Previous Blogs and Articles by Dean Smith and Robert Hankes page 2

 Things That Don’t Work

   Whether we’re looking at Learning Focused Schools or High Schools That Work or No Child Left Behind, there are a number of things that don’t actually work that well.  And many of these things will leave you scratching your head and asking “Why are we doing this?”  Unfortunately, they are often the things that you don’t have any control over: 

   For example, you’ll be asked to sit through a lot of in-services where highly paid curriculum specialists will entertain you with a 78 slide PowerPoint and show you how to make an origami flip chart.  

   You’ll have to rewrite your curriculum about every three years because you’ll get a new Curriculum Director from time to time.  The changes you make won’t impact the curriculum that much, but your Curriculum Director will feel like she’s doing her job and you’ll usually get extra pay for this.

   You will be required to listen to a motivational speaker the day before the students show up.  Know that it will most likely be entertaining except much of the time you will be thinking about all the things that need to get done in your classroom.  By the way, has anyone ever asked why we might need a motivational speaker to get going in the first place?  Just sayin’ . . .

   You will have to complete a lot of administrivia such as filling out attendance sheets, yearbook forms, fund-raiser balance sheets, maintenance requests, supply orders, and post observation reflections.

   You will have to help promote spirit week by wearing funny hats or support homecoming by dressing up in costume or buy gifts for your Secret Santa.  This is all designed to build morale and unify the faculty, something that a wine and cheese reception would accomplish a lot better. 

   You’ll have to attend a lot of meetings: committee meetings, team planning meetings, department meetings, faculty meetings, IEP meetings, as well as hold parent-teacher conferences.  

   You will become part of the testing industry because you’ll be recruited to administer standardized tests out the wazoo in addition to teaching lessons, if not classes, designed to prepare students for the tests.  At best, students will tolerate this but by the time they get to high school, they’re not going to lose much sleep over them.  The reason why is that students have realized that the tests have no teeth.  They don’t affect a student’s overall GPA; they’re not needed to pass a class nor are they needed to graduate; they aren’t used to get them into college like the SAT’s; and to be honest, by the time the students get to be juniors, they’re pretty test-weary.  

   You’ll be expected to sponsor a club or help with the spring musical or work with the Shakespeare Troupe or help with prom or sit on the dunk tank for the Fall Festival. You’ll be expected to fulfill other duties such as bathroom duty, bus duty, cafeteria duty, study hall duty, detention duty, as well as chaperone the homecoming dance.

   You’ll also be required to attend the Job Fair, College Fair, Exhibition Night, STEM Conference, or Career Day. Because one of your administrators is working on a Ph.D., you will have to fill out surveys on school climate, teacher morale, community collaboration, needs assessment or learning culture and you may be asked to collect survey data from your students regarding their socio-emotional needs.  One survey that you should conduct every year is to ask your students three basic questions: What worked?  What didn’t? And what suggestions do you have to improve this class?  You’ll probably get everything from marriage proposals to death threats, so you’ll have to develop some thick skin.  But look for patterns in the students’ responses and make changes accordingly for the next year.  

   You may be asked by the Guidance Department to administer a learning style inventory during homeroom.   The basic idea is that some students learn just fine from teacher lectures (auditory learners); some students learn better from watching films and demonstrations (visual learners); and some learners tend to be more hands-on (tactile learners).  Because there was money to be made in creating these for schools, we’ve ended up with over 70 different learning style models.  They will point out that some students learn better in low light -- some in a well-lit environment.  Some students do better with music playing while others have to have it quiet.  So, what do you do with this information? 

   You could create 25 different activities and lessons to adjust to everyone’s individual learning style.  Or you could just bag the inventories and develop one lesson where you tell students what to expect; then show students some examples and demonstrate the process; and finally have students try it for themselves.  

   One of the things that you don’t have to do but that you should do is attend home football or basketball games or go to student performances.  When kids see you supporting them outside of the classroom, it buys you a lot of street cred.  This even works if you eat at the diner where one of your students waits tables.