CTA IFT Teacher Think Tanks are being formed around the state to focus on what's working in public education and what changes teachers believe should take place in our schools. Specifically, think tanks will provide teachers the opportunity to voice their ideas on the teaching profession, public education, and the teaching and learning process. Think tank conversations will build on what’s great about our public schools with the goal of making them even better. Think tank participants will also have the chance to discuss factors believed to be important to the creation of a culture of success for students.
Factors Driving Success - The CTA IFT has identified seven factors supporting student success. Grounded in student and parent interviews, teacher focus groups, and school-community forums, each factor emphasizes strengths over deficits, creating a teaching and learning environment where student, parent, and teacher assets drive the school change process.
Think tank participants will help the IFT gain valuable information in support of a strength-based approach to school improvement. The knowledge gained will not only help students but also provide practical examples in support of authentic school change.
Click on the links below to find out more about the IFT and the Think Tank Program.
John Hunter knows what the creative classroom looks like. His students create it every single day. Teacher John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4'x5' plywood board -- and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches -- spontaneous, and always surprising -- go further than classroom lectures can. Click here to view the passion and excitement of Teacher Hunter.
Perhaps the most telling comment offered by teacher John Hunter is from his first job interview:
I asked the supervisor, what should I do? She said "What do you want to do?" As a teacher, to be given that kind of open space, that kind of mandate-less position to be in where you can create out of the emptiness, it allowed me to create that kind of template for my students, where I could ask them, "What would YOU like to do today?
The source for this article is National Board-certified educator Anthony Cody, who taught science for 18 years in inner-city Oakland and now works with a team of science teacher-coaches that supports novice teachers. A version of this post appeared on his Education Week Teacher blog, Living in Dialogue.
By Charlotte Williams on May 2, 2011 - The NAACP recently released a report — “Misplaced Priorities: Over Incarcerate, Under Educate” — which, as the title suggests, argues the federal and state governments are misplacing priorities in their allocation of funds to prisons rather than education. In the report and in recent interviews, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and other sympathizers (including some fiscally conservative groups and prison groups) make compelling points about this funding tradeoff. Continue reading.
More and more teachers are talking about the film Race to Nowhere. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people pushed to the brink, students who have become disengaged, and teachers frustrated with the fact that no one is listening to their concerns.
Race to Nowhereis a call to mobilize families, teachers, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing, and responsible citizens.
Teachers with parents are coming together, using the film as a centerpiece for raising awareness and creating an affirmative dialogue around public education.
An Invitation to Teachers - Become part of the Race to Nowhere conversation and contribute to a Race to Nowhere book that is being written. The purpose of the book is to create a solutions-based road map, offering meaningful and sustainable ideas in response to top-down so-called education reform measures. If you would like more information or to contribute to this book contact Vicki H. Abeles or Laureen Rowland directly.
ThePositive Deviance (PD) Approach is having a major impact on teachers and students at Merced Union High School. The CTA IFT Positive Deviance Grant from the Hewlett Foundation is designed around the concept that the most efficient way to improve our schools is to use locally homegrown available, sustainable, and effective approaches.
The PD Approach at Merced Union High School examines why students are staying in school – not why they are dropping out. While still in its beginning stages, the PD Approach is showing teachers and students that improving our schools does not have to be a frustrating, debilitating process where people point fingers or participate in a blame game. PD, unlike most reform initiatives being recommended in Sacramento or Washington DC, focuses and collects data on what works in our schools and uses this information as a foundation for proposing changes that make sense to all school community stakeholders. Download this podcast for an audio description of Positive Deviance.
Positive Deviance is an approach to behavioral change based on the observation that in every community, there are people (Positive Deviants) whose uncommon but successful behaviors enable them to find better solutions to a problem than their peers, despite having no special resources or knowledge. For our schools, this means that there are students that are staying in school, doing great work, and preparing to become successful citizens, even though the odds at times may be against them. PD helps us to understand why this is the case.
At the Merced PD Project, students are playing a critical role in the school improvement process. Students are identifying PD behaviors, possible actions and strategies to reduce dropouts, and evaluation methods for success.
What makes Positive Deviance unique is that PD emphasizes practice over knowledge and the how instead of the why. The PD mantra is: You are more likely to act your way into a new way of thinkingthan to think your way into a new way of acting. Positive Deviance isa bottom-up approach to change, where there are no external experts, and the capacity for change is embedded in the talents and strengths of the school-community. It is truly a strength-based teacher driven approach to school improvement. To find out more about the PD Approach contact Dick Gale, CTA IFT Manager/Program Director.
