrating is it when you think you have this wonderful lesson planned and you use it in a real setting, the students seem disinterested and bored?
Julie makes a valid point about our lessons that we think are designed beautifully and then just fall flat. I've been intrigued for several years by the lower-acheiving students who would benenfit from these engaging lessons, but that seem to do better with busywork. Kay and I discussed this yesterday--why is it that our students that need those wonderfully designed lessons the most would much rather be left alone and allowed to fill-in-the-blank?
I agree wholeheartedly with the author that we create buffers in education. I think we all too often have the "protect our own" attitude and we "fear outside perception" and believe that "they can't possibly understand what we deal with." Perhaps it is time that we better educate the outside world and lawmakers.
Perhaps it is time that we look introspectively, and that we are open to peers and constructive criticism. Early in my career, I worked closely with other teachers, even team taught in a sixth grade classroom (but we really weren't a true team and we didn't base our lessons on data), but it wasn't until late in my career that I had an opportunity to work with budding true learning communities in two different schools. It was also at this point that I became very open to peer coaching and had the wonderful opportunity to attend the leadership institute in Greensboro where you truly had to look introspectively and constantly had feedback from others. These were the most remarkable experiences in my 26.5 years as an educator. We have so much expertise all around us if we will just let the buffer down and beg for that constructive feedback. Receiving it becomes your lifeline to improvement, even if it is a hard pill to swallow occasionally.
There's a lot to think about here-and lots of questions to ask ourselves, each other, and perhaps our students. Why are low-achieving students content with worksheets? I don't know. Perhaps it's because that's what they have been given in the lower grades in the name of "remediation." I have to sections of content recovery. Most of the students in these classes are the low-achieving students who have failed in regular classes. I've looked at the lessons; they are "worksheets" on computer. Do students have to think and analyze? To an extent. Do they have to be engaged with the literature that is assigned? No. Students can complete a lesson on five or six chapters of a novel and not have to read the novel itself. They can pass by reading excerpts. And the selections they are assigned? The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (my older son really liked this book because it made him think, but he is a high-achiever); The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (one of my all-time favorite books from high school English); Shakespeare--Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar. . . . All classics in the public domain. The reading is not necessarily appealing to the average reader. But why are these students succeeding in CR English and not in regular English classes? Perhaps it is because of the familiar format of the worksheet.
I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of engaging students. And I keep coming back to the idea that perhaps students are not engaged because they've never been taught how to think about a subject seriously, to generate their own questions, or to search for the answers to their own questions. We teachers have a tendency in our classrooms to be th experts in our content area, content to pour our knowledge into our students' minds, but rarely allowing them to process it and make it their own. And this is an area that I see as something I can improve upon.
The author stated that the most important people within and outside schools know very little about what actually goes on inside them and the buffer prevents them from knowing. But look at SC in the last 10 years, governors and other elected officals have used education as a way to get elected. Public education has taken serious hits the last few years and many outside influences have created change in our school system. Maybe our buffer is a result of this as much as anything else.
I do agree that standards are good for the teacher. It helps focus my lessons and gives me a runway to follow for my instruction. I find it had to believe that teachers do not follow their standards especially since our state has tied the future of public education to the state standards created this decade.
I also believe teachers as a matter of teacher "DNA" like to isolate themselves. I myself feel uneasy when principals visit my classroom, not because I fear constructive supervision but beacuse observations by prinicpals are viewed as a "I got you" or I'm here because you're not a good teacher.
Finally, the author speaks of the unmotivated students. We know we have students that are not motivated to learn but the vast majority of the time there are influences that are out of our control that affect students. We need open dialoge with community to help motivate our students and parents. We have to find a way to make education important in the home of these students. How?
After reading chapter one, I believe that the "buffer" stars between the outside world and the teacher. There appears to be very little encourage from parents to students to actually motivate the students to learn. Even though I am no longer in a classroom, I can remember very few times when I was contacted by a parent unless the student was having dicipline issues or failing. Very few parents come to IEP meetings to see how well their child has progressed during the IEP year. The second "buffer" I see is between teachers and teachers. We have been provided the opportunities by the administration to meet and discuss curriculum, students, lesson plans, etc. I am sure that different departments do a much better job than others, but I have not been excited about what I have taken part in within our department. Very little is discussed or planned for this time. No one appears to check to see if effective discussions are taking place.
