· Organizations
o National Educations Association (NEA)
§ Oldest and largest organization- has teachers and administrators
§ Founded in 1857 by 43 educators from a dozen states and DC (as the National Teacher Association)
§ Has affiliates in every state
§ About 2/3 of all teachers are members
§ 78% is teachers, !2% is guidance counselors, librarians, or administrators, 3% are university professors, 2% are college or university students, 3% support staff, 2% retired
§ has committees for: affiliate relationships, higher education, human relations, political action, teacher benefits, teacher rights
o American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
§ Founded in 1916
§ Only open to teachers and non-supervisory school personnel
§ Active today in organizing teachers, bargaining collectively, fostering public relations, and developing policies relation to educational issues
§ Believes in action and getting things done
o NEAFT Partnership
§ 2001 NEA and AFT forged the NEAFT partnership[ and endorsed these goals: building relationships, making collaborative work, creating value, and demonstrating visibility
§ common ground in their opposition to No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
o Other oraganizations
§ Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)
· International honorary and professional fraternity of educators concerned with enhancing quality education though research and leadership activities- founded in 1906
§ ASCD (formerly Association for Supervision and Cirriculum)
· Professional organization for teachers, supervisors, curriculum coordinators, educations professors, administrators, and others
· Interested in school improvement at all levels- founded in 1943
· Building Learning Communities
o Relationships with students
§ Make sure each student learns as much as possible
§ Relationships based on mutual respect, caring and concern
o Relationships with colleagues and staff
§ Support and guidance, knowing you’re not alone
§ Always be pleasant and friendly, even if they are not
o Relationships with Administrators
§ Don’t be afraid to make contact with them to discuss any issues
o Relationships with parents/guardians
§ Teachers and parents are partners, both are concerned with the learning and growth of the children
· Diversity
o Cultural competence: the ability to communicate cross-culturally and the willingness to learn abut students diverse cultural backgrounds
o Communities provide support for the education of their young people
o Caring adults: parents, teachers, mentors, caches, neighbors
o Safe places: offer constructive activities when young people are not in school
o Healthy start: healthy development
o Effective education: prepares young people for college and work
o Opportunities to help others through service
· Teacher Collaboration
o Collaboration: working together, sharing decision making, and solving problems
§ Must be voluntary, requires and mutual goal, shared accountability of outcomes, and sharing resources
o Peer coaching: arrangement whereby teachers grow professionally by observing one another’s teaching and providing constructive feedback
o Staff development: teachers meet to share ideas and methods
o Team teaching: teachers share responsibility of two or more classes, dividing the subject areas between them, with one teacher preparing lessons in math, science, and health (for example) while the other prepares lessons for reading ad language arts
o Collegial support team (CST): provides teachers with a safe zone for professional growth
o Co-teaching: builds strengths of two teachers and provides increased learning opportunities for all students
o One teach, one assist: one leads lesson, one assists
o Station teaching: lesson divided in 2 parts, one teacher teaches each half, students switch, each teacher teaches same half again
o Parallel teaching: each teacher instructs half of the class individually (same lesson)
o Alternative teaching: one large group, one small group. One teacher teaches the large group, other teacher teaches the small group either enrichment or remediation
O· Organizations
· SSuicide
o 3rd leading cause of death in young people ages 15-24
o 15% of high school students seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, 7% attempted at least once
o females are almost twice as likely to consider suicide but 4 times as many male as females actually commit suicide (in last 12 months)
· Schools Addressing Societal Problems
o Peer counseling: student-to-student, monitored by a guidance counselor
o Peer-mediation: students will influence one another to be more accepting of differences
o Full-service community schools: operate in public buildings before, during, and after school
§ Students and families can receive health screenings, counseling, drug prevention help, parent educations, family planning info, etc
§ Contribute to improved student achievement
o School-based case management: approach to forming new home, school, and community partnerships by using professionally trained case managers who work directly with teachers, the community and the family to deliver appropriate services to at-risk students and their families
o Compensatory education programs: improve basic skills of low-ability students from low-income families
o Alternative schools- either a small individualized school separate from regular school or a school-within-a-school
o Out-of-school-time (OST) activities (extracurricular) are encouraged to promote development and because they are placed in a safe environment, it prevents them from delinquent activities and teach skills/behaviors and provide opportunities for relationships with other students and teachers
o Extended learning time (ELT) schools: longer school day to prevent students from doing other dangerous things
· Community-based Partnerships help Learning
o Volunteer mentor programs
o Corporate-education partnerships-more funding
o CCLOS (21st century community learning centers) provide enrichment opportunities outside of school
o Social services- whenever you see the signs, get social services involved!
