Education

This past weekend had an interesting conversation brought up by my son about events that are taking place in the classroom. Mind you that he is in 6th Grade, and we all know what the Middle School atmosphere is like with all of the hormones and maturity changes the students are going through. So it was no surprise as I heard him talk about books being picked up from students’ desks and being dropped onto the floor for no particular reason. For him to add that there are mood swings where individuals are nice one minute, then raising their voice in accusation of students doing wrong the next minute is also not alarming. However, if you learned that these among other actions were perpetrated by the teacher, would this surprise you?

Surprisingly, I don’t believe that most of us would be surprised to learn this, and as a matter of fact, we would all be able to flood our memories of teachers from our past who felt the need to incorporate these tactics into their own classrooms. Is it simply the position of power that allows for these teachers to get away with such action? If a student in the room was to walk around and dump another student’s books onto the floor would this be tolerated? Would it be tolerated for a fellow classmate to voice derogatory remarks and accusations towards students in the class? So why is it tolerated that a teacher be allowed to do so?

There is nothing wrong with having high standards and expectations from students in terms of proper behavior, and I for one, support and encourage it. However, we should not lose sight on the fact that we are talking about kids, and kids are not perfect. There should be an expectation that kids will test the boundaries of the rules, and will also simply make a mistake and break rules at some point. This is an expectation that all teachers, administrators, and parents should have regarding their kids. They should also expect that students who do break the rules need to have consequences for their actions! I believe we all agree with this point.

If you have ever had to present or speak in front of a group of teachers, you have definitely experienced the lack of respect they show upon themselves. Ironically, teachers will be disrespectful, as if imitating their students, by displaying the same behavior they despise from their own students within their own classrooms. If a presenter walked around the room taking the teacher belongings from the tables and dumping them on the floor, how do you think the audience would react? What if the presenter called out an audience member for not paying attention, or for talking during his or her presentation?

So then WHY is a teacher allowed to behave inappropriately without the same expectations? Even as the responsible adult in the room, it can be expected that he or she will make a mistake in judgement when dealing with the classroom environment every day of the school year. Should a lapse in judgement happen, everyone would agree that there would be consequences to be accepted. Why does this lapse in judgement have to be a major incident? Why do we consider actions like: Dumping books on the floor, throwing erasers, name calling, false accusations, crumpling up a student’s work, kicking book bags, etc- to be acceptable behavior from our teachers? Teachers are to be the leaders of the classroom and school environment. Teachers are to be held to a higher level of respect. Allowing such petty behavior to be displayed by a teacher in the classroom should never be tolerated. The classroom should be a safe haven for each and every student to learn and pursue their education! Don’t just leave it up to the students to speak up, if you know of a colleague that is tarnishing the reputation of being an educator, speak up!

Please, Feel Free to Like, Share, and Comment

What if you were told that students in our educational system are lost? What if you were told that teachers in our educational system are lost? What if you were told that our educational leaders are also lost? Would you believe it? There has been a movement to improve the American Educational System for some time now, yet it seems that our system would be a direct reflection of a classroom that existed 10, 15, or even 20 years ago! Is any of this new, or earth shattering to hear?

What has truly been lost is the knowledge of what the digital age can actually provide. For many district personnel, the focus has been on infrastructure, PCs, Laptops, tablets, SmartBoards, access, etc. While it is important to make sure that decisions being made on these items are vetted, these are decisions that will not truly affect the success of the classroom. These are decisions being made on the “tools” to be used in the classroom. Yes, we must equip our students and teachers properly in the move to a Blended Learning Environment, but we must not lose focus on the biggest change that technology provides to the classroom. We must identify that the move to technology is not as linear as moving from a pencil to a pen.

The discussion that has been lost needs to be centered around how students are able to acquire knowledge. With today’s technology, the teacher does not have to be the center of information. Anyone using technology properly has an infinite supply of knowledge at their fingertips. The key word being “Properly”! Whereas students and teachers in the past were limited to texts, self-knowledge, and the knowledge of colleagues- Today, students and teachers alike have access to the same knowledge base through the internet. The transformation that classrooms today must make is to allow and educate students on who, what, when, where, and how to gather and research the information they are inquiring to learn. The teacher must transform him or herself to become a facilitator of learning, rather than position themselves as the center of knowledge.

It is not necessary to develop the futuristic classroom that many are seeking to bring a Blended learning Class to your students. It is, however, necessary to provide our teachers with Professional Development around using technology in the classroom, and around how to facilitate students vetting the instant information they receive properly. There is no reason why a classroom should not have the capability to enable every student to learn by means best suited for them individually, while also allowing a teacher to guide whole group lessons. The technology tools along with the access to infinite information will support a great teacher in enabling life-long learners in their classroom.

Please feel free to Like, Share, and Comment.