EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM

BY

LARRY SPROUSE

May 31, 2000

 

I believe that we can learn from those around us. The last severial years our school has had the great opportunity to launch a new approach to reading and writing called "First Steps". Three teachers from our staff were selected to become the "tutors" for the program. They went to be trained so that we as a staff could be trained. The major thing that the program did was pull, a once fragmented staff, together into a united force. I feel that if we couldn't learn from others then this program would have been a farce.

In starting this program, we as a staff, helped write the goals. What do we want to see accomplished in the next four years, if we were to go with "First Steps"? Without clear goals and a vision, I believe that people become confused and become ununited. I believe that we are all life long learners. As we continue to aim for the mark of an excellent education, then we as life long learners can make a difference. Are our students any different? I believe that kids are important enough to me to impart this same vision to them for the future. I feel that we insult our students at times. We don't expect from them, what we know they can do. If we put the mark high and like an arrow aim them to that mark, I believe they will hit it. I believe that all children can learn and they are our future. I believe that education is a tool that we as educators can train our students to use and use it well. It's by mistakes that we learn. How many times have we purchased a new tool and not read the directions and just started using it, and it broke. I believe we need to train our future to use the tools. We are training them to be our future Presidents, teachers, mommys and daddys. We need to give them the tools. The basics in math, reading and writing isn't enough anymore. We need to give them the tools of life. How to communicate, solve conflict, be a good worker. Training them to have good work ethics, I believe will see them through life. They will make a difference in what they do if they work hard and learn respect for their authority. There are no "throw away" students. I believe we need to begin now to help them to believe in themselves, so that they can do a good job and do their best. When you deal with students who live with grandparents because their parents are on drugs and rape and incest is a common place. When 85% come to school hungry or dirty or both. Then we need to teach them and give them the tools just to survive normal everyday life. We need to aim them to the mark of excellence. They will reach it, if and only if we as educators believe in them.

I believe that schools should be a safe, caring and secure place for both staff and students. Students and staff should be able to come to school and have a warm feeling inside. They should be able to come and be welcomed by the people here with caring and friendly attitudes. Our school has 4 rules, we call them the 4Bs: Be safe, Be responsible, Be kind and Be respectful. If the students and staff at the school follow these four simple rules then the environment becomes a safe place for everyone. Students today are coming to school with heavier baggage, than we have ever had to deal with. I have students this year that have been pulled from their homes because their parents didn't care. When I had conferences last month, more than one parent said, "How is my brat doing?" Their "Brat" was usually the ones I had problems with until I started to show a little attention to them and let them know that they ARE important. Kids are growing up with drugs and alcohol in the home more readily available to them than ever before. I have a student that his step father has sexually abused him. That to me is not a safe and caring place. Our school needs to be that for them. We need to overly nurture them. They aren't getting it at home. I believe we need to be there for them. I believe that a secure place is one that has firm and clear boundaries. Having the 4Bs in place has caused a secure and caring environment. We are finding at Chenowith Elementary that the only students who are getting referrals are the new students. It has brought a unity not only to the students, but with the staff as well. We, as a staff, are more unified in how we discipline the students. We are all on the same page. Our school has become a community within a community. Because of this feeling of community, I believe that parents and community members need to be involved in the students education. I believe that we need to have community members in the classroom reading to the students, sharing their own experiences about their occupations and the skills it took to get where they are today. With community members and parents in the school it helps with a the caring and warm environment. A couple years ago we had a grandma in the school, we would send the troubled students to her. She loved on them and nurtured them. The students loved "Grandma Jessie". What an excellent way to bring and create a warm atmosphere in the school community. I believe that like any community, that we need to be a team. When one team member is having a hard time, then we need to pull together until all team members are working together. I believe that "Our Team", the staff, is the glue that holds the school together. When we as a staff are in unity, then we have a warm, caring environment for our students to learn. I believe that we become a strong team in that type of environment and we ALL become life long learners.

