Beg, Borrow and Steal: Info Sharing Among Educators

Throughout the past 4 years of education classes, a common phrase that professors will use is "Beg, Borrow, and Steal" when referring to future educators obtaining resources to create lesson plans and the like.  When I had to complete countless hours of observation and pre-practicum hours the teachers in the schools all said the same thing and many offered their own materials as samples.  This idea of sharing information among educators makes perfect sense.  If a teacher has materials and resources that are extremely helpful to educating students, why wouldn't they want those resources used by other teachers to ensure student success across the board.

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However, when it comes to actually finding resources to create lesson plans the one place that seems to fail everyone is the internet.  Long held as the place where you can find ANYTHING, the internet is surprisingly lacking as an teacher resource bank.  Sure, there are plenty of scholastic sites choc full of resources if you have the money to subscribe.  These are the same sites that create countless assessments used by schools, and even the creators of high school exit exams, college entrance exams, etc.




So it would appear that the last of the three rules of obtaining resources becomes a reality.  Copyright laws seem to go out the window, photocopies are made and materials are passed around from teacher to teacher, teacher to future teacher, and so on.  In a world where schools don't have enough money to pay their teachers and buy supplies for their classrooms, teachers are working two jobs because their passion for teaching outweighs their need for monetary compensation, these large educational corporations are making millions by developing the textbooks, creating the assessments, and most importantly, stocking up on all the resources so there's no where else to turn to get them.

Of course, teachers could (and should in some cases) develop and create their own resources to use with their lesson plans, however, in some situations it seems inefficient for each new teacher to re-create the wheel when they could be using that motivation and energy to improve upon what we already have and pave a new path forward.  Instead, new teachers will spend their first few years catching up to the rest of the education world, and by the time they're ready to discover something new, over half of them will be burnt out from getting where they are.

Let's change the old adage from "Beg, Borrow and Steal" and make it "Accept, Reuse, Improve"

-MB

Can a Presidential Election Help Education?

As I was reading some articles on the Republican debates that took place earlier this week, I thought to myself,  where is all the much needed attention on education reform?  Turns out, it falls well short of other seemingly more important topics, fixing the economy, job creation, and whether or not taxes should be raised, changed, cut or otherwise.  It was time for a quick and easy investigation.  I went to the websites of the top six candidates from the Republican Party to see what they might have to say for themselves that the media doesn't have time to focus on.

The results:

• Mitt Romney - Education is not listed as an issue

• Michele Bachmann - Education is not listed as an issue

• Rick Perry - Education is not listed as an issue

• Newt Gingrich - Education not listed as an issue

• Ron Paul - Shut down the Dept of Education and encourage homeschooling/private schooling

• Herman Cain - Localize education, remove federal government interference, let teachers and administrators fix things

My reaction: wow.

At a time when President Obama admits that NCLB didn't work the way it was planned, states are clamoring for funding and education reform is on the minds of many, how can it not be an issue large enough to garner a single sentence on a political candidates website?

As for the issues they deem more important than education, perhaps they would benefit from reading some timely articles about the jobs Americans aren't qualified to fill.  This ABC News article details companies that would love to invest in the United States, but have to train all of the employees themselves because they do not graduate with the skills required.  Or perhaps this article from the Times of India which shows jobs that already exist in the U.S. but take months to fill due to lack of qualified workers.

President Obama's American Jobs Act includes pieces that will provide money to hire workers to rebuild and upgrade American schools as well as money to keep teachers from being laid off.  Is this going to just increase our debt? According to the White House it's all paid for by our other major issue: Taxes (another post simply on this debate would be long enough as it is so I'll hold my tongue).  Whether or not you agree with the President's proposal, he, at least, is attempting to fix our broken schools as a method of keeping people employed.

So, to answer the question posed in the title of this article: No.  At least, not currently.  The only people running with a plan have a plan that says: Somethings wrong, let's ditch the whole thing and let states/towns fix it themselves.  We'll see how that works out...

-MB

Occupy Boston: Reminding Protesters of the Meaning of Civil Disobedience

Over the past couple of weeks I've kept tabs on some of the protests happening across the country, mostly watching New York and Boston.  I think it is a great thing for people to exercise their first amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly.  Throughout history classes students learn about groups that have exercised these rights such as the Sons of Liberty in the 1700s and the Civil Rights movements in the 1960s.

