What Teachers Are Talking About This Week
May 26, 2016 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
 At a Tea for Teachers event held last week, Secretary John King convened top teacher leaders from schools around the country, consistent with his priority of elevating the teaching profession. Among those in attendance were teachers at teacher-run schools, principals who empower their teachers, and a participant at a recent Teach to Lead summit. On teacher leadership, King has said, "We don't just want educators to be part of the necessary change -- we need them to lead it."
|
 VOICE FROM THE CLASSROOM
Jeff Austin was on his school's design team and now serves as the coordinator and economics and government teacher at Social Justice Humanitas Academy in Los Angeles. One of the teacher leaders at last week's Tea for Teachers, he describes what it looks like when teachers "have the power and autonomy to find and implement solutions" in this entry on our Homeroom blog. "Instead of pushing ideas down to classrooms, we need leaders outside of the school to support teacher-inspired and teacher-powered innovation," he writes.
|
Every so often, doom-and-gloom stories of our students falling behind those in other countries come along. But one bright spot in our education system, according to TechInsider, is how some of the most cutting-edge learning takes place on U.S. soil. Indeed, on its list of the 14 most innovative schools are an Arizona school that gets all its energy from solar power, a California school that allows kids to pursue passion projects for 20 percent of classtime, and a school where students travel the world for "place-based learning activities" in places like Costa Rica and Greece.
While teachers are passionate about learning and improving their craft, traditional professional development can lead teachers to roll their eyes. The negative reaction, asserts Mississippi teacher Renee Moore, happens when that training is done to teachers instead of with or by them. Moore and a group of fellow teachers affiliated with the Center for Teaching Quality came up with a list of principles of good P.D., including relying on teacher-led teams to plan P.D. and making use of technology that enhances teacher collaboration across levels, subject areas, and schools.
Veteran California English teacher David B. Cohen reflected in an Education Week blog post about why May can be the toughest month for teachers (only two more May school days!). As the days get longer and hotter, each day brings a "final something - final chance to submit make up work, final performance, final game, final publication, final exam." Teachers also:
-
Look back on students' progress, final assessments, graduations, retirements
-
Look ahead at new class lists, new classrooms, new curricula, and new hires
-
Hold on to hopes of getting to the end of a unit; rules; our sanity
A major way to improve children's opportunities for success is by focusing not on the children themselves, but rather on the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the adults who surround them, argues Paul Tough in The New York Times. He draws on a study from Jamaica that finds that kids who were subject to home visits where researchers trained their parents in supporting them are earning an average of 25 percent more per year as adults than subjects whose parents didn't receive home visits.
 You've watched the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Now for those a little bit more left-brained, ESPN3 aired the nationwide MathCounts competition earlier this month -- and the questions were no joke. Edward Wan, a seventh grader from Lakeside Middle School in Seattle, took home the grand prize, which includes a $20,000 college scholarship and a trip to U.S. Space Camp. Check out some of the questions (and competitors' quick response times) here (Burke, Deadspin).
|
Finalists for 2016 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools
Three schools have been named finalists for the $250,000 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools, awarded to the best-performing charter management organization in the country. Gregory McGinity, executive director of The Broad Foundation said, “These three charter organizations are proving that all students can achieve at high levels, and we’re pleased to recognize their continuing progress.” The winner will be announced next month.
-
Success Academy Charter Schools is the largest public charter school network in New York City, with 34 elementary, middle and high schools serving 11,000 students.
-
IDEA Public Schools is a network of 44 elementary, middle and high schools in Texas that serves more than 24,000 students.
-
YES Prep is a network of 15 middle and high schools that serves more than 10,000 students in Houston.
|
 5. "If we have to convince students that the learning is relevant, is it truly relevant to them?" (Principal, Missouri).
4. "Teachers have to take control of the narrative around teaching. If we don't shape the message, others will" (Teacher, South Carolina).
3. "I have teacher eyes. I see lessons everywhere. Physics on the freeway. Art in the clouds. And hope in my students' eyes" (Teacher, Washington).
2. "The end of the school year can test a healthy culture. It takes everyone to protect it, to honor it, to keep kids at the heart of it" (Teacher, Arkansas).
1. "If your students' experience in school is the same as your experience in school decades ago, that is a problem. The world is different now than it was then. And you didn't like being taught that way anyway" (Teacher, Massachusetts).
|
|
