0016: Administrators and Professional Developers Define Your Terms, and Empower your Teachers
Clearly defined expectations are tantamount to classroom performance. If a teacher wants a student to perform a task in a certain way, that task must be explained and discussed in such a way that the student can perform said task in such a way as to meet the teachers expectations. That means terms must be defined, rubrics should be clear, and for best results, dialogue between teacher and student should be free and frequent. The above is generally expected and necessary for a teacher to be effective.
Often, teachers are left in the dark by nebulous instructions from administrators and staff developers. The jargon in education is constantly changing. Expectations are constantly changing. With all this transition many education professionals are left in the dust, that means teachers, principals, and whoever else are struggling just to keep up with the change of lexicon. Which means communication is a constant struggle. Principals you must work to ensure that you are understood. You must teach your faculty to understand you. When kids understand, they function better. Teachers are the same way. Make sure faculty meetings are interactive. Walk around the room, and divide teachers into groups. Talk with groups individually to monitor for understanding. Best practices in teaching apply to leadership as well. If you want your schools to succeed, then help your teachers feel successful. Give them the tools to please you. And then tell them that they’re meeting your expectations. Build knowledge and power incrementally among your staff. And, this most certainly applies to district administrators too. Work to plug information gaps in bureaucracy.
0010: Principals, empower your teachers— and fix a lot of other stuff in the process
How have teachers gotten to the point where creativity and freedom are no longer a part of their personal vocabulary? When asked how to solve a problem, teachers freeze. It seems they want to provide a part of the solution, but they’re afraid to risk it. Faculty meetings that require collaboration are silent voids as speakers try to facilitate conversation. Teachers don’t want to participate. Sounds like many classrooms. So, are teachers just belligerent? Or, is it more complicated?
Teachers have seemingly fallen prey to the belief that they have no power. They have adopted the mindset that even if I speak up my ideas will not be valued. Many have tried through the years and have been rejected systematically by sage-ish administrators or speakers who are offering the “right” answer. Teachers have been handed method after method, and have been told (many still are) how to implement each method— or else. Logically, teachers have learned to suffer in silence and play nicely by themselves, and secretly meet to complain about the new and awful thing they’re being forced to do.
How do we end this cycle of ineffective teaching? We have to engage in meaningful discussion that is honest. This burden of opening these discussions in many schools is going to fall on building administrators, and should probably go something like this: “I know you (the teachers) have been bombarded for years by fad-curriculums, and have been negatively evaluated with no word about what you’re doing well, but that has to become past. We are going to have to spend sometime learning to trust each other if we are going to engage in a meaningful, and ongoing discourse about the how’s, what’s, and why’s of the functionality of out schools, and the futures of our children.” Once you leaders have made this first step you have to keep the ball rolling. You’re stepping away from an authoritarian structure and into democratic function. But, you will have to nurture this relationship. It will be tough because you’re already bombarded, over-worked, and overwhelmed. But, if you’re teachers start working with you, and start understanding that they are truly valuable, and necessary to the process, then the battle will change. The focus can shift to teachers and administrators working collaboratively to figure out what you’re school needs. You’re team, the team of which you are a part, is the team best equipped to solve the problems that are thrown before you. Utilize the expertise that is on your faculty. Empower you’re teachers. They will, in turn, empower their students. The teachers will engage in those higher order thinking skills that so elude our classrooms. And, by engaging in such cognitive activity as a faculty it more than likely will be mirrored in the classroom.
0005: We don’t need a tune-up— we need a brand new car
In talking with teachers, administrators, and especially janitors (who hear and see all) the consensus is that the system is broken. I’m not hearing much positive talk; only cynical, false positive talk. Everyone is overwhelmed. We have this problem of motivating and educating a mass of people, but no one is trusted to do it. Building administrators are not trusted by district administrators; teachers are not trusted by building admins; students aren’t trusted. And, the lack of trust goes back to the top. Rather than working as a team toward the well-being of those who are forced into the leviathan that is public education, the body is fighting and destroying itself. Teachers want to leave, so do students, and I’ve rarely met a principal who hasn’t been beat down a bit. Education seems to lack altruism. I don’t know if that’s the way to put. I guess I perceive(d) public education to be a system designed to help learners become fully productive members of society. But, I see kids leave semi-literate and disheartened. They’re criminalized for not sitting down and paying attention to the boring teacher. The boring teacher is demonized for not inspiring bored, understimulated children with a curriculum and methodology that is 200+ years old. Principals are silently criticized by teachers for not trusting them to be professionals. The cycle is endless, and there is no team. Bureaucracy does not build teams; it makes them impossible to exist. And, it certainly does nothing for communication. Information, excrement, and misunderstanding all roll downhill.
So what would make it better? What does an effective classroom look like? I’ve been in some. I’ve taught some. The best have had an element of technology, and most important students were able to openly interact with each other and with me. Seemingly, the more freedom students are given, the better the class environment. And, the fewer discipline problems. But, when students are treated like numbers and criminals the problems escalate. Problems with behavior, learning, teacher motivation, and so forth. I spoke to a student today who moved from another district. Her school was a violent place with poor academics, but she was in honor classes. Small classes homogeneously grouped by academic ability. She said she always felt challenged, and everyone was focused. Everyone was challenged. She was completely separate from the regular student population. She went to classes with the same small group. They worked constantly as a team, and interacted with their teachers as equals not subordinates. They collaborated. But, is this only possible with small groups of “academically gifted” children. My first year of teaching was in a difficult school that had become the dumping ground for kids who just couldn’t measure up academically or behaviorally. Many of them had criminal records (these were eighth graders), and had established patterns of failure. Within that group I had several small groups of remedial algebra students who were wonderful. They were the “worst kids” in the school, and had records to back those reputations up. The classes were small though. We interacted as peers. It took a few weeks for them to become comfortable with a little freedom, but after we became partners, and no longer enemies, we made great strides. Equally, I’ve had some big classes that functioned the same way. The common denominator was the trust I had in the students. They equally trusted me. I tried to be honest and respectful, and human. If I made a mistake, I apologized. Thinking back, only one of classes had a lot of technology. A few of those classes didn’t even have dry erase boards, just chalkboards. The schools have all been in high poverty areas, some rural and some urban. School should possess elements of freedom, humanity, and relevant material infused into whatever is being learned. And, that should be widespread. It seems that to every one progressive and comfortable teacher there is at least five who are at their wits end. What can be done to help teachers and administrators become more comfortable in there roles? Would schools function better democratically, with every participant as a stakeholder? Could bureaucracy be eliminated or lessened in school districts?
