Careful steps on a broken bridge

As I have gone through the course content and engaged with it with both mind and heart, I have come to think about administration as the need to take careful steps on a broken bridge. On one side of the bridge are us teachers. On the other side you will see the students. We as administrators need to help those two sides come together by taking careful steps on a broken bridge. The bridge is our educational system.

As I have interacted with and pretended to be a variety of different roles I’ve learned what it might be like to take a step across the bridge in different shoes. The different areas of the school look at the school with totally different perspectives. One big challenge for me will be understanding those different areas.

When I was a child I played a video game on my Atari called Pitfall. In it, the little character jumps over pits and encounters snakes, etc. As an administrator, I will need to learn to deftly walk through those situations with grace and agility so as to avoid falling into the pit of despair, anger, or desperation. It is only by remaining connected to the central core vision that drives me forward. To continue the analogy, the vision is much like the rope on which I swing to avoid the pits. I will implement the strategies learned so as to stay on the rope and not fall or succumb to any of the dangerous enemies the game provides. Then, and only then, can I reach the bridge to help connect teachers and students.

This course has been like a training program for how to walk across the bridge carefully. The course has shown me and had me act like a variety of perspectives. By doing so, I have learned to take into account issues of vision, management, student learning, and sound principles. By focusing on these four categories of school, I will inherently manage the school with laser focus. I will implement technological tools to model collaboration with my faculty and staff, and together we will repair the bridge.

Personalized Curriculum through Reading Recovery

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Carlos Porto: http://flickr.com/photos/carlosporto/775089650/

I choose the early intervention program found on page 484. As indicated in the text, Reading Recovery programs are currently used extensively, among others. Early intervention in literacy is critical to help students not fall behind as they get older. One of the reasons I like the Reading Recovery program is the fact that it happens daily. Other programs I’ve seen only have students meeting with teachers once or twice per week. Daily reading with an expert is critical. I also like that Reading Recovery has students meeting individually with the RR teacher. This allows the teacher to focus on the individual students’ weaknesses and address them. Whether comprehension, fluidity, or any other literacy need, the teacher can work to help remedy the specific needs of the student.

In my district, there is a need for funding. As a curricular leader I would advocate for funding to expand the Reading Recovery program to all elementary schools. I would also ensure that there was a solid process in place to identify students that would benefit from such a program.

Co-Teaching

The co-teaching model can be beneficial for both teachers and learners. For teachers, it provides a second teacher in the classroom that can help provide individualized help to struggling learners or extra challenges to advanced learners. One question I have is whether the co-teaching model is only effective if the teacher is physically present. There have been some major advances in robotics and video technologies that make me wonder if a virtual teacher (a real teacher presented virtually) would provide the chance for co-teaching virtually. Imagine if you could centrally locate several teachers that specialized in a certain topic (let’s say literacy for example) who could then arrive virtually in one school in the early morning, another school later in the morning, and still other schools in the afternoon.

As a supervisor, I would want to see synergy between the co-teachers. I would want to make sure there wasn’t any “turf wars” between the teachers and would need to ensure that the teachers were united in the common goal of helping students succeed. To that end, I would want to talk regularly with and regularly observe the co-teachers. Perhaps I could do so virtually?

Influences on Curriculum

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I would argue there are many societal forces that influence school curricula today. First, I would posit that the federal government influences school curricula more so now than ever before. From No Child Left Behind to Common Core, the federal government influences curricula significantly. It feels as though this move to centralize control of curriculum tends to go against the we as educators should support a child’s unique gifts (Burrello, 2000). Although there is something to be said for the common core standards allowing for a more quantifiable set of results and therefore may be more psychometrically valid (ibid). With yet another twist, Burrello talks about the notion that content and the process of learning being linked (ibid). The Burrello readings left me with many more questions than answers.

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In our group work, we determined that we have many more definitions of curriculum than I would  have imagined. I approached the definition with an intentional vagueness and defined curriculum as a guiding framework. I believe that the government as a whole should provide only that guiding framework and leave the process of determining content to the state or even local district. This supports my theory that schooling should be a process of helping learners determine and pursue their interests rather than the current system of producing academics. Unfortunately, there is a giant disconnect between the rest of the world (including technology) and the educational ecosystem (policy makers, government, etc). Recently there have been efforts to reduce that gap, such as the push for more STEM education in the K-16 system. Troublingly, the current need for advanced skill workers is being filled by foreign workers, which means the jobs we are preparing our kids to take may not be available by the time they graduate.

One way a school leader can be proactive is by helping students determine and follow their interests. A robust school should have a myriad of after-school offerings for topics that may interest students such as photography, robotics, sports, and more. School is the only place where many students will get to access these types of programs, and in the wake of common core schools will be possibly forced to offer fewer classes during the day. After-school extracurricular activities may end up being the only way students can determine and pursue their interests.