I believe that the curriculum should be student centered. " The best starting point for school is kids' real interest; all across the curriculum, investigating students' own questions should always take precedence over studying arbitrarily and distantly selected content." BEST PRACTICE pg 7.

I believe that the instruction and curriculum should be experiential. It should be a "active, hands -on, concrete experience" Research would say that it is the most powerful and natural form of learning. BEST PRACTICE pg 7. Students should be immersed in the most direct possible experience of the content of every subject. The more the students are immersed in each content area, the more they will learn and retain. I believe that as the students see, hear, touch and experience their learning the more they will retain of their education.

I believe that the effective learning is balanced with "opportunities for reflection" The students need to take the time to look back at what they have done and learned for that day. In my classroom, my students have reading and writing reflective logs that they can write what they have read and also, predict what they think might happen next in a story. I sometimes give them something to respond to and reflect, and other times I just let them reflect. It is a very powerful tool to give to the students. It takes them to that "higher thinking" mode that they need.

I believe also that the curriculum and instruction needs to be developmental. The students need to build their learning step by step. You have to build these steps for the students to follow. Each step builds on each other. Each student will learn at different rates. They all learn differently. They each have their own learning style. When put in a developmental type of atmosphere it will cause the student to grow at his/her best potential. "Developmentally-oriented teachers know that variance in the school performance of different children often results from differences in their general growth." "In developmental schooling, we help students grow by recognizing and encouraging beginning steps when they occur-whether on schedule or not." BEST PRACTICE pg. 13

Each student is different, each student learns differently. We learn differently, why should we expect children to be any different? We need to stop trying to push square pegs into a round hole. Put a student in a peaceful, active, hands-on, developmentally stable atmosphere and watch him/her grow.

I believe that there needs to be some things in place before I can be a good supervisor to a teacher. One being an open and trusting relationship with each other. One where you can open up and truly share what needs to happen, any changes that needs to take place. Being honest with a teacher is the most important philosophy an administrator could have. Secondly, I believe an effective teacher evaluation system that focuses on the improvement of instruction is critical to student learning. When you have an evaluation system in place that helps improve learning then you will see growth in not only the students, but also the teacher.  

I believe that different types of data needs to be collect to show the teacher exactly what is happening in his/her classroom. When I did my field supervisor project, the teacher was totally blown away at the results from the data collected. I did an on task analysis with her class. She couldn't believe at the students that were off task. She thought that she had everyone undercontrol and working while she worked with a small group. Her comment was, "Where was I?". We learn quite abit from collecting data.

I believe that goal setting is very important in supervising a teacher. Having each teacher write up a couple goals that they want to see accomplished during the year, helps them focus on an area that they want to improve in or stretch themselves in to make them a better teacher. I believe with out a vision or goal the teacher will fail. Keeping that open communication with the teacher as they make their goals and guide them in their writing of them, will cause great growth in both you and your staff, and when there is growth in the teacher then there will be growth in the students. I want to teach the teachers to be life long learners so that they can inturn pass it on to their students.

Lastly, I believe that we need to water the flowers and help pull the weeds together. Encourage and celebrate with the teachers in their accomplishments. I believe that when you observe that there should be a section on the evaluation form for celebrations. Teachers are growing and learning all the time. I want to be able water and watch them grow to their greatest potential. We are a team. We work TOGETHER. I don't believe that being a supervisor is a one man show. I want to be able to come along side and encourage and water. I will pull the weeds and replant dead wood, but if I can learn to cultivate and use the right soil enricher and water properly, there won't be very many weed to pull.

