New Athenian Academy

I ran across Karl Fisch from the Fischbowl in a random search for education blogs.  I recommend the blog for anyone interested in education and new ideas.  For this series, I thought I would respond to some of Karl’s ideas.

From January 8, 2006′s post entitled “Asking Hard Questions of Colleagues”

Ron used to say a lot – “Care enough to confront.” He was referring to students, but I think the same thing applies to our colleagues. I think we need to respect our colleagues enough to ask hard questions of them… I don’t think it’s okay anymore (if it ever was) to just say “I’m going to close my door and do whatever I want.” It’s not enough to be successful as individual teachers, we need to be successful as a staff if we want our school to be successful – and if we want our students to be successful and achieve to their potential.

Staff collaborations is a difficult topic to approach.  We don’t want to push our colleagues into anything they are completely against and yet we want to push everyone to do their best.  There needs to be accountability on both sides of the door.  I agree with Karl Fisch that we don’t want to strive for adequate, but amazing.  The amazing part usually involves a little uncomfort, but that’s all a part of growing.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in many schools, including the one I was working in.  Out of a staff of about 30, I would only place about 20 teachers in the “good” category, 5 in the “adequate” category, and the last 5 in the “horrible” category.

How do we change those stats?  I think most schools have the wrong idea.  They give teachers directives without any discussion.  They pass mandates instead of collaborating on ideas.  They don’t offer any support for any mandates.  They fire the wrong teachers in the first place.

What are the answers?  I don’t claim to know everything, but I do have some ideas.  Let’s start with the firing process.  Schools need to determine the direction of the school and then try to find candidates who are or want to be a good fit.  Once you have a school-wide, faculty should fall into place.  After hiring, bring teachers into the planning process for the direction of the school.  I have no problem when schools want to make changes for the good, but I do have issues when teachers are blocked out of the process.  Teachers have a better idea of how plans will go over inside the classrooms than most system admins.  Finally, teachers need to support each other, not push each other away.  We need to hold each other accountable for our teaching.  The point is not to pick on teachers for their failings and obstacles, but to encourage each other to be better teachers.

Remember… we are here to see students achieve, but we can’t do that without achieving ourselves.

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Education Process by Tobe