Discover what other teachers are saying about school change. Connect with colleagues who have similar interests to yours. Find new teaching and learning strategies that are practical and make sense. If you are looking for no-nonsense school improvement initiatives, you are invited to visit The Learning First Alliance.
What teachers are really doing in their schools and classrooms is constantly being distorted by politicians, media celebrities, and talk show hosts. Instead of focusing on the day-to-day real-time experiences of teachers, those that have the least amount of knowledge about our schools are advocating for changes based on little evidence, poor research, and at times, simply just a hunch. Continue reading.
With all the talk about what’s wrong with our schools, The George Lucas Educational Foundation believes it’s time to have a conversation about what's right with public education, what's working. The Foundation reminds everyone that there are successes in education every single day and that our children might be better served if we paid more attention to what works than what’s wrong in our schools and classrooms.
In districts of every stripe and demographic make-up, educators are dedicating themselves to providing their students with a high quality
21st century education, and using new technologies to make it happen. They are showing kids how to find and analyze information . . . These educators are beginning to re-invent the learning process, guiding students through rigorous, real-life projects that integrate core academic topics and personalize the learning experience . . . Continue reading.
By Erin Richards of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . . . On a recent Monday morning at Lincoln Center of the Arts, Assistant Principal Tiffany Fisher suspended her administrative duties to quiz a seventh-grader on her goals for the week.
"Do you have your materials for the day? Did you get your last report card?You're not letting Damien throw you off, right?"
Fisher ran through a daily checklist of self-management points, jotting notes on a scorecard for behavior that the student would ask each of her teachers to sign, and reminded the girl to check in again at the end of the day.
As part of a new approach to behavior management in Milwaukee Public Schools - and one that's being used increasingly across the state and country - the "check in, check out" system at Lincoln, 820 E. Knapp St., is one piece of a re-engineered framework that's expanding from 30 to 55 schools next year.
Prompted by the high rate of suspensions in the district, the behavior management system known as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports will eventually become districtwide. Already, the approach has correlated with fewer suspensions at many of the pilot schools this year, as well as improvements in attendance, according to district data.Continue reading.
In the Movie Six Degrees of Separation, Will Smith explains how imagination is an integral part of our individuality. The film discusses the importance of imagination and how we have lost our sense of purpose and direction. Many teachers believe that imagination and creativity have been eliminated in our schools and replaced with state mandates.Watch the film, discuss it with your colleagues, and comment below.
As the school change industry grows and becomes more powerful, initiatives to close the achievement gap and reduce dropouts become more confusing and chaotic.As reported by many What Works Conference participants, the school change movement has spun out of control and it’s time for those who know the most about our children to take charge.
The What Works Conferences surfaced numerous possibilities about what can be done to improve our schools.However, most ideas, were subtle and imbedded in the day-to-day lives and relationships of teachers, parents, and students.Between and among these relationships are the events, projects, and an ever changing learning environment that sparks insight, curiosity, and innovation in our classrooms.
One of the most interesting outcomes from the What Works Conference was the inside-outside thinking that described new approaches to school change.Inside-outside thinking resulted when classroom teachers had serious and authentic conversations about improving our schools with educational researchers, and policy makers.The What Works Conference was a first step in bringing together parents, administrators, and community leaders with classroom teachers to discuss and identify those patterns that create the conditions necessary for student success – both academically and socially.Conference presenters and participants found that school improvement does not often manifest itself in tangible ways, but rather takes place by discovering patterns or the way things operate successfully – in other words, what works.
Inside-outside thinking views school change from a system-wide perspective.Most school change initiatives have generally emphasized either internal or external efforts to improve our schools.Early childhood education (ECE) suggests a teaching and learning environment that has no boundaries, where all school community stakeholders play an authentic role in the change process. A close examination of ECE may reveal possible change strategies that can be applied throughout all of public education.
To understand inside-outside thinking and to get a better idea of how this approach works, click on the presentation below.This sample audio presentation will give you a flavor for the What Works Conference and the rich conversations that took place during the three week conference period.Panel members for this session includedLinda Fiddler, Teacher/Resource Specialist in Bakersfield, CA, City School District, Delaine Eastin, former Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of California, andDr. Alan Daly, Professor of Education at UC San Diego.
In the audio session below you will hear parts of a powerful presentation on how school community gardens are able to bring together parents, teachers, classified staff, administrators, and community leaders to create a teaching and learning environment filled with passion, excitement, and joy.Presenters, through their conversations, discovered that school community gardens can create a new context for school improvement – one that became obvious through inside-outside thinking.
