A Collection of Thoughts - Getting Advice on Education in the Nation As It Is Right Now #WalkMyWorld

Every year, my colleagues pull together a team of administrators, community partners, teachers, and supporters to ask, "So, what do we need to know about K-12 schools right now so we can better prepare our student teachers and assist your efforts with professional development?" I always think it is good to post what they have to say on my blogs, simply so I can go back to them each year and reflect on them. Here's the list of items on their mind in 2015:

Ø  2 million dollar budget cuts. Positions will not be filled (part-time workers are being brought in)

Ø  Students are coming to school with greater needs – teachers can’t even get to the academic issues. There are tremendous mental health problems needing to be addressed.

Ø  The economic needs of students are growing (Teachers supply students with materials costing them $1000 each out of their own pockets).

Ø  Schools are spending money on new curriculum and then it changes every year – 7 changes in 9 years. Evaluations are locked into new formulas. It's a waste of money.

Ø  Never seen teachers so stressed in 25 years of teaching – it is the worst panic in history (turnover in upper administration exacerbates the ‘state of fear’). Everyone arrives with new ideas – Stop! Turn Left! Stop! Turn Right! It's too much on teachers as professionals.

Ø  New teachers: Veteran teachers feel bad. The classes are very difficult to manage as the social behavior of student populations concerns grow – the need to marry in counselors and guidance…teachers can’t teach without mental support.

Ø  Kids need love, but the pushback is not to give it to them.

Ø  High School is experiencing students with English Language issues and also PTSD. Issues with SLIFEs (and no funding to match it)

Ø  The socio-emotional needs arriving to schools are hard to believe, “You can’t make this up.” – Occasionally a triumph is experienced (and it requires parent buy-in)

Ø  The state tests take more and more time every year. At this point, the salaries of teachers is spend on administrating tests and not instructing students. What can be measured if teachers never have time to teach?

Ø  Murmuring of students resisting the SBAC  – talk of opting out.

Ø  New evaluations and rubrics of teachers are mammoth…keeping track of the data is an added stress of the job, as the numbers that need to be entered are labor-intensive and time-consuming.

Ø  paper/pencil testing works better than the technology testing because the technology always has too many bugs.

Ø  A lot of wonder right now about why anyone would enter the field.

Ø  There is a tremendous need for optimism and positivity - to see light in the darkness.

Ø  New teachers need to be collaborative. There needs to be compassion and strong organizational skills.

Ø  There needs to be strong mentorship of new teachers and a sense of resilience.

Ø  There is a need for stronger classroom management.

Ø  Being a teacher in development is not a bad thing – new teachers are ‘grade conscious’ and get upset that they’re not proficient when evaluations show they need improvement. They need to be able to receive critical feedback. The new teachers grew up in a NCLB culture and the need to be perfect, when there is no such thing.

Ø  Unlikely to get hired fresh out of college without real-world, hands on experience (skills needed to be successful in 21^st century classrooms)

Ø  New teachers need to be reflective and humble. They need to go to Master teacher and ask questions. They need to be able to respond to failure.

Ø  Internships open eyes and interns are prepared for the real work of student teaching and teaching. The in-school experience is very beneficial. This needs to continue and expand.

Ø  It is about the students and their learning – it is not about the teacher.

Ø  Teachers need to be there for one another, to have the backs for colleagues. There needs to be gratitude (a few things that you want to celebrate).

Ø  There needs to be a sense of self-awareness, to know how a teacher is perceived by students, parents, and colleagues.

Ø  With professional development, teachers need choices and the opportunity to rotate through workshops during the day. The topics for workshops arrived with teacher input. A one-size-fits-all PD does not work. The PD that is tailored to individual teachers is successful.

Ø  Mini-grants put together PD by teachers in a teachers teaching teachers model is successful. The teachers develop hands-on materials that are useful in the classroom.

Ø  Schools are going paperlesr with an I-Pad theme for all. Teachers are getting Apple TV. How is it hooked up? How does multitasking occur? How do teachers go beyond the fear of the machine?

Ø  There is a need for more exploration of deep thinking with technology and to encourage students to not jump into Google search. Rather, more critical thinking – higher order thinking – about materials. (New Literacies)

Ø  New teachers need to foster good relationships with parents and families – they can’t be intimidated or overwhelmed. They need to be mature in their relationships.

Ø  The technology/media generation needs to learn etiquette for communication with parents: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (it is good to have other adults in meetings with parents).

·      Looking forward to another year of collaboration: Agenda ideas for the fall?

Ø  A Symposium on Being Positive and Supporting One Another

Ø  A Symposium on variations of schooling experiences – working in diverse environments … it needs to be trained.

Ø  A Symposium of Good Things Happening in Education – A Teacher Panel Celebrating Ideas

Ø  A Symposium for New Teachers: Relationships, Relevance, and Rigor

Ø  A New Teacher Series … (but they are inundated with a lot on their plate  - being overwhelmed…asking for help is survival)

Ø  A Symposium about PTSD/Trauma and its affect on classrooms – humanitarian work at the local level.