Cooperative learning develops social and emotional skills, providing a valuable foundation for their lives as workers, family members, and citizens. Reality Check : In Eeva Reeder's tenth-grade geometry class at Mountlake Terrace High School, near Seattle, student teams design "schools of the future" while mentoring with local architects.
They manage deadlines and resolve differences to produce models, budgets, and reports far beyond what an individual student could accomplish. Expand : Comprehensive Assessment Assessment should be expanded beyond simple test scores to instead provide a detailed, continuous profile of student strengths and weaknesses. Teachers, parents, and individual students can closely monitor academic progress and use the assessment to focus on areas that need improvement.
Tests should be an opportunity for students to learn from their mistakes, retake the test, and improve their scores. Reality Check: At the Key Learning Community, in Indianapolis, teachers employ written rubrics to assess students' strengths and weaknesses using categories based on Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences, including spatial, musical, and interpersonal skills. Coach : Intellectual and Emotional Guide The most important role for teachers is to coach and guide students through the learning process, giving special attention to nurturing a student's interests and self-confidence.
As technology provides more curricula, teachers can spend less time lecturing entire classes and more time mentoring students as individuals and tutoring them in areas in which they need help or seek additional challenges. Reality Check : Brooklyn fifth-grade teacher Sarah Button uses exercises and simulations from the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program with her students, helping them learn empathy, cooperation, positive expression of feelings, and appreciation of diversity.
Learn : Teaching as Apprenticeship Preparation for a teaching career should follow the model of apprenticeships, in which novices learn from experienced masters.
Student teachers should spend less time in lecture halls learning educational theory and more time in classrooms, working directly with students and master teachers. Teaching skills should be continually sharpened, with time to take courses, attend conferences, and share lessons and tips with other teachers, online and in person.
Reality Check : Online communities such as Middle Web, the Teacher Leaders Network, and the Teachers Network bring novice and expert educators together in a Web-based professional community. The online mentorship gives novice teachers access to accomplished practitioners eager to strengthen the profession at its roots. Adopt : Technology The intelligent use of technology can transform and improve almost every aspect of school, modernizing the nature of curriculum, student assignments, parental connections, and administration.
Online curricula now include lesson plans, simulations, and demonstrations for classroom use and review. With online connections, students can share their work and communicate more productively and creatively. Teachers can maintain records and assessments using software tools and stay in close touch with students and families via email and voicemail. Schools can reduce administrative costs by using technology tools, as other fields have done, and provide more funds for the classroom.
Instead, they plan, research, and implement their experiments using material gathered online from reliable chemistry resources. The following 10 strategies for improving schools provide a starting place for administrators seeking to offer fresh, engaging activities to all members of the school community.
It will also deal with challenges that the school is facing and needs that you have. Why: Writing the newspaper column will allow the public the opportunity to see what is going on within the school on a weekly basis. It will allow them the opportunity to see both the successes and obstacles that the school is facing.
How: Every third Thursday night of each month from 6 p. Each teacher will design games or activities geared toward the particular subject area they are teaching at the time. Parents and students will be invited to come in and participate in the activities together. How: Each Thursday, a group of 10 parents will be invited to eat lunch with the principal.
They will have lunch in a conference room and talk about issues that are current at the school. Why: This allows parents the opportunity to become comfortable with administrators and teachers and to express both concerns and positive thoughts about the school. It also allows the school to be more personalized and gives parents the opportunity to provide input. How: Every nine weeks, 10 eighth-graders will be selected to participate in the greeter program.
There will be two students greeting per class period. Those students will greet all visitors at the door, walk them to the office, and assist them as needed. Why: This program will make visitors feel more welcome. It will also allow the school to present a more friendly and personalized environment. Good first impressions are important. With friendly greeters at the door, most visitors will come away with a good first impression.
How: Each month, teachers will get together and bring food for a potluck lunch. There will be door prizes at each of these lunches. Teachers are free to socialize with other teachers and staff while enjoying good food.
Why: This will allow the staff to sit down together once a month and relax while they eat. It will provide an opportunity for relationships and friendships to develop, and a time for the staff to pull together and have some fun. How: The teacher of the month will be voted on by the faculty. That means mapping out how much time you intend to spend with students.
I would suggest meeting with each student once a month for 10 minutes. Your classroom environment might dictate the logistics of the meeting. Inform students on the first day of class about your plans to meet with them one on one. Emphasize in your plan that your objective is to work with each student as an individual to improve their academic skills.
The skills such as critical thinking , ability to question, writing, and speaking should be listed. Urge students to show their parents all the written material you gave them on the first day of class. Communicating with parents might help you avoid the problem of one-on-one meetings with students in classes when their classmates can hear the conversation. Privacy is essential for effective meetings. Post-school meetings without the consent of parents and students is disrespectful. Meetings in your office during study halls are also possible.
Students can be quick to conclude that you have favorites if you spend more time with some of them. You can still make yourself available to students who seek your help outside the format of the one-on-one meetings, but make it percent clear that you encourage all your students to seek this kind of help.
During the school year, you will learn which students need to be treated with kid gloves. Let your students talk before you do. This is particularly important in your first meeting. Let the students tell you who they are. You want to know each student well before giving them advice. Take notes so you can remember details about the students. Make it clear in future meetings that you remember specific facts about your students.
Students will feel more respected if you know and understand them. Be clear that you will insist on high expectations throughout the school year. For some inexplicable reason, many students -- and adults -- consider taking notes a sign that your memory is deficient. The students already know you are taking notes. Tell them why and urge them to also take notes. Emphasize that your advice and feedback to them will be very specific so they should write down the highlights and consult their notes as they seek to improve their skills.
These meetings are about helping each student. During the school year, some students will improve more than others. Although you want your students to reveal who they are so you can help them learn, it does NOT work both ways. They can tell you about their personal lives, but you should not reciprocate. Relating anecdotes from your life as a teacher and student that could help them learn is appropriate.
For example, you can tell them that writing to public figures as a child sparked your interest in Social Studies. However, telling them about personal matters unrelated to their learning and getting together as friends outside class is not appropriate. This tip seems obvious, but it needs to be mentioned.
Some students will disagree with your analysis of their work as well as your advice and feedback. Arguing with them is counterproductive at best, rude and unprofessional at worst. Working on what to say to students who disagree with you is crucial. You could be right. However, my opinion is based on 10 years of teaching and working with hundreds of students.
Teachers who are critiquing others are particularly susceptible to being disliked if they act like they never make mistakes. The students will like you more and trust you more.
Trust is important if they are going to listen to you in the future.
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