I believe that whenever there is change there is growth. Growth in the school, in the administration, in the staff and in the students. I believe that change keeps thing alive and moving. The analogy I like to use is a stagnant pond. When the water doesn't move around it gets old and stale. The green slime forms on the top and everything in it dies. When the pool gets stirred up and fresh clean water is put in the pond, then things can live and grow once again. The water needs to be changed and stirred to have growth take place. Even though change is important it can be a very messy process. It has to be an, all or nothing process. Everyone needs or has to be involved. When our school started the "First Steps" approach to writing and reading. It was all of us. It was hard and there were quite a few fires that had to be put out, but we were willing to stir the waters, because we knew it would be excellent for kids and that's what its all about. If we aren't stirring the waters up and bringing something fresh in to help the students as well as the school, then we have missed the boat. Each teacher had to change individually as well as the administration. We had a principal that was willing to "stir the waters" and not hold back. I feel that if I could vision how much it would benefit the students then in my school I would be willing to "stir the waters". Fullen states in his book, Change Force, pg 81, "that teachers cannot afford to wait for the system to change itself. They must push for the kind of professional culture they want, sometimes in the face of unresponsive principals, communities and school districts. Teachers cannot and should not do this entirely on their own, but they must play their own aggressive part in breaking the cycle." I believe that if the teachers don't set a high standard for themselves then how can they except high standards for their students. I believe that we as administrators need to be aggressive in our school with support for our teachers when we see something that would benefit the students. Partnership with the teachers is a big role as an administrator in my belief system. When that partnership is in place, then when there has to be changes that take place, the process isn't as messy. When that partnership is in place then the trust comes into function causing change to happen naturally. You will always want what's best for teachers and students alike. Teachers then will trust your judgement that it is good for kids and will want to try whatever is placed before them by the administration in their building. Change is so important in a school to help it grow and flourish. Without change we would be doing the students a great disservice in causing them not to grow, and not excepting the most out of them. We all need to partner together to cause growth. No change, no growth. I do not want to have my school be known as the stagnant pond, but the flourishing head waters of growth.

I believe that every person learns differently. Our temperaments are different as well. So to teach in the same way to the whole classroom, I believe is wrong. You have students who need to get down and feel, smell, taste, if need be, everything that they do. Some students are visual and others are verbal. I believe that all students can learn if put in the correct atmosphere of teaching. As a teacher, I give several ways of instructions so that those I am teaching or training can grasp what is being said and done. I verbalize the instructions, then I write them on the overhead, and if it is a math problem, I let those tactical learners come to the board or overhead and work a problem out with manipulatives. I believe there are no throw away children. They can all learn and be successful. I believe that as we share with students, that they can do all things that they put their minds to do and then explain to them how everyone learns differently, I feel that there would be a higher success rate. The kids only see "Susie" as successful because she gets straight "A's". In teaching the students the learning styles, I believe that their eyes would be opened as well as their minds. I liked what Marian Wright Edekman said, "Teaching the students to not be afraid to take risks or be criticized would give them the steps they need to get alone in this world. An Anonymous sage said, "If you don't want to be criticized don't say anything, do anything, or be anything." We need to teach our staff as well as our students to not be afraid of failing, it's the way they will learn to do things right. It doesn't matter how many times you fall down. What matters is how many times you get up." The Measure of our Success. pg 42. We need to teach our students to not be afraid of failing, because we do things so differently. We can't be like everyone else around us. My vision for an Alternative school would be on that would have wings for each learning style. If you were a tactical learning you could be on hall 4, visual learners on hall 3 etc. I believe that tailoring the education to the students would give them a better success rate and feel more accomplished in what they do. I've seen several styles of alternative schools. The students were very successful and the atmosphere was very controlled and peaceful. The principals were very much, risk takers and facilitators. They helped make the school. They believed in not only the staff, but the students as well. My Mission statement is: I believe we are all life long learners. I believe that with all my heart. We are all going to be learners in someway or another. Life is that way. But, like Marian Edelman , said "It doesn't matter how many times you fall down. What matters is how many times you get up." I believe that their are to many of us that have fallen and not gotten up. This is the time in education and our society that we need to get up and learn from our mistakes, believe in ourselves as "life long learners".