We are almost done. Please answer the following questions for Chapter 9.
1. Chapter 9 explores several challenges that might be raised against the proposal to build a system of interventions foir student when they are not learning. What other philosophical challenges might be presented?
2. Most of the challenges to the system of interventions will focus on implementation problems rather than on philosophical concerns. Objections are likely to take form of "we don't have enough 'fill in the blank' (time, money, resources, space, concensus, kids who will comply)." What are some strategies for addressing these concerns?
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1. Changing the school schedule for the entire population as a strategy for intervention for a relatively small percentage is my personal philosophical challenge. At GHS, most students ARE learning. Most are successful. Not always are our students reaching academic potential (and neither are adults, for that matter. Human nature???), but most do learn. Adding time to the school day or adding an intervention period impacts everyone.
ReplyDelete2. Every faculty has a group of talented thinkers. Paradigm shifters. Outside-the-boxers. Get those enthusiastic minds together and let them come up with a plan. Tap into community resources. How would a business mind develop a strategy for implementation problems? What would Colonial Life do? How about Blue Cross/Blue Shield?
Begin treating school more like the work place with monetary incentives for high performance. Human nature reacts to $$ and I feel you would see the drop out rate drop with overall less money spent for incentives than for a few of the good intervention practices already in place. Students will listen when $$ is involved just as adults do in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteThe Midlands is fortunate to have an organization of business leaders MEBA that are willing to help create interventions that will strengthen the future worker pool. We have not tapped this organization enough on a school to school situation.
One potential challenge is to ask whether the interventions given are succesful/good interventions. Is what they are doing really helpful? An example: an English I student of mine was doing APEX. I assigned a short story in class, and she immediately responded, "hey, I just did this yesterday in APEX." I thought, "great, she's going to fly through this in no time and know everything." Unfortunately, this was not the case. She could not tell me anything about the story. I mean, nothing at all. She refused to do the assignment because she read the story the day before, but she couldn't tell me anything about it either. I'm not bashing APEX. However, this incident made me wonder about whether or not the program really does benefit students.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest challenge in my mind is for teachers of different curriculums to get together, especially those of us with the same grade levels. It would be helpful to know how my students are doing in other classes or what works for other teachers in meeting their needs. However, with different planning/busy schedules, this is hard to do. Perhaps some collaborative planning time could be given for us to meet with other departments to discuss students. Maybe more than once a month collaborative planning time?
The idea that we are letting students evade their responsibility is a big philosophical problem. Just as Mr. Spears said about the students who had the same story in APEX, was it not obvious that she had not read the story? APEX still requires students to do work and actually READ the material. This student certainly has not learned responsibility. I hope that in the future GHS will also become the school where students can soar past just mastering the standards. I think the top and bottom spectrums are exciting possibilities. Question two in my mind addresses the concern of commitment on our parts. Saturday when I "ran with the law" Sheriff Metts addressed the runners about giving back to the community and taking care of each other. I think our role as educators is so rewarding, but hard, hard work. We have that opportunity every day to do our part to help students become all they can by tweaking their work, offering suggestions for ways to improve the work, and molding them into lifelong learners. I think one of the beautiful things about education is that the work in never done; there is always more to do and ways to improve. It certainly keeps my wheels turning!
ReplyDeleteI stumbled across this lecture this week. Watch this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
What if we truly squander our students talents by making them fit into a mold that is too small for them? This, to me, is the only philosophical issue. How do we push each child to be the best him he can be?
One philosophical challenge is how do we motivate the unmotivated? Reference Mr. Spears' student who was given the golden opportunity to recover course credit through APEX, but didn't care enough to take advantage of the opportunity. How many of these students do we deal with in our classrooms each day? How do we find a way to motivate them--we can provide them opportunity, but we can't make them take advantage of it if they are unwilling.
ReplyDeleteThere is a long list of challenges to be addressed. One thought is that maybe organizing teachers into units or teams (much like the middle schools do) where each team teaches the same group of children would allow those teachers to better hold the students accountable and collaborate on how to best meet each students needs.
1. I worry about that old 80 percent/20 percent formula: 80 percent of students (or employees, etc.) do well but get 20 percent of the attention. Meanwhile, the 20 percent who perform or behave poorly get 80 percent. I find myself—as a new teacher—planning for the lowest-performing students, which means my high performers could be ignored. We help low performers—do “whatever it takes” to get them through and out of school with good educations. In the meantime, what enrichment do we have for the average to above-average kid? I’d love to be able to stretch more … to get the kids to stretch, too.
ReplyDelete2. Perhaps the twilight and morning classes could address the concerns of doing more with less? I also think technology could help us. Next year, we all should be able to have blogs and/or blackboard-type exchanges with our students. This will extend the “school day” for teachers AND students, but we could schedule so that we didn’t have to be available ALL the time. … I also wish we could team teach to reinforce the connection between subjects that the fine arts staff so amply demonstrated yesterday. We need to collaborate BEYOND our discrete departments.
1. One common complaint is that students lack the internal drive to succeed. The public school system has become a machine that dishes out rewards and punishments in an effort to condition a desired response from our “test subjects.” Students lose sight of the intrinsic value of education, instead performing to receive a reward (or, more likely, to avoid a punishment). They lose sight of the real goal, which is the betterment of their mental faculties. I have begun to fear that the emphasis on results has tainted the mindset of teachers as well. We are so bent on demonstrable “success” that we lose sight of the intrinsic value of teaching. Our commitment to doing “whatever it takes” brings with it a pressure to have our students demonstrate outward signs of expertise – they need to earn passing grades in classes so that they can move through the system and graduate on time (otherwise it looks bad on the school report card); they need to perform well on standardized and high-stakes tests (again for the school report card). What do we do for the students? I feel our greatest philosophical challenge will be to back away from an emphasis on exclusively standards-based results and learn to incorporate values and practices (such as learning responsibility) that we know will never be tested on the EOCEP/HSAP/SAT, but will be of vital importance every day of our students’ lives.
ReplyDelete(sorry about making two posts...it exceeded the character limit for one!)
ReplyDelete2. The biggest obstacle I foresee is getting students to actually master each of the standards. We strive for all students to perform at proficient and advanced levels, but I struggle just to get my students “caught up” to the basic level of competency as defined by the English 2 standards. I’m not trying to cast blame or suggest that teachers haven’t done their job – I simply want to point out something that I think we all have noticed, which is that students often don’t come mentally prepared to handle the demands of our classes.
