My professional goal for this year is to increase the number of professional journals/articles that I read and then reflect upon them with colleagues. I plan to share my reflections here on our blog and during my LD/ASD Communication meetings.
Today I recieved an email with a link to an article in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general. This article is about improving a very large high school (and its culture) by raising failing reading achievement scores. A small group of teachers got together on Saturdays and began brainstorming ideas for how to improve students' reading and writing skills. They decided to incorporate reading and writing into every content area including math and physical education. Like many new initiatives there were many skeptics, but after the school's test scores increased they saw their efforts paying off. The school went from only 1/4 of its students passing statewide exams 10 years ago to doing better on the reading assessments than 90% of the states other high schools in 2008.
I liked that teachers at this school said, "When you go to college..." and set that expectation in their students minds. I was wondering if that is that really the expectation we have for all of our students? As a special education teacher (students with ASD, EBD,SLD, and OHD), I often struggle with this. I feel it is my job to help students (and their parents) set realistic expectations for their future. But am I really helping them set realistic goals, so they can be successful or am I setting the bar too low?
Another quote that resonated with me was from David P. Driscoll, the state of MA education commissioner: “In schools, no matter the size — and Brockton is one of the biggest — what matters is uniting people behind a common purpose, setting high expectations, and sticking with it." Our school district is growing and changing (demographically) every year, which greatly impacts the culture of our school. I think our common purpose is to prepare students for graduating high school and whatever comes next. I think the struggle many of us face is how do we get there and/or do we all have to get there the same way? It seems like there are always new initiatives and strategies, but the amount of support they get varies. Many other teachers were commenting on this article through email today, and I understand their points of view. Sometimes we don't give these new initiatives a chance to work or enough time to see results. It takes time to "work out the kinks" and make "it" work for you. It also takes time to learn new things and encorporate them into our lessons/classrooms and there never seems to be enough time. One of the emails said we tend to say "This won't work" instead of "Let's make it work". I really like that attitude, "Let's make it work" and find a way or a solution instead of not even giving it a try. How can we expect our students to embrace new thoughts or ways of doing things if we can't do that ourselves?
Did you read this article? If so what did you think and what lessons can we learn?
