Last Friday I continued writing about best practice and best field, challenging readers to describe their ideas about best field. You see, there is so much talking and writing, and preaching done about best practices (what teachers do), but almost no talk about what I’m calling best field, or the conditions of the learning environment that would be most conducive to effective student learning. I challenged readers to describe their ideas of the ideal classroom, and was, quite frankly, disappointed. A number of readers very compellingly described why the learning environments of our students must change, but what I was looking for was specifics. If we are to make changes in the field of teaching, then we need some specifics, AND THEY NEED TO BE BOLD.
How’s this?
Every teacher has three to four hours of supported professional planning time every day.
Now think about the classroom, the learning experiences, the possibilities, the learning that could happen if teachers had three or four hours to plan each day — and they could actually enjoy their families at night!
If we are not willing to at least consider changes this dramatic, then we’ll continue to flounder.
Yesterday, I posted an announcement on the blog at Technology & Learning Magazine. It said…
So,I’ve decided to resurrect an old online project that I’ve been running for the past eight years. It’s called The New Century School House. The web site represents an old 1950s style school building that has been totally gutted of all relics of industrial age education. It is an empty shell. I want to invite you to come to the building and to adopt a room — repurposing that classroom (or library) for new century teaching and learning.
Techlearning blog: New Century School House
I want to invite you to go to the TechLearning blog site, read the announcement and participate in reinventing education, by adopting a classroom and describing what you think teachers and students should be doing for students to become world-ready.
technorati tags:bestpractice, bestfield, warlick, technology, education
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Dave – You’re asking a time consuming, deep thinking question during a busy time of year – I find it intriguing, but have not even had time to gather my thoughts much less put them down semi-coherently. I suspect the same is true of others.
Just brainstorming. 🙂
Every student gets a laptop and at least dial-up access through the district. Standard image includes electronic copies of all textbooks continuously updated, and a full range of productivity and instructional software..
Every student gets email provided by the district.
Every student gets web space with complete support for database, middleware, wiki, and blog.
No filters. Guide students to make good choices. Don’t simply remove the opportunity to make a bad one. No technical solutions for social/cultural problems.
Information technology and instructional technology are autonomous of each other and interdependent upon each other.
No teacher/class home pages, but rather class wikis and blogs hosted by the district.
Throw away overhead projectors. Buy LCD projectors.
Interactive whiteboard in every classroom.
Information literacy is required for certification.
Information literacy is required for graduation.
One dedicated instructional technologist for every ten teachers.
Dedicated technical support for every 50 computers.
20 students per class. Period, no exceptions.
1 assistant per teacher.
Instructional support meetings each week. One group and one individual.
(maybe I’ll think of some more later)
Point taken, Brian, and you are absolutely right to make it. It is a bad time to be asking this question, and perhaps a good time. I just need to be more patient. It’s the reason I re-introduced .
Mattandi covers a lot of territory in his comment. One that jumped out at me was an assistant for every teacher. I’ve often wondered about a para-professional level of educator. There would probably be as many of them as their are of master teachers, or more. They would be qualified to teach a class, perform assessment, and mostly what teachers are already doing. Master teachers would be able and responsible for more.
That said, what is it that master teachers could do for schools, classrooms, teaching, and learning, that teachers, as they are, can’t do. What could a teacher with three or four hours of planning time each day, and flexible schedule do?
Dave,
I wonder who “we” are. Are you talking about society, boards of ed., classroom teachers, experimental educators? It seems like an important question because there are so many fragments of we there seems to be no way to form a consensus. I’m told that Howard Gardner once remarked, “What’s the chance that Jesse Helms, Jesse Ventura (professional wrestler and former gov. of MN) and Jesse Jackson would agree on what school should be like”.
mattandi above gave some solid suggestions. I think the problem may be deeper–more fundamental. Here is my brainstormed list.
No more vocabulary from the industrial age, i.e. classroom, classroom teacher, school. We need to create learning environments where every learner (including adult learners) have an ongoing individual learning plan.
