Irene Smith: My Summer ON

maureen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:37:42 -0500

“Teachers are so lucky! They get the summer off to sit around and relax.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people say that. Well, I agree, teachers are lucky to have time out of the classroom during the summer months. However, summer isn’t completely relaxing… Teachers usually take advantage of the many opportunities available to improve our teaching abilities and knowledge.

Summer provides great options for professional development. For example, this year I was thrilled to participate in historical travel partially subsidized through my participation in a Teaching American History grant, To Preserve and Protect our Future.

My family and I flew to Washington DC, where I finally took the opportunity to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I have been to DC with student tours and have taken my students through the children’s side of the museum, “Daniel’s Story,” but I had never before been able to view the rest of the museum. It has a powerful impact. So many sad and terrible stories. Such a stark and sober presentation of artifacts and information. It was even more powerful to me given that just a few weeks prior to our visit, a white supremacist had murdered one of the security guards as he opened the door. Hate lives on, but there are still those who are brave enough to help us remember.

Next, we traveled to Gettysburg National Military Park. I could have spent days there. One of my favorite speeches, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, took place there. We were only half way through the museum when we realized we needed to meet our tour guide. We were able to have an extremely knowledgeable guide drive our car around the expansive battlefield area to show us where the most significant events took place during the Gettysburg Battle. It was sobering to recognize that two American armies faced each other there, and in one of the Civil War’s most pivotal battles, over 50,000 men either died or were wounded. Our guide told us that he is very careful about what he says to visitors because he never knows which side they are most sympathetic with. Apparently, we are not yet unified, even in our view of the past.

Historic Philadelphia was our next stop. We enjoyed visiting the many historic places around the city, including Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed and where our founders debated and discussed and compromised to create our Constitution. These founding documents are the heart of our national persona and values. One of my favorite stops there was the City Tavern, where John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others would gather to eat and talk politics. The food was amazing too!

Finally, after a few days enjoying New York City, my family left me at Columbia University where I spent a week in a Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History seminar titled “Slavery in the Age of Revolution” taught by imminent historian, Christopher Leslie Brown, author of Moral Capital. Through a study of primary documents and historical analysis, 29 other teachers and myself enjoyed learning about individuals and groups in the early anti-slavery movement and examined the tantalizing idea that perhaps our founding fathers could have much more easily abolished slavery in the USA during the Revolution when ideas of “natural rights” and a strong anti-slavery movement were on everyone’s mind, and when the national economy was less dependent on slavery and with southern states more vulnerable to outside forces.

Oh, what might have been!

Summer may be relaxing in a lot of ways, but I think my brain is working in overtime. Next week I begin classes in Moodle, open access programs that allow teachers to design online class activities and lessons. After that, my district has asked me to participate in aligning our YSD writing curriculum with state standards. In between, I will design next year’s courses, review new materials and curriculum and visit my soon-to-be born grandchild #1, Molly.

Yes, teachers are so lucky!

Irene Smith is a guest blogger and teacher in the Yakima School District.

Previous Blogs:

Another Year is Winding Down

Real Professional Development

Our Lost Treasure

Irene Smith: Real Professional Development

maureen — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:29:28 -0500

Lately, our staff has been examining “High Yield Strategies” for improving student achievement and we’ve discovered that Dr. Robert J. Marzano and his colleagues at the Marzano Research Laboratory actually translate educational research into useful teaching strategies.

Marzano has become all the rage for professional development and his strategies are widely respected by teachers. Recently, I asked thirty five teachers pursuing National Board candidacy for suggestions of resource materials that had transformed their teaching. Among the most popular choices were Marzano’s books.

For reforming our schools he has suggested three critical commitments:

Develop a system of individual student feedback at the district, school and classroom levels.
Ensure effective teaching in every classroom.
Build background knowledge for all students.

Over my past decade of teaching, I have seen a lot of ideas come and go, but I love to see a focus on research-based best practices. Marzano’s ideas not only seem to have potential (like so many flash-in-the-pan PD fads,) but they really are helping districts, schools and teachers focus on goal setting and action to improve student learning.

It seems like a no-brainer that schools seeking to improve will use research to justify their choices for changing instruction. However, it seems to me that often change is distilled to something easily implemented or quickly assessed. Sometimes that just makes busy work for teachers and doesn’t really change student learning.

Marzano’s work reminds us that students are at the heart of what we do, that their feedback is crucial and that their understanding needs a base upon which teachers can build. We must have clear learning targets and make sure students know where they are headed, what they are expected to do, and how they are being successful along the way. Responsibility for learning is shared by both students and their instructors. His classroom strategies connect those important concepts and make them useful for the day to day efforts of individual teachers.

Teachers have a responsibility to be effective. The sad truth for some so-called educators is that our educational system really can't continue to allow weak teachers to waste student learning time. It can and should support new teachers as they develop necessary skills for effective teaching, but it shouldn’t be a life-time career for those who can’t take students where they need to go. Youth is too short and learning is too important. We can’t afford poor instruction.

Irene Smith is a guest blogger and teacher in the Yakima School District.

Previous Blogs:

Our Lost Treasure

Shakespeare for Kids

In Praise of Terry Bergeson