However, it is critical to note to students the different causes for these movements and the rules that the protesters followed (or broke) to achieve their goals.  The Sons of Liberty were members of the colonies who were under an oppressive political system in which they were asked to give and give and got little in return from the British government in England. Their response, the Boston Tea Party was a felony, they stole goods from a private company and dumped them into the harbor (also polluting the environment, though people didn't care back then).  The Civil Rights movement in the 60s tried a more lawful approach to resolving their plight. Again, this was a group of people who were subjected to terrible treatment by a government who didn't listen to the voice it supposedly gave them.  They held rallies and marches, gave speeches and boycotted bus systems.  Yes, some of these actions were illegal, but they didn't resist arrest, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to prison without a fight, he accepted the consequences of his actions (regardless of how we view those laws now).  These were true exercises of their freedoms of assembly and speech and it helped pave the way for equality in this county.

image - http://socialismartnature.tumblr.com/

What I've come to realize is that many of the people who are participating in present day protests don't really understand the laws.  They believe that there is no penalty for breaking the laws and that the police have no right to break up their protest.  They cry out that the police are being brutal and assaulting people.  From the videos I've seen in Boston, the police response has been lenient and they told the protesters, not to disband, but simply to move to the other end of the park.  The police have let them perform their civil disobedience and stay in the park overnight for 10 days, they just didn't want to have the newly renovated end of the park destroyed.

If you want to participate in protests, good for you, they are an integral part of maintaining the freedoms that people have fought for, but you have to be prepared to accept the consequences of your actions.  If you break the law, the police have not only the right, but the duty to arrest you.  Don't lose sight of what you're protesting (not that I've been able to figure it out myself...) otherwise you go from a group of people sending a positive message for change, to a band of crazed, disjointed people causing a headache for officials and wasting (yes, the police required to keep you under control have to be paid) taxpayer dollars simply because you misunderstand your rights as a U.S. citizen.

-MB

Reforming Teacher Education

There has been a lot of press recently about holding teacher education programs accountable for the results of their students, i.e. the teachers in the schools.  As a soon-to-be graduate of a teacher education program that is considered fairly good and productive, I can say that the problem is not one program vs. another, the problem is simply the development of teacher education programs in general.  As I mentioned briefly in my last post, doctors, lawyers and a number of other professions do not simply allow graduates to be a full member of their field without at least a year of additional training and mentoring.  Teachers should be no different.

Engaging. Approachable. Helpful. Knowledgeable.  These are all qualities that a good teacher hopes to possess, however, it is not easy to gain these skills and qualities during a 16 week student teaching semester.  In fact, there is so much stress simply about having lesson plans done and "perfect" on paper that it is hard to have the time to develop the interpersonal skills that good teachers seem to exude.  Where are the programs that give teachers real hands-on experience in the classroom enough so that when they are thrown into their own classroom they don't panic, burn out or quit.

I want to be a great teacher, one of those teachers that the students want to have, the parents enjoying meeting with and staff come to to ask advice because things just seem to click for me.  From discussions with other students in the program I am aware that I'm not one of a kind, the majority of students who really want to teach want to have the tools necessary to really help students progress, not to just be the teacher who stands in front of the room and bores the students to tears.

Residency programs are the answer.  They provide students with a year or two years of mentored teaching, where the new teacher is not asked to bear the entire burden of teaching students in their first year of work.  Instead the workload is shared with an experienced teacher who knows the ropes and will make sure that the students do not lose out simply because you're trying to get your feet on the ground.  That is the key isn't it?  That the students receive a quality education and the tools they need to succeed.  So many students have missed years because their teacher was brand new, and not for lack of trying, simply did not have the experience to give them the help they might otherwise have received.  After this first year of mentored teaching, the new teacher has an entire year, start to finish, of working with students and seeing what works and what doesn't, learning classroom management and curriculum planning, all while having the support system necessary to get the job done.

Currently a major network of teacher residency programs that I was introduced to by a friend called Urban Teacher Residency United offers programs in many large urban areas in the United States.  But these programs shouldn't be limited to large urban school districts, instead teaching colleges and universities around the country should develop programs based on these models in their own areas whether urban, suburban, or rural.  Through a program like this, you are not guaranteed that every teacher will be great, but you certainly will avoid missing out on years of learning while a new teacher, who might be a great teacher soon, gets his/her feet under them.  And school districts will develop a sense of ownership of their new teachers. Teachers will be connected to their mentors and to other residents in the program and schools will have a better network of sharing teaching strategies and experience that benefit ALL teachers and most importantly, the students.

-MB