Learning is not compulsory after 10th grade.
More art and industrial arts available for learners.
Community experiences (apprenticeships, service learning, working, etc) are woven into learning plans.
Learning environments are accessible from 7 a.m. till 7 p.m. all year round (closed for holidays–but which holidays, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish? Students and families make up their minds and are scheduled accordingly.
Attendance is not mandatory. The 8-3 day is obselete. What drives the learning time are learning plans.
The presumption that kids are worthy, interesting and interested human beings, oriented toward growing toward responsible adulthood needs to replace the debilitating game of school where teachers (adults in charge) pretend to teach and kids (immature beings that must be guided with an iron hand) pretend to learn.
Classes and groups taught by interested community people, i.e. art, good nutrition, first aid, cpr, yoga, meditation and a whole lot more I think that could be named.
Local school boards abolished in favor of a more responsible form of governance like a county or region or a state. Local boards are too narrow minded, political, and tend toward disastrous micromanagement.
One pension fund for teachers so work can be portable–you;re not tied to a particular district.
State-wide health-care plans so benefits are equalized and portable as well, not tied to any particular district.
Nice question, Dave. I think there are some other things as well–this is only a start. The idea of schooling needs to be replaced with the idea of learning–and that is a mental model that is going to be hard to change for lots of people.
Skip Olsen
Skip,
I love your list. I may copy this out to one of my upcoming blogs!
Please consider adopting a room at the
Just wondering how the discussion is going in deep – just one small addition to the said before:
Let’s give the students the experience of something like “beeing worldwide connected” beside all the other local and nevertheless important things. This could be a bridge to new skills, affords and acting.
Andreas
Skip said “The presumption that kids are worthy, interesting and interested human beings, oriented toward growing toward responsible adulthood needs to replace the debilitating game of school where teachers (adults in charge) pretend to teach and kids (immature beings that must be guided with an iron hand) pretend to learn.”
Kudos Skip!
Flexibility seems to be an undercurrent to suggestions so far.
Dave, in keeping with your later post about our govenor calling for audits, many bold suggestions are often met with financial or budgetary objections such as “We simply can’t afford that.” Maybe not if all we do is add it to what is already happening. Fundamentally rethink what school is all about and completely restructure what school means and I suggest it won’t cost any more than it already does.
Dave,
I don’t think we want paras teaching classes and assessing students, although it happens in some places. That’s the work of teachers, and for many reasons, both financial and professional, we should keep those responsibilities. That doesn’t mean teachers wouldn’t welcome more planning time or an assistant. Then we certainly have more time to communicate with eachother and reflect on the important questions you’re posing. I’m with you there.
Barry
Barry,
Let me try to put this delecately. But what I’m wondering is that current teachers become the paraprofessionals — four year degrees, but work stops at 3:30, summers off, all that good stuff.
No I’m just brainstorming here. I think we need to think way outside the box.
The masters would then get a higher (30% – 40% more) salary, work until 5:00 every day and through the summer, be responsible for materials development, research, collaboration, professional development, a bunch of tasks that I’m wondering about. What might a master teacher with flexible scheduling, extended work day, etc. do that would impact on classroom learning.
It’s sort of what was envisioned several years ago with career ladder program here in North Carolina. The problem seemed to be, what would they do to have impact. The world as changed since then, and we have the Internet. What could master teachers do today?
— dave —
Dave,
Most teachers already work until 5:00 and beyond as time in on weekends. I’m sure you know that. Most of what you’re talking about is happening in my district and many others, and the pay should be 30-40% higher. Expectations of teachers and students continue to rise without adequate support, and that “support” needs to be defined by teachers. A good start would be looking closely at Richard Allington’s ideas about seriously limiting interruptions to instructional time. It’s surprising how “outside the box” something as fundamental as that is when talking to school administrators and district policy-makers. Still, it’s a great topic, and I’m hopeful.
Barry
Bingo, Barry!
