Yesterday I read an article in USA Today which talked about the positive impact on teaching and learning from the way a new school was built. It was not done "on the cheap" but rather money was spent to do it right with the idea that it would more than payoff in the long run. Schools and teachers are constantly looking for things that help them better educate their kids. The good news is that there are things that work. The bad news is that they are often expensive.
Education has always been underfunded - especially in teaching salaries - but when more funds are spent on the wrong things it leaves the impression that spending more money isn't the answer. Spending more money on things that don't work isn't the answer.
School districts can't build new schools very often. What this article suggests is that when a new school is built it should be done in a way that invests money in a smart way and that it will more than pay off in the long run.
It also suggests to me that teachers can pay more attention to the space they have to work with and find ways to make it safer and more inviting for their students. Research what works and be creative in using limited resources to produce the best environment for you and your students.
Here is the link.
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4 comments:
This is a little off topic, but your post reminded me of a news article I recently read. Some severely underperforming schools in Chicago have recently done a complete overhaul of most or all teachers as a way to step up the school's overall performance. They are experimenting with this method at a few schools, with, from what I can tell, positive results so far. I think the basic idea is that kids get into bad habits and teachers start to accept it and allow it to happen more and more often. With a completely new staff, kids have to figure out the pecking order once again, and teachers have a fresh start to add some order. Obviously, a lot of people don't like this method, as it requires a LOT of sudden change, but it reminds me of the movie Lean on Me.
Sorry about not replying to you sooner. I think that teaching in large city schools is pretty close to combat - on a good day. I really don't know if I could do it. I don't think the answer is to replace most or all of the teachers. You are quickly going to run out of teachers. That doesn't mean that poor performing teachers are acceptable. Instead they need to be helped, supported, re-educated, and mentored. If that intervention doesn't result in any improvement then the teacher is let go. One of the most valuable things a teacher (and school) can have is experience. The catch is that the experienced teachers need to be continually working to improve themselves.
Since they have had some positive results so far, I would be interested in looking further into it. Maybe you can send me a link that gives more detail on the program.
First link I posted was weird....this might work
Link to an older article
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