John Wooden, six-time national collegiate basketball coach of the year, lead the UCLA Men’s Basketball team to ten National Championships during his coaching tenure. He is only one of a few people who has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and a coach. Why do I bring up Coach Wooden? Because of this quote:
Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
This quote is relevant as the themes of student achievement, 21st century learning and the Common Core State Standards continue filtering through our conversations and in the blogosphere.
Questions to ponder as educators:
- How do we grow as professionals in a field that continues clinging to 20th century methodologies?
- How do we reveal our deficiencies and become continual learners and collaborators?
- How do we move away from our comfort zone and do things differently?
- How do we collectively improve student skills and better prepare them for their futures?
Teacher Learning
I can confidently say that the majority of the school districts in the United States, in some form or another, have a mission statement around the improvement of student learning. Yes, we want to improve learning, prepare our students to be successful individuals, help them become independent learners, but what have we done to help ourselves in that cause? If we want to improve student learning, it requires teacher learning as well.
What is the last book or article you read dealing with current educational research and topics? Do you have a favorite education blogger? Which educators do you follow on Twitter? Any good webinars you recommend?
The point I want to make is that we cannot only rely on our undergrad and graduate teacher training, or the one-day, drive-by workshops. We can improve our teaching by:
- regularly collaborating with our colleagues
- discussing student data
- sharing viewpoints about new research
- revising curriculum around skills
- becoming a teacher-leader
- training your colleagues
If we want to improve student learning, it requires us to improve as well through continual reading, collaborating and processing. We cannot solely rely on our years of experience teaching and expect to become better teachers. Skill building is a process and it never stops.
Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
Homework
Share with us a link of an article, a blog post, or book that you read that made you stretch your thinking about teaching and learning.
Questions or issues that you would like us to tackle? Email us at support@core4all.com.
If our posts have made you think and reflect as a teacher, encourage your colleagues to subscribe to our blog.
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Since the release of Implementing the Common Core in December 2010, we have had great conversations with educators across the United States. Schools and districts are using Implementing the Common Core as a framework to restructure curriculum around the Common Core. We would like to extend an opportunity to you this week. If you buy an e-book this week and type in C4A in the promo box at checkout, we will give you a $3 discount off the price of the book. We feel this is a great deal. If you are not sure, download the first two chapters of the book for free and see what you think.
Our job is not easy. We need the tools that will help us improve our craft as teachers. Implementing the Common Core will provide you with a framework to revitalize your curriculum and focus on the skills that will prepare our students to be the leaders of tomorrow.
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April 2, 2012 at 12:24 pm
I am a 4th grade special education teacher in Louisiana. I teacher at a 4 star (or now called a B+) school. Although our school is not a school that is jeopardy of failing, I still feel that we can do more for ourselves and our students. I agree that we can improve our teaching through collaborating with colleagues, discussing student data, revising curriculum around skills, etc. One problem is the time that we are alloted for collaboration. Another problem is getting all the teachers on the same page. Our grade level meetings are once a week and tend to cover more upcoming events than they do collaborating about concerns, solutions, strategies, student data, etc. Other than the two days that we meet before school begins in August (given possibly 1/2 day to work together or in our classrooms at the end of day 2) and the one day during the school year that we are given, we don’t collaborate regularly. I am looking for ideas and resources that I can share with the administration at my school to have this time for collaboration and to have the teachers work more as a team than an individual.
April 2, 2012 at 6:43 pm
You are fortunate that your school does have designated weekly meeting times. It is during these times that collaboration should occur with your grade-level teams. Upcoming events can be handled via email. There are plenty of resources regarding the importance of professional learning communities. Rick DuFour is a great resource. You can also visit allthingsplc.com to get some ideas. The focus on collaboration should focus on these four questions:
1. What do we want our students to learn? (skills/content)
2. How will we know if they learned it?
3. What happens if they don’t learn it?
4. What happens if they already know it?
If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us.