Chapter 9 raised the point that students should not be penalized if they have not established a knowledge base prior to enrollment in a course. As things stand now, a student could theoretically fail a class several times on account of not having mastered the necessary material from a previous course (I used to see this all the time when I tutored Math at Midlands Tech – the majority of my students struggled in Math 102 because they had only managed to scrape by in Math 101). Sometimes doing “whatever it takes” means bending over backwards to help get a student through the system, which results in social promotion (I’m sorry if that’s a jaded way of viewing it, but it’s true). But what happens when we help a student reach minimal adequacy and then they fall flat on their face in the next course (or in college, or in the workplace)? Are we doing them any favors? It’s true that we shouldn’t penalize someone for not grasping what they should have mastered before ever stepping foot in our classrooms. But if we want to look at the situation realistically, we have to recognize that most students do not come to us ready and willing to meet our high expectations.
What are we willing to do to get them where they need to be? Do we spend the first half of each semester trying to get them caught up, and hope we can squeeze all of our own standards into the second nine weeks? Obviously that is not the answer. Whatever system of intervention we initiate must account for the fact that the students who most need this assistance will have been caught in the cogs of a system that is not meeting their needs. And they have been spun, and ground, and squeezed in this machine for 10 to 15 years before we ever meet them. Though collaborating within a grade level is a great way to provide equal opportunity of education for all students, it has the tendency to make insular groups. We need to spend just as much time working across grade levels to ensure that the skills needed for one class have already been met, and the skills addressed in one class will be built upon in the next. If we do this long enough, it might begin to iron out the discrepancies of prior knowledge. That is, if the students put forth the effort to retain information and skills, rather than brain-dumping after each final exam – which brings us back to the idea that students need to see the connections between classes and the real-life impact that learning can have, rather than viewing each course as an isolated exercise in futility.
I attended a business seminar years ago on success in the work place. The speaker said that success was related to how reliable and responsible you were as an employee. He stated that the more you displayed these characteristics the more successful you were likely to be. During my years in business I can remember the owner of the company I worked for telling potential employees that we could teach you to do the job but we couldn’t teach you to be on time or do your job effectively. I saw people fired for not being reliable or responsible. Our successful students are those that display varying degrees of reliability & responsibility. Our unsuccessful students are, for the most part, neither responsible or reliable. One of our major complaints is that students just plain won’t do the work or come in and make up assignments. As we employ more options such as APEX & no zero policy we allow the students to avoid the true measure of success. In my eight years of working in Charleston, I never remember the boss asking for someone’s standardized test score, but he often asked that you be at work and do the job he was paying you for. Unfortunately, I’m not sure there is any way to teach these values. There’s a lot of truth to the old adage that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. For my part, I will continue to bring the horses to the river bank.
ReplyDeleteAcross curriculum & grade level meetings to discuss students would be very helpful. I would like to know how my students are doing in other classes & how other teachers are addressing specific weaknesses.
We are a PLC because we try to put our students in a position where they can succeed. There are many ways in which we have tried to implement strategies to improve learning, such as APEX, after school tutoring, collaborative planning to develop common assessments, peer mediation, and technology based lessons.
ReplyDeleteI believe the administration allows the faculty time to make GHS a PLC. We are not assigned committee's to be on, but rather are able to choose those which we feel we can best be a positive contributor to GHS and our students.
In reading everyones comments, there are so many things I see that are "on target". I certainley agree with the 80 - 20 ratio. We do so much to help the lowest majority. Most intervention ideas seem great on paper , but consequently affect so many other teachers, staff, students, parents,administration, and the society as a whole. I hear high school teachers complain, " they didn't learn it in middle school", Middle school teachers complain that they didn't learn it in elementary" and so on and so forth. What ever happened to THE BUCK STOPS HERE! When students graduate and go out into the work force and don't perform, are tardy, and don't follow procedure they are fired. When people break the law they are put in jail. IEP's and 504's don't matter. So my question is what are we teaching? I would be willing to bet 99.5% of our students would wear an ID if they had a job at the Savannah River Plant making $75,000 a year.
ReplyDeleteIs that to say I don't believe in any intervention strategy? Absolutely not. I do believe we could limit these techniques and yes sometimes failure is good. I've learned many lessons from failure......some of my most valuable lessons have been learned in failure.
School report cards and test scores are all corelated with socioeconomic status. Its not the x's and the o's its the Johnnys and Joannas. Before Charles said it I was thinking, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
While it may not be an intervention strategy, the school hub idea seems to be teriffic. I believe most students will be successful when they decide they want to succede. Placing students in schools that offer a choice in curriculum that leads to a career of choice, gives students a vested interest in their grades. Here's an idea... lets pay students to get good grades so we don't have repeat failures. One thing is for sure if the students, staff and administration don't "buy" into any intervention strategy it's doomed for failure.
1. C. Eskridge has a very valid point about the expectations. I've worked with many teachers to design research projects that had great potential, but the students were more interested in "playing" than they were in doing research. After wasting HOURS in the library during the assigned time, they had nothing to show for their time often stating, "they had done it at home" or it was easier to work "later" However, when the deadline was due, they beg to come back to the library to finish work. Although I'm always happy to have students come in to research, I always cringe a bit when I remember how much time they wasted and wonder what instructions they are missing to do "whatever it takes" for them to make up the research time. I'm not blaming teachers - they do almost everything except stand on their heads to get the students to work.
ReplyDelete2. I would love to see more interdisciplinary projects that would let the students accomplish more than one goal by doing a project - not the kind of project that has the same basic requirements for all courses, but on in which a component was done to meet the differing criteria for each subject. Often research projects that are assigned would meet standards in several subjects if there were a way to identify the links between the subjects. I would LOVE to collaborate with several subjects to do this type of project and design something that could be a project in one course or it could meet the requirements of more than one course. Anyone interested?
1. I agree with Ms. Watson that ‘most’ students ARE learning and ARE successful. It is the bottom 10-20% that need guidance and intervention. I believe we may see some strides next year here at GHS when we implement a mentoring system for those low achieving students. We just need to try new methods to assess and help these students learn as much as possible. It may be an unconventional way, but these struggling students have to have learning apply to something. They usually don’t value the ‘education’ of knowing or understanding something being taught.
ReplyDelete2. For the lower level kids, I would fill in the blank as ‘kids who will comply.’ Again, doing the same thing over and over will get you the same results. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results. We as teachers have to have an open mind to understanding and learning new teaching strategies or methods to keep the kids involved and understanding material in this modern era of technology and rapid communication.
I agree with Mr Kennerly "What ever happened to THE BUCK STOPS HERE!" Continued increase in interventions sets these individuals up for failure later in life.
ReplyDeleteA wise man once said, "Failure is fertilizer for success."
If everything is given to someone there is no need for he/she to strive.
I do not see a need for an increase in colaborative planning time. If anything implement a daily/weekly tutoring period.
This question has resulted in alot of good comments. It seems that one great philosophical challenge is trying to convey the importance of a solid education to a student who is not getting that message from their home environment. I have many students who have the desire to learn and be challenged in class. Sometimes it can be tough when the teacher may be the only motivator for a student to be successful..
