Entry #1: Learning names and faces,
and something about hearts and minds.
A new school year, a new position, a new acting principal and the
list goes on and on. Lots of changes at our school and in our district due
to a buy-out deal that encouraged many seasoned educators to retire. Add
to that the ever-present lure of the suburbs and once again, budget considerations
have set the tone for the opening of our urban schools.
There's a nervousness in the air as teachers try to adjust to new teaching
partners and new bosses. The worriers predict gloom and doom to anyone in
earshot. And it's hard to stay upbeat when you hear about yet another colleague
who has taken a job in the suburbs.
As I attended our first day's meeting I couldn't help but be anxious as
I made lists of all the tasks I needed to accomplish as a science leader,
mentor and now, as a tech teacher. My partner and I distributed a letter
to all the teachers and a "techno-gram" asking for their input
into our new program. We plan to use computer instruction to support the
project work which will be assigned in the other classrooms.
I not only want to teach kids to conduct web searches, I want to teach them
to be on the lookout for accuracy and reliability on the web. I read an
article about a student who claimed that Caesar had commissioned Michaelangelo's
work in the Sistine Chapel! The student read that little gem on another
student's web page and accepted it as the truth.
But before I get to any of the skills I hope to teach, there's the whole
big picture of setting the right tone in my classes and just getting to
know the at least 309 students I'll be working with this year.
On Thursday and Friday I was preoccupied with trying to meet the new teachers
and get things in order for Tuesday. I wrote my first-day letter to parents
and I even made my copies, but I didn't settle in to think about my plans
until about 4 am this morning. I woke up worried about just what it was
I was going to say and do and how I would even begin to learn everyone's
names. I've been thinking about the big picture of themes and skills for
months. I've even thought about managing so many discs, notebooks and grades,
but I hadn't thought much about day one and it was fast approaching.
Last week I read Ted
Sizer's piece on personalized learning in the September issue of Educational
Leadership and felt first defeated and later angry. Mr. Sizer states that
"we cannot teach students well if we do not know them well." His
article goes on to say that teachers should have responsibility for 50 students
max. Beyond 50, teachers can't give students enough time.
Not exactly what I needed to hear while trying to gear up for a dramatic
increase in the number of kids I'll be teaching. While I struggled against
being defensive, I was still angered by this unrealistic strategy. Of course
I agree that smaller classes and schools are better. I'm even willing to
exercise my voice and vote to demand them, but in the meantime I've got
these 309 young people who deserve a real shot at success.
Which brings me back to trying to figure out how I'm going to learn first
their names and faces and then something about their hearts and minds so
I can offer them an opportunity for some authentic, personalized learning.
Maybe I should actually thank Mr. Sizer for telling me it's impossible to
do my job, because now I'm even more determined to make it happen.
I know I can't do it alone. At 4 a.m., I started thinking of the activities
and questions I needed to pose to students and their families and the answers
I needed in order to get started. I'm going to ask the students to think
about their own learning styles, their strenghths and their weaknesses.
I'm going to think about my own, too.
I figure if we all share these thoughts, we can set up our environment to
produce the best possible results. It won't be easy. I don't think most
of my kids will have been asked to think about their own thinking and learning
in the past. They're used to teachers telling them how they think, how they
work , and so forth.
I'm going to have everyone design a large name tag complete with icons that
represent their areas of interest and success. The tags can be worn for
a week or so until I get names straight. I'm also going to have the students
fill out a survey to give me some of their family background and a measure
of their experience with computers.
I think I'll use a "Chalk Talk" as well, to get some anonymous
feedback about their vision of the best kind of learning environment. Even
my most reluctant kids usually get up to write during a "chalk talk"
because they don't have to sign their names or speak when we this strategy.
After we get focused on our ideal environment we'll turn our thoughts toward
goal setting and the merging of our goals and our vision for the classroom
so we can develop a plan of work for the first few months. If we then post
these plans on the easel, we'll be able to check our progress as a group.
I'm hoping that if we do all three of these activities the kids will begin
to believe that I really want them to share ownership of our space and program.
If we have shared responsibility, and I can facilitate rather than rule
over my classes, I know we'll make some significant progress.
I feel better already. It won't be easy, but it can be real if we form a
learning community.
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