What is the biggest change that you would like to see made at your place of work? To dig a little deeper, think about what you could do to help influence this change if you knew there could be
no negative repercussions to your actions. What would you do if
you could do anything?
Change is always hard for everyone to experience. It's uncomfortable, for one thing. The biggest change I would like to see made at my school is for all staff to break free of traditional modes. We have an older staff of wonderful veteran teachers-but they are hesitant to explore alternative methods of instruction and even shy away from some newer forms of technology. We have discussed differientiated instruction at length and this creates a way of panic over some very good faculty members who have been teaching a certain way for a long time. I think the most valuable approach to changing the culture of our school and to start breaking traditional expectations of student behavior, student performance, and teacher expectations is to start with teacher input. I would create some teacher led teams to discuss instruction in each department, involve our instructional coach more, and even tackle behavior issues as a staff to explore alternatives to sending students in the office.
ReplyDeleteI love change and the challenges it brings. If I could change anything I would create a flexible school day that would better meet the needs of the students. Brain-based research suggests that adolescents learn more effectively later in the day. I would alter start times to reflect that, and schedule academic classes according to indicated time-performance ratios. Additionally, I would include other options, such as online, evening or summer classes that would help address the needs of students who work or have children of their own. What can I do personally? I am willing to help create and implement online classes, experiment with flexible scheduling of my classes and offer summer sections if it is supported by the school.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see only those who truly love kids and love teaching remain employed.
ReplyDelete