ReplyDeleteOne strategy for addressing the concern would be to maximize technology as much as possible. Continue to create a broad monitoring system where students and parents can continue to learn more in class and after school in their home.
Many of the philosophical challenges that occurred to me as I read this chapter were actually the same as many of the previous posts. For instance, as Sherrie Watson said earlier, if this is aimed at a small percentage of the student body why must it affect all students. I really think this could be a time for teachers to really differentiate instruction, as mentioned in chapter 10, and take students who are already achieving to the next level with activities which would enrich what they had learned. It could be a time for students to work collaboratively in groups on projects that might enhance their learning. I don't think it would necessarily have to be a punitive time or even a waste of instructional time for those students who already have mastered the skills necessary. The teacher would have to be diligent in making good use of the additional time that might be provided during the school day. I think this is one of the best ways to provide extra help for students who are falling behind, especially with the challenges we will face in relation to limited resources in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest challenges we will face is ensuring that our faculty "buys in" to the focus on providing intervention time. Many of us were probably lucky that we probably grasped coursework in school fairly easily. I think we probably made it through school without much of a struggle. During my time in education though, I have seen too many students fall to the wayside and just give up. Now granted, there are those who just don't care, don't do their work, etc...but what if we made them truly accountable and during an intervention time, we could say, "Well, Bucko, you didn't do your assignment today so I am sending you to Mrs. X and you will have to complete it. Not doing your work is unacceptable!" Why don't we take a "hard line" in this manner instead of just giving a zero...some kids don't even care about getting a zero! If we set our expectations high and STICK TO THEM, students will most definitely meet them!
My biggest concern is the student’s lack of responsibility. They are not all being held to the same standards as they would be in the work place or in higher education. It’s as though we are just trying to make sure that our graduation rate stays up and are not focusing on whether the student is actually learning. When we give the students so many ways to pass when they have not shown the interest or initiative to work for that goal, then what are we teaching them? I worry they will go into the ‘real world’ without the fundamental knowledge that you must work for what you want. Obviously we don’t just give those passing grades on a silver platter but perhaps it’s too convenient.
ReplyDeleteThere is a place for every person in the workplace but not everyone can be doctors and lawyers and, while I try to encourage the students to ‘be anything they want to be’, I feel two-faced because I know they probably won’t because a doctoral degree won’t be handed to them. We are on the right path with LTC and other courses designed to develop the student’s interest but I think it can go even further. If a student wants to be a mechanic, he doesn’t need to master Shakespeare. Let’s give that student an English class on how to read instruction manual or guidebooks. Yes, there isn’t enough time, money, resources to address each student’s individual needs but perhaps we can rework curriculum. I understand English 1 Part 1 students may be getting an entirely new curriculum next year which will be better suited to their needs, so why couldn’t we do that in all areas?
1. There are different factors that play in to why a student is not learning, but, as others have said, it is hard to teach kids the will to learn. Different strategies or mentor times are fantastic, but there remain occasions when the will will no and/or is there, unfortunately.
ReplyDelete2. Students' learning needs must be met. It's why we are ultimately here--hopefully. However, as Lotz stated, it is hard to support students reading all these different types of literature when one knows they are not college-bound or are going directly into a skills-related profession such as the auto-mechanics field. Don't get me wrong, I believe exposure to different types of literature is important, but should it be the focus of such career-oriented students?
1. Most students learn and have no problems learning. This has been the case for years. And for years there has always been a very small percentage of those that do not reach that basic level, nor will they ever reach that basic level. Why are we trying to change everything for everyone, when it is only a select few that need extra help? As the saying goes, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it." The system is not broke. We simply need to work with those few to help them.
ReplyDelete2. As for addressing these concerns about not enough time, money, etc... well, I do agree that we only have so much time. Perhaps realizing that some students only need the basics to succeed in life because they will never go off to college, may help keep the focus on the basic skills.
Philosophically, I believe that each student should be given every opportunity to learn. Kids learn differently and need different approaches to learning; however, every child must take responsibility for his/her own learning. The student must make every effort to learn new material through consistent studying, work completion, and paying attention in class.
ReplyDeleteI worry about my students who are given multiple opportunities to re-do, re-take, correct, and earn points to help them pass a course. I worry because many of these students become seniors who have enough credits to graduate, however, they haven't passed the HSAP. It is a philosophical dilemma for me. I want my students to be successful, but I also want them to have the skills to find and keep a good job after they graduate.
My experience is also that most students who want to learn are able to learn. The challenge is facilitating students who don't learn without penalizing the majority of students who do learn. Many of the programs to facilitate students who fall behind require significant extra time of teachers who then have less time to teach the majority of students who are learning.
ReplyDelete1. I have a problem with continuing to lower our standards to meet kids who don't want to work. Kids now strive to only make a 60 to recover the credit in another way. We need to find a way to get kids to want to achieve in the classroom. Having taught APEX, I do believe it is necessary and helps the students who really tried in class but just needed a little extra time to get the material. Maybe there should be some type of teacher recommendation that goes along with special programs. If kids don't pull their weight in class and take responsibility and try, then maybe they don't need a special program to help them with their bad habits.
ReplyDelete2. I think that most students want to learn. There is always that small percentage that don't care. I have been trying to figure out how to help these students for years. Some times you can find the right motivation. You just have to look. With other kids, they don't see the importance until they are standing in an adult ed classroom and have decided for themselves that they want an education.
1. When does it become the students responsiblity to do "whatever it takes"? The student has to make the decision that they want to learn and succeed, because if they do not our hands are tied as educators.
ReplyDelete2. I do think for many students they are limited on resources outside of the school day, so we need to be able and provide extra support while they are here to level the playing field. So students who want to learn can no matter their background.
Wow!!! This was definitely a controversial blog and I see merit in all of my colleagues' responses. As one said earlier, there is a "fine line" here. My thoughts seem to match closely to Crystal Lotz' comments, but I also know that when a group of kids reaches me at the high school level, they may or may not have been equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge or attitude and guidance to succeed. It should be my job to try and meet them at their level of need; I agree with that 100%. Some kids are not as blessed as I was to grow up in a functional home environment (for the most part :>)) where education and personal success were emphasized on a regular basis; not every kid is even required to be accountable at home; so how can we expect them to be accountable at school? Not my fault, but not necessarily the kid's fault either. I don't want to be a part of system that "perpetuates failure," no doubt. Somehow we have to address the accountability factor.
ReplyDeleteWe have to be mindful of all of that when designing curriculum, grading policies, extra help, etc.
As far as the strategies to address the "we don't have the resources to implement this type of program," mindset, there is no doubt that money is a concern, but as S. Watson said, that's where creativity and innovation pay off, and with a laptop in every kid's hands, I think the ideas and resources are now going to be unlimited. We will need to think smarter, and hopefully not end up working harder. I can also see the need to really put our heads together.
