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TOPIC: TEACHERS ROLE IN EDUCATIONAL CHANGE

Lesson Element .1: ATeacher=s Responsibility@

ì The Teacher=s Role in Educational Change is Crucial.

Teachers need to understand this in order to feel empowered in the classroom.

Empowerment enables the teacher to do many things:

Systematic experimentation

Very important part of ongoing classroom teaching.
If no systematic experimentation, teachers can grow old on the job.

Systematic experimentation includes varying the material and procedures.

Can be as simple as finding new ways to get the kids to put their names on papers.
Can be as complicated as fully restructuring the entire class.

Can experiment in timing of classes teaching the same material.

Offset allows the teacher to evaluate the success of the method used and modify the method for better results, before the same material is presented to another class.
Provides you feedback on your effectiveness.

Allows the teacher to selectively focus attention on individual students.

Effective teachers find a way to focus on many individual students.

Allows the teacher to try new methods in content.

Times change and so should the material presented.

You choose what kind of relationship you want to have with your students.

You select the type of demeanor you expect in the classroom.
You set the rules and are in control.
Kids need to know the rules, don=t surprise them...You won=t like the result if you do.
Put yourself in their shoes. They must have confidence in you. They must believe that you have their best interests at heart.

Lesson Element .2: AImproving Yourself As A Teacher@

Systematic Risk:

The teacher is always at some degree of risk.

Not all teachers choose to recognize this risk.

Whenever there is a change, there is an element of risk.

Not every change is an improvement.

Managed failure is a very important thing.

Not everything you try will work.

This is inevitable regardless of your years of teaching experience.

There is no way to avoid risk. But you can make the failure less important.

Team up with colleagues for mutual observation and trial.

Sadly this doesn=t happen much in current school climate.
Rarely do teachers work together.

Constructive change doesn=t emerge without feedback. Feedback is the starting point for all constructive change.

What you do with the feedback is important.

It allows you to have systematic mutual staff development.
It allows you to work together to develop strategies, and to cooperate in terms of making the strategies work.
Trial and error are a productive part of the process.
Mistakes can be good and in our best interest in many situations. They are not all bad.

Lesson Element .3: APolicy Making (As Well As Implementing)@

Don=t Wait for Someone to Take Charge of Educational Change.

Use your discretion, use your judgement, and follow those judgements.

Take responsibility for your life and have the confidence to make mistakes.

Mentoring is Important to Junior Staffers.

However, don=t wait until the senior staffers come to you.

Seek out as much help as you can from senior staffers. Don=t be passive.

As you become senior, extend the courtesy to the new junior staffers.

Do Not Ignore the Value of Student Feedback.

If you know what the students are thinking, then you are better prepared to deal with it.

Use the 2 + 2 method. Two compliments and two suggestions.

Some of the comments will be useful, and some will not.

Staff Development is An Area Ripe for Change.

Unfortunately, the current system is stupid.

Teachers are expected to remain up-to-date, but they are also expected to foot the bill and use their own time to remain current.

The proper place to do that is during the school year, not the summertime.

The Role of the Teacher in Parent Education is a Vital One.

Most teachers don=t think they have a role in parent education. They are wrong.

It=s wrong for the teacher to be remote from the parents and community.

Parents can do a lot in supporting you as the teacher. But they need to be informed as to what you are attempting to do.

The school should be a resource for the parents as well as the students.

The Teacher=s Role As A Policy Maker.

Many teachers believe that they do not have a role in policy making.

They view themselves as implementers, not policy makers.

But teachers know more about the kids than anyone else.

Teachers need to realize that their opinions are very important.

Teachers are also public advocates. They need to seel schools to the public.

If you can get the public behind the schools, then budgets and salaries may well go up.

Lesson Element .4: AReasonable Professionalism@

You Have a Responsibility to Yourself to Have a Sense of Integrity. You Also Have a Responsibility to Understand the Criteria for Success.

Some teachers are assigned to tougher schools than other teachers.

If you are in a suburban school, you can fail and never know it.
The kid=s family support group programs them for success.
if you are in an inner-city school, determining a criterion for success can be difficult.

What criterion for success is appropriate?

The criterion is going to change in different circumstances.
In many classes, the student may have to work hard to fail.
In other classes, the student will have to work hard to fully succeed.
Example: If you get a student that is reading at a level three years behind his/her peers, what should be the criteria of success?
Should it be getting them up to the level of the peers?
More realistically, if you can get them six months ahead of where they were, then you have succeeded. They have taken the first steps toward learning.

Teachers Must Also Have a Sense of Reasonableness.

No matter what you do, it will appear that you do not have enough time to accomplish everything you would like to do.

From this fact springs the need to have a sense of reasonableness.

People who do a poor job never have to worry about reasonableness.

It is the people who do a top job that need to have this sense of reasonableness.

If you are spending 50+ hours a week trying to get everything done, then you need to develop the sense of reasonableness.
Figure out how to work smarter and spend about forty hours a week.

We also have to figure out how to make productive futures for our students.

The need to see themselves in the future.
We need to help the students feel that education is a way to produce a productive future.