Of course good teachers are already working until 5:00, into the night, during weekends, and all that. There are also teachers who walk out the door at 3:30 (or what ever), enjoy the two-weeks at Christmas and the two-months of summer, and it’s the reason they became teachers. They do not really consider themselves professionals and do not want to.
I’m suggesting (again this is brainstorming) that we acknowledge this distinction and establish a paraprofessional level who leaves at 3:30 and enjoys 2 months off, and a master teacher level who works till 5:00 (hour off for lunch) and works through the summer with vacation time — like other professionals.
I’m suggesting that we restructure these teachers’ day and year so that they are doing the work that they are already doing, but without sacrificing their families, their health, and their students, as these teachers are leaving the profession in droves where I come from.
I think the reason for the disagreement between Dave and Barry centers on the idea of teacher as classroom leader versus teacher as curriculum developer and academic.
i can imagine a great deal of good coming out of a situation where the master teacher, as Dave describes, is preparing the general curriculum for a collection of folks who might actually be delivering the instruction. I can imagine a classroom where twenty or thirty students study under three or four para-teachers at one time, while the classroom teacher does the work of curriculum planning, goal setting, and paying attention to what’s going on in the world so that the classroom can be responsive to the world in real time — not in multi-year intervals.
I really don’t know the specifics of what something like that would look like, but I can tink of several ways to incorporate choice, voice, and student passion into a single classroom wher,e at any one time, there were five or more activities that a student could choose to be involved in. Also, it’s much more realistic to involve students in self-paced work, not busy work, but actual student-directed reading, writing, thinking, and learning, when there are four or five adults in the room that can move among the students and help to redirect and guide their inquiry.
A classroom, in this model, would need meaningful access to the outside world — some sort of room projection, computers for all of the students (preferably portable, but not necessarily), space for small group meetings, space for large group meetings, side rooms for multiple purposes (meetings, recording, production, editing, etc.), and reasonably comfortable moveable furniture. I think tables and chairs would suffice.
I’m beginning to ramble, and the stars in my eyes are beginning to block my view of the screen, so I’ll move on.
Great conversation here on this topic. I really like the ‘master teacher’ concept and know of some districts here in NC that are discussing this concept with folks like the NC School of Science and Math – but the bottom line becomes dollars. This ties back into Governor Easley’s issues about how are we spending resources in our schools?
I hate to do this but I am going to digress to my soapbox a minute and then come back with some solutions (brainstorm ideas). Funding for public education is a very complex dynamic in the bigger scheme of things. State level funding has continued to be supportive as I strongly feel that our state leaders and politicians for the most part ‘get it’ – which translates to public schools DRIVE economic development. It has taken a long time to get there but we’re at least smelling the coffee on this one. Where the rub comes is locally. Local governments specifically in rural areas don’t understand the URGENCY of transforming public education as they don’t see the direct correlation to economic development. Why are we still trying to recruit low wage, low skill manufacturing jobs and putting our resources into attracting them with tax incentives? Put the money into transforming our schools into 21st century learning engines that resemble what a global economy looks like! Turning our schools into flexible, technology-rich and relevant learning communities will attract the global companies that are looking for creative entrepreneurs that understand how to find information and transform it into something real that solves problems. OK, so what does this translate into that could be tangible?
More up to date technology in the schools, less textbooks and more ‘digital information’, teachers who have the time to plan/teach and aren’t burdened with so much paperwork and professional development that WE think they need (they know what they need and we need to listen), curriculum that is dynamic and relative to the workplace needs. Bottom line, student-centered project-based learning! It’s going to take time and funding to do – the current model doesn’t work.
I think you’re right about the disagreement, Bud, but it seems best to keep the master teachers in the classroom in front of the students. The classroom should be the priority, shouldn’t it? If you ask teachers in the classroom why they became teachers and stay in the classroom they’ll tell you it’s because they like working with kids and want to make a difference, and that’s what we should be promoting…Dave, I hope you’re not as contemptuous of teachers as you sound and wouldn’t begrudge a summer and xmas break to those master teachers who want and need it. Or maybe they can do something less intense than classroom teaching at those times like curriculum development, consulting and attending conferences and graduate classes. But I think we all know that’s happening already, and if you really think teachers aren’t the hard workers “other professionals” are, see who’s on the golf course before 5:00 PM next opportunity.