I want to address question #2 first...the "not enough" question. I went to a small private high school, but it was not elite or showy. We did not have computer labs and technology. This was long ago, in the dark ages. But the program was the most challenging I experienced until my second grad school experience (online by the way), over 30 years later. The authors state on p. 159, "One of the consistent messages students convey in surveys of their schooling experience is that their schools fail to challenge them." I cannot say that was my high school experience at all. We had LOTS of work to do, both at home and at school. BUT I felt I was encouraged to think for myself, solve problems in groups and individually, discuss critical social issues, beconme involved in social action and community work. Tests were NOT memorization and spit back. Classes were not "teacher in front", "sage on the stage". I think these people were on to something...and it didn't take extra resources, just best teaching practices and committment of the staff.
ReplyDeleteQuestion #1:
Other objections? I have heard any number of people say that the student should have the opportunity to fail. What is that about?
Yes, everyone can learn from failure, if that learning itself is structured and focused, but just allowing the student to fail without intervention or follow up is irresponsible. Do we understand WHY each child is failing? Or do we just label him or her as "lazy", "irresponsible", "limited".
If a child has trouble riding a bike and fails, do we continue to let him or her go out and skin knees and get bloody whatevers, or do we intervene and hold the bike a while longer, help them with balance, maybe suggest a smaller bike for a while, give him or her a hug and wipe the tears?
I think that our teachers and parents are too married to the notion of “equal is always fair.” In fact, that is not the case—neither is fair always equal. If the goal of the school is to create a graduate who can function and produce in society, then schools must work towards that goal. Many people will argue that “We had to do it; now these kids need to do it.” What most of them do not acknowledge is that the “it” these kids do is very much accelerated beyond what they did as students (They should recognize this if they’ve helped their children with any math homework lately!). If intervention is properly instituted, it benefits everyone because no matter the level of student or the course, there is more that can be done—either to take the student further or to guarantee that he or she can apply the learning.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that the biggest issues have more to do with “not having enough____.” It is here that everyone must be dedicated to the cause because if everyone shares the burden, our efforts will go further. We can enlist all teachers, library staff, support staff, academic coaches, administrators, and even older or more successful students (in their areas of expertise or comfort) to help us in remediating or “stretching” students.
If it were easy we'd have figured it out by now, I guess!
ReplyDeleteI must say, not long ago I would have stood by objection #1 (too much help just teaches irresponsibility); but the authors' point was a good one--zeroes offer an option that students could take, which we don't want them to take; making them do all the work forces them to at least be in a position to learn. I think they may be right. BUT...
In response to the 2nd prompt, intervening and checking that old work that the student finally turned in is very demanding on teachers; so we end up paying more of a price than the student for the student's failure/irresponsibility/personality difference/what-have-you.
AND we really don't have time to do this in a haphazard way--whatever work at whatever date, or not, whatever! This is the hard way.
IF the intervention is well-designed and systematic it shouldn't be much of a burden. Once we get the well-oiled machine up and churning, it shouldn't be too bad. BUT I'm sure others are as scared as I am about getting that machine going. Technology (laptops) is potentially a huge asset toward this systematic help; BUT getting everything ready for computer and overcoming all the sure-to-happen glitches is downright oppressive to think about.
So I'm going to think about summer instead.
What are we trying to teach the students of today? I don't think that the idea behing whatever...is that we reward students that are lazy and just not working or trying to learn...Whatever..should be that we help those that try in more ways than one...If a student tries and fails more opportunities are offered, but the way this seems to be going is that students can do whatever they do besides study and then at the very last possible moment (walking across the stage at graduation) a ton of work can be turned into a teacher and that the work will be welcomed and graded and the student can graduate. I don't believe this is the intent to give overworked teachers more work for late work. I agree with the comments made by DP on this. And we don't have enough of _____ and I don't think at this point it if fair to expect more from teachers when it is the students that should be producing more and learning more. Aren't they expected to be self-learners? Shouldn't a part of their education be consequences? With the number of jobs that are available in the real world we should be educating today's learners to be the best they can and part of that would be to be on time.
ReplyDeleteI think students should be given the opportunity to be successful. Each student learns in a different way and at a different pace so I feel that this means that opportunities for different students should be different based on the individual need of the student. However, one thing that I struggle with is getting students to be self-motivated and to push themselves “the first time around”. I have many students that have come to expect the opportunity to retake assignments or to complete APEX for credit recovery for their classes. For some students this is very helpful because some students truly work very hard and are doing the best they can. But I think it is also true that we have some students that are given every possible opportunity and still are not doing what they are supposed to because they are expecting still more opportunities. At times it gets difficult to know when enough is enough and the student themselves needs to set higher goals for themselves as an individual and not do “just enough”. It is difficult because I don’t know how to make students be more motivated or to care or to have an intrinsic desire for their education.
ReplyDeleteI agree with alot of the comments about we cant keep giving students chance after chance if they are not going to try and help themselves. I think it is our job to make sure that every student is successful, but there has to be a point where you have to allow students to learn from their failures. What are we teching our students if they know that if they dont pass a class they can earn the credit through such things as APEX. There are alot of things that students are motivated by like cell phones, I-pods, and computers. I think we have to find a way to incorporate these interest in to learning. This will take some adjustment on our part as teachers but as long as we set guidelines and boundaries I think this can be accompllished. We arre past the days of keeping students interested by lecturing to them all day everyday.
ReplyDeleteMany students learn differently and need different approaches to getting the information across to them. Unfortunately as a teacher, it's hard to accommodate everyone all the time. Students have to take on some of the responsibility of learning the information on their own. We have several programs to facilitate students who fall behind in order for them to catch up or even pass the class.
ReplyDeleteQuestions one and two of chapter 9 sum up our dilemma: 1. Doesn’t this system of interventions simply enable students to act irresponsibly? 2. Are we forgetting the whole child? The authors state, “One of our important goals is that the students learn responsibility…It calls upon us to take on more responsibility for student learning rather than placing it where it belongs-with the student. If we come swooping in to solve their problems…when they have not done what is necessary to be successful, we are simply enabling and reinforcing irresponsible behavior.” From all the dialogue we have had, it is evident that GHS is a caring community, a group who have the best interests of the students at heart. We are not afraid to consider and implement any strategy if we think it will help students to be successful. We are there for these students intellectually as well as emotionally; many times, we are “parents” as we guide, instruct, and nurture.