How to engage students? I was fotunate when I was in the class room that I had very small classes. I had the time and opportunity to work individually with students to engage them in learning. I usually was the most successful when I could relate the standard to a life skill or career skill.
I hear teachers discussing the the lack of the motivated student on a daily bases. It is very discouraging and appears to get worse each year. Recently in an IEP meeting at another school, it was mentioned that the class (such as 10th grade) meetings are now being held. Teachers reported on the students that were successful and those that weren't. Strategies were discussed to try for each student that was not fairing well academically. This reminds me of the 9th grade academy last year. It maybe a lengthy process, but it also maybe worth while.
Part of me really wants to skip discussing the buffer - seems that the rest of you have covered it well. To appease our little group's leader ;-) I will add to the discussion by saying that here at NHS the buffer is all around us....between the school/world, teacher/admin, teacher/teacher....
As for how to motivate the "unengaged"...boy,I don't know. I thought I had a developed good system this last chapter - most seemed engaged and participatory. It worked really well for one student and many of my kids made comments about "do more chapters this way" but then I saw the grades. Just seems that very few of the kids see any value in being here. Even those that understand the whole "graduate to get into college or get scholarships or get better job" issue don't seem to get the value of the process of learning.
The buffer that Schmoker writes about occurs within the school and outside of it. There is definitely a lack of communication between administrators and teachers, between fellow teachers, and even between teachers and students. I think that the biggest factor is the buffer between teachers and parents. It sounds awful to say, but there seems to be a lack of parental support and/or positive influence in our students' lives. These kids come from places that Schmoker only glosses over in his writing. Yes, he mentions that there are poor schools in North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia that are out-performing other schools nationwide. That is wonderful. However, do those students in those schools have the total disregard for authority and learning that I see everyday in our hallways? Schmoker does not go into details on that point. Until the barrier between teachers and the parental community is lifted, no amount of wonderful instruction in the world is going to convert the abhorrent behaviors that students currently mimic into the acceptable behaviors desired by the professional world at large.
The other half of the buffer equation is the lack of communication between members within the education community, particularly within a school. I know I would love to have time to visit other teachers' classrooms and steal wonderful ideas in action, but most days, there simply isn't enough time to do that and prepare lessons, grade papers, contact parents, communicate with the guidance/administration, attend meetings, etc. Even the time that we are given for "common planning" is usually spent looking at asinine test scores or some other such nonsense required for the sake of "accountability." This lack of time seems to lead, more and more, to a lack of interest in sharing between and among teachers. While most of us would love to collaborate and create spectacular lessons, we really aren't given the time, or if we are, we aren't allowed to use it properly.
Of course, in addition to the lack of appropriate time for these things, there are other factors that contribute to the slippery slope of public education. Schmoker blames disengaged students on poor instruction. Of course poor instruction is a major factor, but socioeconomics and bad role-models can't be tossed out so simply. How do we engage the unengaged? I think we start with the lesson, as Schmoker suggests. If the lesson is heavy in worksheets, the students around here seem content, because this is what they are familiar with. Try using one of the Best Practice strategies and all hell breaks loose. It takes time to model good strategies, and along the way, many students will disengage themselves because they are in unfamiliar territory and dislike the idea of stepping outside of their established educational boundaries. Patience is a virtue for a reason (I think, I'm still working on it!). After much tooth-grinding, hair pulling, and unventable frustration, the students will get there. You have to pick your battles. Every activity/assignment/project will not appeal to every student every time. And, no matter how wonderful your instruction, some students will refuse to do anything. At this age, you give them a choice and leave the responsibility for learning up to the student. Even more importantly, I think is this: Is it better to have 1 disengaged student quietly refusing his/her work and allowing the rest of the class to complete their assignment, OR should we battle with that student and disrupt the rest of the students who are engaged? What are the rules here? (Is there a rulebook, and, if there is, does anyone have a copy?)
Also, as an end note, I'm hoping this book gets to the point soon, because so far I've only seen a lot of negativity, a few random statistics, and promises that there are ways to change education for the better, but no concrete strategies or descriptions of how to bring about this change.
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