I’m in no way suggesting that we keep them out of the classrooms — but I AM suggesting that one advantage of sharing a space with multiple adults would be the ability of the master teacher to leave from time to time for long-range planning, meeting with community members, and a ton of other tasks that should be done by someone with a master plan for the classroom.
I’m also in no way suggesting that a “master teacher” (not even sure if I like that title) should be working “extra” hours. I think David/Dave (forgive the extra familiarity) was suggesting that the master teacher keep regular business hours much like other professionals, instead of working long into the night, as I will be doing this evening (and lots of other ones, too) to get my grading done after I meet with my parents for parent/teacher conferences.
I too agree with everything mattandi said. And I totally think that those of us in the tech field have the vision. On a good day, the teachers we work with agree with us. In my small corner of the world, the problem seems to be not so much the tools or the space or the teachers role but rather the how do I do that? We need to think about the curriculum and the bridge that needs to be in place to get us to the next generation of schools. We also need to spend some time helping teachers figure out how to assess the new version of learning. Even with iMovie, it became readily apparent that a lot of the learning was found in the clip that we were put on the editing room floor. Kids learned a ton in deciding what NOT to include and thats hard to grade.
I agree with the statement somewhere on your blog that we should do away with grades. It makes alternative assessment easier!
We talk alot about the job history has to do. How do they teach what we couldn’t learn (I’m 40) in our high school years given that they have 55 more years to cover (basing that on the fact that we got to 1950)….and they have added another half of the globe. They have to get out of the western hemisphere. In some ways the computer and internet are to history what the graping calculator was to math. How do they determine what history curriculum is essential and allow kids to make choices so they get essential concepts and apply them to a global world? How do they connect with math and science to make connections about the world and what humankind is doing to it using tools like Stella and GIS?
I’m fortunate to have a great faculty working with me. They let me sit in, make suggestions, have a go at a day of class in a different way using technology. I’ve got a private independent school department giving up on final exams in favor of a tech based, open ended research project that centers around learning on a wiki. In other words, I’ve got teachers trying….and even better I’ve got kids helping them try. I have a great group of kids who want to see technology used more, and they are asking us for things. A group asked for a wiki to prepare and discuss study guides and questions.
I’m impatient for change..but i see it coming…
I’ll add more, its late, but you have me thinking and I felt compelled to start contributing..and I’m basically shy…….even in the digital world, we can have a personality:)
I find it interesting how this “bold” suggestion is ultimately very conservative.
Those of us who believe that a deschooling approach is ultimately the better objective will wonder at the need to entrench the position of teacher, as this suggestion does.
Surely the internet offers ways to get out of the teacher-student paradigm, and to move toward something more empowering for the learner.
But this suggestion makes that ideal even less likely.
I’ve read the above comments with interest and presented as much as I could afford the space for to the audience of my blog in my Weekly Roundup.
Coming from a UK perspective, the post of Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) is around 2-3 years old now. Obstensibly this is to free teachers for their mandatory 10% Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time, but in reality is a cost-cutting measure: HLTAs are a lot cheaper than supply teachers or employing a fully-qualified teacher to cover various other teachers’ PPA times.
At the moment I am teaching half a timetable whilst on full pay in my new school. Whilst I am expected to do more than the average amount of cover, I have a much greater amount of time which I class as PPA. This gives me just about the right amount of time to devote the attention each class deserves in terms of preparation and assessment.
There are noises in the UK press today that the current education secretary wants to extend school hours into Saturday, as independent (private) schools do here. On the contrary, I believe that we should be reducing the number of hours students spend in school and focus on greater quality, not greater quantity…
I love it. So what did I say the other da… oh. Yeah. Did I say that? Such a shame one couldn not do that for our brains. A replay button? Nah.
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