ReplyDeleteI recalled a somewhat dated report known as the SCANS Report (U.S. Department of Labor-Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills). Although it is a bit dated, almost 20 years old now, I wonder if times have changed so much that we have moved past some basic fundamentals of success in life. The report’s mission stated that, “We understand that schools do more than simply prepare people to make a living. They prepare people to live full lives and to participate in their communities, to raise families, and to enjoy the leisure that is the fruit of their labor. A solid education is its own reward.” It went on to say describe a “Three Part Foundation”.
Basic Skills: Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens and speaks
Thinking Skills: Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and reasons
Personal Qualities: Displays responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity and honesty
Isn’t this the core of values on which we should base our students’ success? Have we provided them a rigorous and challenging academic content? Have we fostered critical thinking skills so that wise decisions (academically and socially) can be made? And have we inspired students to develop personal qualities that will ensure not only personal success, but will also create positive influences on others.
Finally, to answer the question…Caring educators as well as successful students do Whatever it Takes when faced with a task to accomplish. When we don't, there is often a consequence. Mr. Cooper quoted, ”Failure is fertilizer for success.” All of us have scooped some fertilizer at one time or another and even though it was not pleasant, think of the bountiful crop it produced as a result.
We are a PLC because we try to put our students in a position where they can succeed. There are many ways in which we have tried to implement strategies to improve learning, such as APEX, after school tutoring, collaborative planning to develop common assessments, peer mediation, and technology based lessons.
ReplyDeleteI believe the administration allows the faculty time to make GHS a PLC. We are not assigned committee's to be on, but rather are able to choose those which we feel we can best be a positive contributor to GHS and our students.
1. I think that biggest challenge for an intervention program is determing how effective the program is with the performace of students. Is the program helping students to succeed in their future classes, or is the intervention simply setting them up for failure in the future? Answering these questions takes more than one person. Everyone involved in the school must contribute to discussions about the intervention program. Parents, students, and teachers need to discuss what works and what is helpful from the intervention program as well as what doesn't work and suggestions on how to improve.
ReplyDelete2. First of all, we have to get away from saying that we "can't" do something. We are educators. It is our job to figure out how to teach and reach these students no matter the circumstances. All it takes is some brainstorming and some willing people, and a successful intervention program can be implemented. One thing that would be very useful to our school is more community involvment with after school programs. Gilbert does not have as much of this as schools in larger cities like Columbia.
I believe that we do "whatever it takes" for these students by giving them extended deadlines,additional support,and APEX. What I fear is that we are enabling them. Dealing with so many of them with Senior Projects...not sure if we are teaching them responsibility or accountability. Will our students leave the doors of GHS expecting their supervisor or college professor to accept that they slept late or just did not get the work done? And expect to not get fired or get an extention on a project?? Employers tell me all the time that our students are technically brilliant and quick learners, but their soft skills are terrible! This generation (as the employers are telling me)is unable to carry on a conversation, have the eye contact, confidence, and ability to articulate during an interview. These are my challenges as I try to prepare students for their future career and college choices.
ReplyDeleteNext year will be an interesting year with the One-2-One initiative. I think that students will be more interested in learning via technology and relevancy will be more evident. Leadership 21 is great start in teaching our freshman about leadership and presentation skills. I believe if we continue to have students do more presentations, in 10-12 grade, they will gain more confidence and do so much better on their Senior Project presentations. If we continue to nurture leaders within the classrooms and have team projects..maybe some that are career or industry related that will help. The list can go on and on...but those are just some ideas that would help our students be more prepared.
I believe, like many other teachers that the majority of our students want to learn and they do what is expected. It is those students who don’t see the relevance to the subject matter that I have the most problems with. Why do I have to learn this? When will I use it? For these students I wish we could offer a course that they feel would help them in life instead of making them frustrated and continue to have to take it multiple times since this area is not their forte. We offer AP and Honor level courses for those who want to expand their knowledge but we fit everyone else into the same mold. Is that what we really need?
ReplyDeleteSometime I think we bend over too much for students and like many of you have said, students don’t ever take responsibility of their own work. I just wish that instead of being on 9 weeks schedule that we were on a two week schedule. It amazes me how hard students work when they realize that they are failing. Wouldn’t it be nice if students would work as hard as they do the last few weeks of school when they final realize they are going to fail. What can I make up? What can I do for extra credit? If they would just work that hard all through the 9 weeks we would not have to worry about APEX and other interventions. Maybe we need to work on how to motivate the students the first time instead of offering interventions once they fail.
In the math department we took a different approach to helping kids pass HSAP. We identified students who would most likely not pass the HSAP and gave them the class before they took it instead of waiting to see who failed and then offered remediation. This seems to be working a lot better. Maybe we need to look at ways to prevent failures that ways to remediate.
1. For me, like many others have said, the biggest philosophical challenge I see is that we are doing a great deal of extra work, giving a great deal of extra time and money, to help a few students, many of whom have little to no interest in performing better than they are now. Don’t get me wrong, there are students out there who are working super hard and not doing well. These students however usually take advantage of the current extra help opportunities their teachers offer. Also, I feel we are allowing students opportunity after opportunity to re-do work, recover credit, and so on, when this is not how the real-world works. I feel there needs to be some consequence for not doing required work well and in a timely manner, just like there will be when they leave our doors. As a wonderful and respected peer said just today, “We are educators, not standards-based teachers” and we need to be educating students in the ways of the world also.
ReplyDelete2. While time, money, etc are definite hindrances to what we want to accomplish, we definitely need to stop saying that we can’t do things. My suggestion is basically that we have to work together to come up with the best ideas possible. We try them out, and if they don’t work then we have to back up and try something else. There are a lot of answers out there; we just have to keep searching for the correct ones for our school.
1. The system of intervention that we have now, Apex,etc. is not going to achieve the ultimate success that we are looking for with students.We are going to have to have a system that puts more responsibility on the student rather than the teacher for their success. With that comes more responsibility from the parents for their childrens education. We are going to need more support from the home. Instead of "I can't do anything with them". Discipline will bring success. Setting goals and reaching goals.
ReplyDelete2.We need to get lots of different people involved,Parents,teachers,business leaders,the whole community(it takes a community to raise a child).
I agree with the majority of the comments. We cannot just continue to give chance after chance. There has to be a point where we realize no matter how much we help some students aren't going to help themselves. I think we should strive to make every student successful, but success may be that a student learns they have to work to succeed (some may have to learn that by failing) We are setting the students up for failure. When they get in the real world no boss is going to allow them chance after chance to get things done. They will fire them and find someone else.
ReplyDeleteStudent are motiveated differently these days. They don't seem to care about pleaseing the teachers or even their parents (which was what drove me to suceed). They are motivated by things they enjoy. We need to find these motivations and use them to teach the students. "Success breeds success" we have all heard that saying. Maybe if we can get some of the students to start getting some victories we can continue to help them grow until they are motivating themselves.