· Multiple different arrangements of education progression as far as kindergarten, elementary/primary schools, middle schools, junior high schools, senior high schools, high schools, and junior/senior high schools
· Pre-K teachers
o Pre-k/kindergarten/early childhood education includes ages birth-8
o Critical role in development of children
o Use play and interactive activities to teach
§ Vocab development by storytelling or rhyming games
§ Socials skills by building a town in a sandbox w/ other children
§ Scientific & mathematical concepts by learning to balance and count blocks when building a skyscraper
o Small group lessons, one-on-one instruction
o Learn through art, dance and music
o Academic learning becomes more important in kindergarten
o Letter recognition, phonics, numbers, basic understanding of nature and science are introduced
· Elementary teachers
o Usually teach one class (grades 1-6) of about 25 students in several subjects
o Sometimes 2 or more teachers work as a team with a group of students in at least one subject
o Sometimes a teacher teaches one subject to a number of classes
o Increasing number of teachers teach in a multiage classroom with students from different grade levels
o Introduce kids to math, language, science, social studies
o Daily lesson plans, homework, record grades, regular progress reports for parents (includes behavioral/social)
o Work w/ parent volunteers in the classroom
o Attend in-service workshops to learn new instructional methods/materials
· Middle school teachers
o Help students learn more about the subjects studied in elementary school
o Most MS teachers specialize in a subject and teach several classes of that subject
o Middle school students are at a unique stage of development-experiencing physical, emotional, intellectual and social changes
o Middle school teachers understand ^these needs and are skilled at providing students with developmentally appropriate learning activities
· High school teachers
o Teach 4 or 5 courses within a single content area
o Also monitor study halls or supervise extra-curriculars
o Participate in faculty meetings, professional development workshops and educational conferences
· Private school teachers
o Smaller class sizes
o More motivated students
o More control over determining the curriculum and standards for performance and discipline
· Charter school teachers
o A charter school is an independent public school, often founded by teachers, that are given a charter to operate by a school district, state, or national government
o Teachers have more freedom, to some extent, from regulations that apply to public schools
o Must produce positive academic results
· Alternative school teachers
o Alternative school: small, highly individualized school separate from the regular school
o Created to reduce problems with violence, weapons, and drugs in other schools
o Teachers usually find their work very satisfying
o For students at risk of academic failure
· Magnet school teachers
o Focus on specific areas (performing arts, math, science, international studies, technology)
o Teachers may experience more autonomy, influence on school policies, and professional development
· Teachers in specialized areas
o Art, music, vocational education, physical education, special education
o Art and music are usually first to go with budget cuts
o Individualized Education Plan (IEP): teachers develop for special education students and work collaboratively with regular classroom teachers, parents, social workers, school psychologists, and other staff
o Response to Intervention (RTI) model: special ed teachers work with general education teachers on school wide screenings and progress monitoring to ensure that students are responsive to instruction they receive in the classroom
· English Language Learners (ELLs)- first language is not English
o Only 30% of ELL teachers have received training to teach ELL students
· Teachers act as role models to their students
· Teachers act as spontaneous problem solvers by going with the flow during their lessons
· Role of schools in today’s society
o Primary purpose of schooling is to provide students with academic knowledge an skills needed for schooling beyond high school or for work force (what most believe)
o Some believe the purpose of learning should be to promote the personal growth and development of students
o Some believe the purpose is to ensure success of the US in a global economy
o Schools should teach values: caring, civic virtue, and citizenship, justice and fairness, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, and giving
o School plays a huge role in the socialization of the young
o Prepares kids for society and to adapt to social chance
o Service learning: provides students with opportunities to deliver service to their community while engaging in reflection and study on the meaning of those experiences
· Schools can be described in a metaphor: factories
o Students enter as raw materials, move through the curriculum in a systematic way and exit as finished products
· 4 types of schools (Jean Anyon 1996)
o 1. Working class school: primary emphasis is on following directions, students given little to no opportunity to exercise initiative/make choices, teachers make negative comments about student abilities, convey low expectations
o 2. Middle class school: emphasis on getting the right answers, slight more opportunity to make decisions but not much, text-book based lessons, little attempt at analysis of information, creativity or self-expression is only for fun
o 3. Affluent professional school: opportunity to express themselves and make a variety of choices, teacher and students likely to negotiate about the work done by students, positive student-teacher relationships
o 4. Executive elite school: develops one’s analytical intellectual powers, students asked to reason through problems, produce intellectual products that are logically sound and of top academic quality, positive student-teacher relationship
o few schools are exclusively one type, most fit all the categories in some way
· Schools as social institutions
o Rural schools develop family like culture
o Urban schools near big cities often reflect the problems of the surrounding areas- drugs, crime, poverty
o School culture: climate, ethos, atmosphere, character of a school
§ Some are community like, some lack a sense of purpose or direction
o Physical environment of a school affects how people of a community view/describe the school
o Self-contained culture: most traditional and prevalent arrangement in elementary and secondary schools
o Open-space schools: large instructional areas with moveable walls and furniture
o Departmentalization: students move from classroom to classroom for their lessons
o School traditions: elements of a school’s culture that are handed down from year to year, they reflect what people believe is important and valuable about the school
o Classroom culture: determined in large measure by the manner in which teacher and students participate in common activities
· Teachers are expected to be effective communicators by using all of the following
o Body language
o Eye contact
o I-messages
o Clear directions
o Effective writing
o Use of technology
· About 1/3 of all new teachers leave the profession within 3 years
· About 46% leave within 5 years
· 30% of all teachers leave because of retirement
· 56% of teachers leave because of job dissatisfaction
· Negative: teaching being political
· Most effective:
o respect in the classroom
o preparing the lesson but being flexible
· Why they stay
o More positives than negatives
o They finally figured it out
· Maryland’s ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) Waiver
o Adoption of common core standards
o PARCC assessment
o Annual measurable objectives
o Priority, focus, and reward schools (Title 1)
o 50% reduction in non-proficient students by 2017
o new evaluations
