Fresh-faced JCPS middle schoolers scurry from class to class, sharing
last-minute secrets with friends before they slide quickly into class with
seconds to spare. Jefferson County middle school staff members, on the other
hand, are fresh out of time. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, they're becoming
a bit frayed around the edges as they struggle through their long and important
journey to make middle schools work for all kids.
"Time is the main thing," says math teacher John DeBoe of Carrithers
Middle School, as he works to move his school out of "decline"
status. DeBoe needs time to learn new teaching techniques through intensive
professional development. Time to share what he is learning with colleagues
back at his school. Time to create engaging lessons for his students and
to devise better ways to measure their progress.
Time to collect the resources students need to learn in new ways. And time-lots
and lots of time-to scrutinize the work that students produce, peeling back
the layers to discover just how well they're learning and he's teaching.
Educators feel overwhelmed as they face their daily rush to survive. Teach
100 kids every day? 150 kids? Score page after page of written work and
give good feedback? Prepare for six, seven classes? And change the way you
teach at the same time? No way.
Volume is the enemy. Crushing workloads bury the vision of high standards
for all, and standards-rich, student-centered teaching fades not-so-gently
into the night.
Struggling to find solutions to time's mysteries, schools soon discover
many factors beyond their control. Adding several minutes to each day in
order to "bank" time so staff can have professional development
requires district level coordination, agreement among schools, and-worst
of all-changes in the bus and cafeteria schedule.
Adding faculty and increasing school budgets are often out of reach. So
how can schools find time to change? There's no magic wand handy, but there
is hope. Schools have untapped potential to create time within existing
resources. After all, KERA says that schools (through school councils)-not
districts-should control how time is used during the school day, how classes
and schedules are designed, how students and teachers are assigned.
Schools must begin by taking control of their own destiny. The basic idea?
Less is more. Personalize the learning environment by reducing the high
volume, never-changing treadmill.
Design ways to reduce the total number of students that teachers see each
day, learn new ways to reduce the paperwork volume, and find new strategies
to make better use of preparation time.
Be flexible. Create different kinds of schedules, depending on what makes
sense for various kinds of learning activities. By thinking differently
about school organization, educators can eliminate the assembly line mentality
that drives each day and focus in-depth on teaching and learning.
Here are a few ideas to start middle schools on their way:
== Create two-person, interdisciplinary teaching teams. Let these teachers
work with 60 students each day instead of 100 to 150 students. Teaching
fewer students per day allows staff to personalize and intensify instruction.
== If you have four-teacher teams, you can still cut volume and personalize
core instruction. Students don't have to "take" every subject
every day. Let half of the students focus full attention on math and science
while others learn language arts and social studies. Then switch-after one
day, after several days, or after a week or more, depending on the learning
activity. Use this method to cut daily scoring time and to stretch lesson
plans and materials for twice as long with much less than twice the effort.
== Design interdisciplinary block schedules, similar to high school blocks,
rather than moving students from class to class for six, seven, or eight
periods a day. Integrate the variety of content into core courses, rather
than teaching every subject in separate bits. Every time students move,
you lose learning time. Furthermore, teachers' preparation time increases
as the number of separate courses they teach increases.
== Use the state-released test items and rubrics as prompts for student
work, rather than focusing all your attention on creating new tasks. Shift
most of your initial time and attention to helping students improve their
work until it meets standards. Use tools that are already available, as
you learn to develop strong, juried performance tasks that can be shared
districtwide.
== Develop re-usable rubrics, using the KIRIS writing portfolio rubric as
a starting place. By developing good, focused rubrics for each standard
using a common format, teachers can avoid duplicating effort as they work
in teams to create a powerful, standards-driven tool that can be used again
and again.
The ideas are limitless. Develop schoolwide resources that all teachers
access rather than having each teacher driving around the community collecting
materials for units of study. Put computers on rolling carts so you can
create instant libraries in your classrooms. Harness the power in little
things, and make big gains in learning.
Time management is a puzzle, a "math portfolio assignment" ripe
with possibilities for adult creativity and problem-solving. Take charge
and and make time so that everyone-kids, adults, and schools-can achieve
at high levels.