Giving students a chance to succeed is fine. Teaching students to care about their future and education is another!! At times i think we offer too many opportunities to pass. Let's compare it to driving a car.....you always look ahead to see what is in the road whether it be obsticals, bumps, or other obstructions. we allow students to fail...or do we? on this trip thru education or "driving"....we need to check the rear view mirror to see where we have been!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Erica. We bend over backwards giving students opportunity after opportunity to do their work. I'm not sure if that exactly prepares them for the workplace. Regardless, the implementation that may help some is offering incentives. For some that won't matter, because they (and their parents) don't care. But I have found this to be particularly effective for generally about a third of the students who want to succeed.
ReplyDelete1.All students at GHS have the opportunity to learn and most are doing so-maybe not their potential, but they are meeting success. Interventions can be helpful and I believe most of our teachers do "whatever it takes" to assist students in being successful. However, the challenge I see as being of the greatest concern is "Are we doing too much for the students that are not motivated and simply don't care?" Charles used 2 vital words: reliability and responsibility. These attributes are necessary to make the most of the "real world". I worry our more unmotivated students are being set-up for failure for after high school because we are enabling them to become "not responsible" and therefore, not reliable.
ReplyDelete2. Everyone needs to "buy in" and be involved: parents, teachers, community/business leaders.
I think we sometimes make school too easy and try to entice students to get the grade to pass, but miss educating them. They move into the " real" world and suddenly realize that much of the conveniences of being in high school, and being allowed so many concesstions to move them to graduate, are not found outside the school environment. Parents need to take more responsibility in keeping their child motivated and on track....Sometimes I feel like teachers are being expected to do their job. It is hard to figure out how to motivate some students, especially when their home life breeds lack of motivation.
ReplyDeleteTraining and collaboration for teachers may also be a problem as budget cuts occur.
ReplyDeleteWe are so concerned with test scores that a challenge may be to measure learning in other creative ways. Both of those can be philosophical.
Other challenges may be scheduling for the intervention, which we have experienced. Strategies come about with collaboration amongst teachers. I believe one way that we are doing is offering early bird and twilight classes.
Lots of good stuff up there. I sense a lot of frustration, which I share, with the difficulty in motivating the unmotivated. That seems to be the elephant in the room of education, and to us who have been around a while, he seems to be growing. I think the best approach is to do as we do in rearing our children--to start them in 9th grade with less rope, more structure, team-teach those who show that they need it, have an "academy" approach for those unprepared for high school, with mandatory extra tutorial hours for those who are failing after first 9-weeks (with teachers paid extra to stay late and transportation provided so students don't have an excuse). Then, as some grow up a little, we can loosen the reins a bit, let them enjoy the freedom that comes with willingness to accept responsibility.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be those who do not try or particularly care and whom we cannot reach, but at the end of the day we want to say we did all we could within reason.
1. As I read this material, I found that I have become the teacher that has just allowed students to be “free to opt for the penalty rather than do the work”. I have sat back and allowed my students to choose to fail. I have allowed them to “cop out”. Shame on me---I guess this means that I am going to have to get myself ready for a fight, to make sure that my students do whatever it takes to be successful! Bring it on!
ReplyDelete2.First, we are all going to really have to change our way of thinking and remember that some of our students are not arriving to high school with that intrinsic desire to be successful in learning. We are going to have to do whatever, whenever, however…it takes to motivate, educate and create successful learners!
I agree with most comments that we may be enabling too much. I have changed my ways tremendously in the past few years. I use to never give extended deadlines, bonus points, or allow students to redo work. I know everyone is not perfect, but that is why we take an average of all work. In college, sometimes there are only one or two tests and that is your grade. In the work field, you put in the wrong material or make a client mad and you are fired. We don't always get to do overs. Life goes on; we can't redo yesterday or last month.
ReplyDelete2) It seems that today's students are more extrinsically motivated than intrinsically. They don't want to do any more work than is necessary even if they're shown the value of that work. Ten years ago Biology AP students worked hard; they wanted that 5 on the test. This year; they thought a 5 was impossible. They laughed about passing it. I know that my approach has not changed any. If students don't want to earn it, it is hard to teach it. I would love to see the full detail of Stevenson High School's AP mentioned in the book.
Working with the population of students that I teach I have experienced many different challenges. The one challenge that I have read from other blogs is motivation. How do we get students engaged an actively learning when we are teaching an array of individuals. I think motivation needs to fall back on the students shoulders. Once they leave GHS they need to be equipped to be success on the job/college. Students need to take responsbility for their actions, behaviors, and learning.
ReplyDeleteDo what you can with what you got. Success brings followers. So if you implement an intervention you are going to hear positive praises and negatives voices but as the intervention produces succcess people jump onto the bandwagon.
1. Philisophical Challenge ~ Whenever I extend a deadline, stay late and wait for a student who never shows up to make-up a missed assignment, or phone a parent to make sure they are aware of grades that are posted daily on ed-line, I become concerned that we are preparing our students to fail in the future instead of succeed. It use to be only one or two students in the class who were just there to socialize, but now I am seeing more and more students who are waiting for that second chance or an extra-credit assignment to make "just enough" to get credit for the course. Are they learning the curriculum or learning how to make excuses? My goal is to prepare my students to enter the field of health care. Unfortunately, you do not get many second chances when you are trying to save a life. We have a generation with a very poor work ethic, and unless we can help them develop self-motivational skills and responsibility we are all going to suffer.
ReplyDelete2. Implementation Strategies ~ We need help... we need the parents and the community to help us hold the students accountable instead of helping them make excuses.
I have to agree with Ann Holstein on interventions. I have seen the At Risk students respond very well when they knew their was an opportunity to win $50.00. There are always a handful of kids who do not care, even if money is involved. Going to school is the student's job. Unfortunately, the APEX program (as great as it is for some students) has provided the students the opportunity to cheat and do items at home when they have not finished. I had the opportunity to hear this from a student who stated it was easy...just don't finish in class and take it home to look all the answers up. What are we teaching kids. Second chances will happen later in life...I do not think so. Many of these kids will get a slap in the face when they figure out we have let them down. Not turning items in on time in the business world means a termination from that particular job.
ReplyDeleteImplementation of any program requires a great deal of administrative planning, finance, and backing from local, state, and community businesses. If there is not a backing for any implementation of an intervention it will not work. The organization and administrative portion of the intervention must be strict, to the point, and spot on.
1. One of my biggest philosophical challenges is how do we motivate students to want to learn at high levels? This year, more than the past, I have seen more students wanting to just get by with a passing grade and some not caring at all. The vast majority have the ability but some lack the desire and discipline. Some are too near-sighted to see the value in education and unfortunately, influence other students. No matter what interventions we implement, as other have said, how can we teach students the will to learn?
