I started student teaching today, but I think that instead of discussing this exciting milestone in my life, I would like to offer some exposition to this week. This year we have a new principal at my Wildly Diverse High School (the name I have assigned to my high school where I am student teaching), and as a result many changes have taken place from last summer until now.
In a school that attempts to teach about 3,500 every year, there were 40 new hires, many of which were first or second year teachers. Additionally, nearly every department chair was replaced. Murals were replaced, mottos changed, and ideas altered.
The first day of our preparatory week, our principal gave us an hour-long speech. He said there were problems at Wildly Diverse High School, but that was no excuse. He told us to ignore other responsibilities in favor of doing our jobs – in other words, in exchange for teaching our students. Success for every student does not appear to be just a slogan to him, but something worth striving for – a high, but still reachable goal. I found his excitable, energetic demeanor inspiring.
Perhaps the most telling aspect of the talk though, was instead his focus on how to teach. He discussed taking two or three core skills the students need to focus on – tone, square roots, grammar, etc, and pounding those skills into our student’s heads. Teaching our students a little bit is better than teaching them nothing. He discussed how teaching the test was a good thing, a goal, an obvious answer to a question of curricula.
This was the first and most overt example of politicking I have ever experienced for a specific type of educational doctrine from someone who was in a position of authority over me. It was a little off-putting. I do not necessarily disagree with my principal’s philosophy, but I certainly found it slightly off-putting, this explicit educational directional road map for the rest of the year.
Sure, my Wildly Diverse High School has problems – what high school doesn’t? My question is who should be the one to dictate how we are instructed to teach? Administration? Politicians? Teachers? Students? Honestly, I do not know.
All I know is that as I begin my first semester teaching in a real-life school this week, and I am doing all I can to scrap by. Should I be worried about this sort of thing? Should I put my nose to the grindstone and focus on my 104 students? Should I speak my mind and live with the consequences? I am not sure how to assume leadership roles while simultaneously recognizing my role as a teacher with absolutely no job-security. As a student teacher, I haven’t even received a paycheck yet!
This is a tricky balance. Which side do I lean toward more?
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It must be frustrating to take on this question on your own. You should not have to. I could go on to describe how the school culture should be changed to deal with your issue, that professional learning communities are designed to takle these issues, but that won’t do you any good tomorrow.
You are struggling with the first question that an educator (it should be answered in common course teams and not alone) deals with. What do I want my student to know and be able to do? What standards are assessed? Choose standards not assessed and your students will struggle. I wonder if your principal is asking teachers to teach to depth and not to the surface. Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe, do a wonderful job of explaining how to go through the process facing you. They talk about big picture questions, about teaching for enduring understandings,and how to winnow your curriculum down to the essentials. But again, you should not have to do this on your own.
I’d suggest that you find some allies in your school and begin to do some action research and book studies. I know this can be time consuming, however, collaboration is a wonderful thing. It seems as tough some capacity building needs to take place through professional development. Can you suggest some time set aside at your next in-service to have teachers come together and describe the process they go through to make these decisions (current reality). If it seems that this area is a weakness at your school, that there are no experts in this area, the school can then narrow its focus to building capacity in designing curriculum.
Good luck! If you are in Adams 12 School District shoot me a private email.
Congratulations, Nate. Oh, and watch out for apostrophes that don’t belong–see your second paragraph. We’re role models in many ways, including practicing safe grammar.
And everything that Mark said. “Understanding by Design” rocks.