tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post7495825087562558336..comments2024-01-06T06:09:29.140-05:00Comments on An Urban Teacher's Education: Distraction Mattersjames boutinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625944306253098621noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-36331203617929641912012-10-06T21:40:04.813-04:002012-10-06T21:40:04.813-04:00Good point. People should argue more about the cla...Good point. People should argue more about the class part. james boutinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09625944306253098621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-17837456987514377862012-10-06T21:30:38.257-04:002012-10-06T21:30:38.257-04:00The class size arguments naturally go back and for...The class size arguments naturally go back and forth about size, but what about the class part? I'm continually surprised that we still think that sticking one adult in a room full of children is an invigorating learning environment for either adult or child.<br /><br />People have been learning for thousands of years in a few basic ways: purposeful trial and error, by accident, and from experienced others, often in intergenerational groups. The motivation to learn in the past probably was the result of an immediate practical use or simply a natural interest. Our modern idea of legally compelling children to sit in a room (or several consecutive rooms) with their same-age peers and learn arbitrarily divvied-up curricula is a relatively new idea in the human history of learning. I think it's a tired one, but somehow it's become sacrosanct. I certainly don't see how it reinforces democratic principles.<br /><br />Maybe it's not simply your distracted students or the quality of your management skills, but also the absurd environment we work in. I taught for 15 years and now, as a principal, I am trying to promote our teachers' "professional development" in meaningful, "embedded" ways. The truth is, though, despite all of the collaboration, professional learning communities, critical friends, etc., adults working in schools still spend the vast majority of their time alone with children. I don't think that's a recipe for professional growth or for student learning. <br /><br />For affluent children, it doesn't really matter since they have learning opportunities outside of school; besides, the system works for them. For poor students, it's often a waste of their time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-45718464918571145292011-11-30T09:18:41.684-05:002011-11-30T09:18:41.684-05:00This entry is why I liked (and still like) the nam...This entry is why I liked (and still like) the name Reflective Educator. Most of us would just beat ourselves up over not getting our weekend or holiday work done and then go back to school on Monday trying to catch up with the never ending stacks of paperwork. Not all educators would relate their own lack of ambition on the weekend to their students.<br /><br />There's a reason for distractions...a place for them and a purpose to them. I agree that distractions restrict the amount of curriculum which can be covered in a classroom...and that those distractions increase as the class size increases. You acknowledged the reasons for the distractions...the needs of the students. Disruptive (aka "needy") students can't repress those needs. <br /><br />The problem is not you. You can make the best lessons ever...dance your greatest dances and tell your best jokes...the effects of unmet basic needs in a child's life (or adult's life, for that matter) will not be changed by your teaching ability or bag of tricks. There are, of course, ways of distracting them from their disruptiveness...and, as a former primary grade teacher I know some of those tricks (which, btw, don't always work). The problem is the combination of too many unmet needs, too many students, not enough space, and not enough support from the outside world.<br /><br />Most of us start our teaching careers with the goal of changing our students' lives for the better...and somewhere along the way we realize that, if we're lucky, we'll be instrumental in changing SOME students' lives. It's a disappointment that we have to live with and adjust to. It helped me to read the Starfish story (http://www.starrbrite.com/starfish.html) and post it in my classroom next to my desk. <br /><br />Over the years it also helped to hear from former students...the student who was struggling as a first grader whose parents told me that I was the change he needed to learn to read...the student who wrote to me from his prison cell and told me that I helped him make the Father's Day card that was the last communication he had ever had with his father...the student who told me that I had inspired her to become a teacher. Those are the things which will helped me realize that I had made a difference. <br /><br />I know that it takes years to get to that point and there's a lot of soul searching and "reflecting" that goes into surviving all those years. Moving from school system to school system...and from state to state will delay that as well. Teaching children of poverty will also limit the number of students who will eventually come back to tell you about the difference that you made in their lives. So you have to look for that difference yourself, note it, and reflect on that. You have to convince yourself and prove to yourself, day after day, year after year, that you do make a difference.<br /><br />You have an extremely difficult job despite what the corporate reformers and the ignorant pundits tell you. It's true that we, as a nation, can and should do more to make our classrooms better places for learning...and class size is an important factor in that. However, just like your students, there was a purpose for your distraction last weekend. "Nothing to show for it, except" the insight into your students distractablitily? I disagree. <br /><br />You also gave your brain and your emotional strength time to recoup from the day to day stresses of being a teacher in order 1) to come to the conclusion you made relating your distraction to theirs, and 2) to meet your own physical and emotional needs. When you meet your own needs you are a better teacher for your students. Ignoring your own self-care doesn't help your students and leads to burnout. If you want to be a teacher who continues to make a difference year after year, you need to take care of yourself as well as your students.Stuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15854925612517206979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-81712089091618351912011-11-30T08:52:12.978-05:002011-11-30T08:52:12.978-05:00Yes James smaller class sizes is expensive, but so...Yes James smaller class sizes is expensive, but so was spending a trillion dollars on NCLB/RTTT reforms. We have the money, but our leaders lack the will. Our policy makers and politicians demand people follow the data. Well, examining NEAP and SAT scores of our 17-year olds reveals the lowest scores in three decades. One wonders when these people will start following their own data?<br />What we have with NCLB is the most massive reform failure in American education history.The achievement cap is not shrinking it is growing.<br />Class size matters, and we have the money to reduce class size. Lets just do it, and follow the data for a change. At the very least every student deserves a chair and a desk of their own. <br />Jesse Turner<br />Children Are More Than Test ScoresJesse Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02556420250629971130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-80376089641181114032011-11-29T23:32:21.416-05:002011-11-29T23:32:21.416-05:00great column. thanks! Leoniegreat column. thanks! LeonieLeonie Haimsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17317355552298136811noreply@blogger.com