ReplyDelete2. To address the concerns that there is not enough time and money for interventions, I feel that some students who are not doing well could be required to take study hall. There, they should be required to work with a tutor whether it be a teacher, student, ot volunteer. There is ample time built into the schedule because students need 24 units to graduate and have the opportunity to take 32 classes. Also, I liked what Los Penasquitos did with students who were not completing their assignments - academic detention during their lunch time. To maximize this time, a bag lunch could be given (purchased). With as many students as we have there could be a problem staffing this. But, maybe we could use this time to insist that students make-up tests and quizzes.
One of the main problems is that of responsibility. I give many opportunities for students to improve grades, turn work in late, and come for extra help. The problem is that most won't accept the challenge, as they just don't want to do the work. Some wait until the last minute and then wish to improve the grade/pass with "extra credit". We must instill the desire to take the challenge to do well and do extra work to improve. I'm just not sure how we can do it. I have also heard some say, "I'll just APEX." The academic lunch detention might be a good idea, but scheduling is a problem with the 3 lunches. If we could find a way to get parents to step up and push their children to be more accountable, the situation might improve.
ReplyDelete1. First of all, ditto to all of our comments on the challenges that might be raised. I think we are all frustrated for good reason on these matters. However, I’m also hearing that we all want to do our best and truly reach each kid. I had a class in college entitled, “Don’t Blame the Child.” Interesting, right? How many ways can we take this and it’s just the course title? Believe it or not, I may not ALWAYS agree with the title (as many educators would not) but, weirdly enough, the professor was right-on in some of his points. The professor said one day, as he relayed many of his experiences with us, “When my students fail, I fail. Even if it is just one and I’ve done all I can do. I still fail right along with them.” I’ve never forgotten that he said that. I think about it all the time, especially when grades are due. As you read this, you may start thinking of some names and some individual students. I do since I’ve been teaching. If we were to pick a certain student or group to represent us as teachers on how “good” we are, would we pick the same kids we were thinking about before? I wouldn’t.
ReplyDeleteIndividually, I raise the challenge, like others have mentioned, of how can we work all this out? Will we ever find the “Intervention System” that works for truly every kid and overcomes every single obstacle that we can’t do anything about? If so, let’s do that one first. Side Note: I’m totally for a well-rounded student…. So is our GHS Motto and District.
2. My only guess to this is to continue to study others’ research, have meetings with our staff together until we find the answer that will address everyone’s issues. I wish I had more, but I feel strongly that everyone’s concerns need to be addressed so that everyone will be on board.
1. I believe one HUGE philosophical challenge to this intervention stuff is the "jump on the band wagon/train" mentality. Many times in education we are sitting at a train station waiting for the next train. When it approaches, everyone is happy and successful and great, so we think "hey-this is IT! This will be the best train ever and I can ride it all the way home....no problem". So, we get on the train. And when I say we get on the train....we JUMP ON that train with everything and everyone. We drop tons of money into that train ticket and time and energy. So, we ride the train for a little while and the longer we're on it the more we realize that train was NOT the right train. it looked good, and it worked for about a minute (or maybe they put all the happy successful people by the windows so we could see that, but once on board we see all the unsuccessful ones hiding under the seats-hmmmm, like some research?) So, after a little while we get off at the next stop and wait for our next "great train". I believe we need to slowly try different ways of interventions so we can see what is successful in our community and our culture. Just like how we teach....one instructional method works in one area because of the culture of the population and it would crash and burn in another area.
ReplyDelete2. I have NO clue. The best I think we can do is brainstorm together and have collaborative input. Don't have one small group make a decision and drag the rest of us behind "the train" banging our heads on each track rail. There are solutions out there, but get people on it and get input from EVERYONE
I think that students will never develop responsibility unless they are given opportunities. Most people must fail before they realize the work that is involved in mastery. Some students need more time to acquire mastery. Do we harm students by forcing them into our mold? I think we do harm some students. Especially the free thinkers who will never fit any mold. We should debvelop relationships and then students will watch our model out of respect. If students respect you and what you are trying to do they will develop like traits. Every person should be treated as an individual and we need to be aware of their skills and talents. Success is different for every individual. Some children go through our school and no one knows them or what their interests are. If relationships are developed we will know the student's intrepretation of success and will watch for those traits and let the student know we are aware of what they are doing. Many times we have no idea what a student is dealing with at home because there is no relationship with the student. We must change the way we look at students and school to create success for every student. Change is hard and we resist it. We need to be open to new ideas and change.
ReplyDeleteWe need to make a concerted effort to get parents and students on board with change. We can do this through caring and communication. We need to be at events and activities that include students so we know what they are doing and what is important to them. Without this knowledge we can not develop the whole child.
1. A growing number of students in this country are lazy and irresponsible, and one can thank the United States Educational System for it. Districts make higher standards for their students but yet they tell teachers not to fail them (or discourages it)when the student doesn't meet the standards. So teachers are forced to help as much as possible to pass the students. The student know this game and are more than happy to play it. Why should they work hard for a grade when the teacher is going to pass them or an easier road to passing will be offered. I see this more and more as a teacher and the pressures to assist a student (at all costs) is starting to weigh me down. Our country's educational system is slipping farther down the world latter and it is our own fault. More and more students can't read at a 12th grade level or write a proper paragraph with no gramatical errors when they graduate. Yet somehow they still graduate. How can the young people learn from life when we adults don't allow them to fail. Failing is part of life and that you can learn from.
ReplyDelete2. Let them fail and see what happens.
I'm talking about proper paragraphs and things, and I can't spell correctly or write a paragraph. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many previous posts. Before an implementation is made, we have to think how it will impact our students. From the middle school experience who implemented the intervention time I learned that it worked very well for students who missed many days being sick. On the other hand, those who do not care about zeros do not use the implementation time.
ReplyDeleteSchools aim not only to transmit knowledge but also the skills necessary to live in real world. Sometimes we stress ourselves trying to create a stress free environment for our students. So when do we teach them to be responsible? Maybe, instead of providing multiple possibilities of taking and retaking we provide them an opportunity to experience consequences of not doing their work? Having so many ways re-do and re-take does not motivate and teaches self-discipline. We have to set boundaries by looking closely on a reason why a particular student is failing and be more accurate deciding who is eligible to redo an assignment and who is not. Letting a student to learn for the failure does not mean to take away an opportunity to succeed. There are plenty of instructional tools (laptops, cell-phones, i-pods etc) and strategies we incorporate in our lesson plan to motivate and help our students be successful.
I do feel that interventions are needed in some cases. However, I agree with some of the other teachers that in some cases students take advantage of these interventions and simply use them to get by. Just like Josh said, it would be nice if the kids could see these interventions as opportunities to expand their minds and not just as a means to an end. I think that we have to be careful and look at each individual case as to whether or not the interventions are working. We also need to keep in mind that we must teach our students the life skill of responsibility. In my opinion, if Johnny makes a 65 in English due to lack of turning in assignments, but Peggy makes a 65 in the same class due to struggling with the material, then I feel those situations need to be treated differently. Johnny needs to be taught responsibility. However, Peggy could use some intervention and benefit by helping her to understand and succeed. Peggy would be more apt to take advantage of the intervention as it should be rather than Johnny who wants an easy way out.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best thing to do to address implementation concerns is to get input from everyone. That way you have more ideas flowing around and then everyone feels on board and part of the team.
Well I think we are finally blogging instead of just posting. It is great to see this dialogue. “The best solution (to philosophical challenges) is honest dialogue.”
ReplyDeleteI, like many of you, struggle with the difference between helping and enabling. I don’t want students to fail-ever. Most of our students do not fail. But, some that are refuse or excuse any intervention until the very end when the only option is to rescue them. I am not against rescuing either. But chronic rescuing has long range consequences for our students and society. Like Julie R said about their lack of “soft skills”. Our students may be able to get a job, but how will they keep it? I see a real conflict between academic practices and the work place. Even still I accept a lot of late work with only points off. I know a client would not settle for a lesser price because the grammar is terrible or it is 2 months late. They will take their business elsewhere. An employer cannot afford to keep such persons on staff. Are we pushing students to graduation and the problem out of high school? It makes me shutter to say those words. I will do whatever it takes for someone who wants to learn, I am more cautious with those who don’t.
Strategies to address these philosophical challenges: Involve teachers in the screening process for recovery credit programs-dialogue with teachers about the requirements for students in the program (Apex). Right now it seems to be only a grade. What if we have already adjusted their grade through excusing assignments, accepting late work or giving a 55? What are the long term results? I want to be a part of turning things around not passing it on. (there goes another cold chill)
Question 1: As a health care professional, and one that had to work really hard to get through a rigorous program, I believe that we can give too many chances to students. Don’t get me wrong, I love for my students to be successful, but when they don’t put forth the effort in class or make excuse after excuse for why they can’t do this or that assignment it is very frustrating. I know there are those students at GHS that work hard to make the grade, work hard and barely make it, and those that don’t do anything and expect teachers to hand out grades. I have mixed feelings on interventions offered to students that “are not learning” and think that things may best be handled on a situational basis (focus time and energy on those that are really in school to do well and make a bright future for them). On one hand, I believe that certain interventions can give students that are not working hard the extra push to see how important it is to do what needs to be done in order to be successful; but on the other hand, they may be given another opportunity and completely tune out our efforts to help. Coming from the line of work I was in prior to teaching makes me a little uncomfortable with giving so many opportunities…because in the real world (in health care) there may not be a chance to re-do or make excuses because a life is at stake or in their hands. I let my students know that…and that they need to work hard to get it right the first time because there may not be another chance in their future line of work.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: I think that students need to see what they have to gain from working hard and for health science it is easy for students to see what they have to look forward to. Our students know from the beginning what it takes to make it into clinical studies (grades, behavior, recommendations, attendance) and they get to see and talk with their peers about the experiences they have in the “real world” of patient interaction. They know there are very few spaces for Clinicals and they know they want to be one of the top to get into CS…so they are more motivated to learn and to put for the effort to be successful. I think students need to have something that motivates them…whether it is money, a great position, etc. before they really make the connection. Those that have those motivators are going to be the ones that will work the hardest. We need parents, mentors, and our community to help our lower functioning students make the connection between working hard and success.
My thought is "just do it"!! You will always have someone who will come up with a reason why not to do something. It is not until you try an intervention that you will find out where the kinks are. We shouldn't be so afraid of failing that we never get out there and try.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest thing we need is a positive attitude. When the faculty and staff decide that this will work, it will. If we are against it or resistant to it, it will never get its feet off of the ground.
I know my biggest problem with students who are not successful in my classes is because they lack the desire to be successful. I don't see how intervention can help cope with a lack of motovation.
ReplyDeleteLack of resources is certainly a huge hurdle in the process of interventions. Parhaps schools could find ways to incorporate interventions into the regular school day to combat the time complaints
1. When does it become the students responsiblity to do "whatever it takes"? The student has to make the decision that they want to learn and succeed, because if they do not our hands are tied as educators.
ReplyDelete2. I do think for many students they are limited on resources outside of the school day, so we need to be able and provide extra support while they are here to level the playing field. So students who want to learn can no matter their background.
I think that "everyone" must do whatever it takes. That includes, teachers, counselors, administrators, the students, and their parents. If everyone is on board with a student, then it would be much easier. Many times I see a piece of this puzzle is missing. Motivation from the student is a big part of this puzzle - so how do we "make" them become motivated? I do think that GHS students are learning, and learning well. We might try something new that works, but we might also try something new that doesn't work - I guess we have to try to find the right fit. I do think that our students are given too many chances at times, and this does not carry over into life.
ReplyDeleteLibby said...
ReplyDeleteI think that our teachers and parents are too married to the notion of “equal is always fair.” In fact, that is not the case—neither is fair always equal. If the goal of the school is to create a graduate who can function and produce in society, then schools must work towards that goal. Many people will argue that “We had to do it; now these kids need to do it.” What most of them do not acknowledge is that the “it” these kids do is very much accelerated beyond what they did as students (They should recognize this if they’ve helped their children with any math homework lately!). If intervention is properly instituted, it benefits everyone because no matter the level of student or the course, there is more that can be done—either to take the student further or to guarantee that he or she can apply the learning.
I do agree that the biggest issues have more to do with “not having enough____.” It is here that everyone must be dedicated to the cause because if everyone shares the burden, our efforts will go further. We can enlist all teachers, library staff, support staff, academic coaches, administrators, and even older or more successful students (in their areas of expertise or comfort) to help us in remediating or “stretching” students.
1. I think one of the biggest challenges is motivating students to put forth effort in their classes. Students also need to see a purpose for learning material. In many cases interventions may not be necessary if students are motivated to begin with.
ReplyDelete2. Establish partnerships with community organizations and business.
GHS is a PLC because we put our students in a position where to be successfule. We have implemeted APEX, collaborative planning times, common assessments, ... to improve learning and teaching.
ReplyDeleteThe administration allows the faculty time to make GHS a PLC. We are forced to conform to one idea but allowed to collaborate and share ideas with others and make our own path.
It would be very hypocritical of me not to recognize that not everyone completes every assignments "ON TIME". I know that here at GHS, all students want ot be successful. Students are just like I am in that, they have areas that success comes easier to them. For instance, I complete the task that come easier to me first and then move on to the harder task. Some, I complete without any push and some task involve being reminded. We need to continue for high achievement and cintinue to give consistant help and encouragement to those who need it. Consistancy is the KEY.
ReplyDelete