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Health & Fitness

Traveling down the Education Highway: What the school PACT Wants

Parents, administrators, children and teachers should be on a pleasant road trip down the Education Highway instead of on a bumper car collision course. This calls for honest and open dialogue.

From My Side of the Desk:

Traveling down the Education Highway: What the school PACT Wants


Any two or more people can become acquaintances. Over the years, a cashier at a local grocery store and I have chatted about the weather, soaring prices and recipes. We share a social connection based on superficialities not on the values, the thoughts, the people that we cherish in our hearts. These passions create the cornerstones of a personal relationship. How, then, should the association between Parents, Administrators, Children and Teachers be categorized?  This PACT should be a partnership that is centered on their reason to collaborate in the first place: the children.

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With the PACT’s separate stresses, concerns and viewpoints, though, the trip down this Education Highway can seem more like bumper cars crashing into each other than a pleasurable road trip. How can these people glide smoothly over the speed bumps and break free from the jams caused by a disregard for each other’s opinions, mistrust and misunderstanding? They need to communicate- to explain and then listen to what each side wants from one another.

Because I much prefer gratifying road trips over a migraine-causing, blood pressure raising bumper car collision, I polled colleagues, parents, both those I came into contact with as a teacher and those in my community, and students on the topic: What is crucial to school success? Statisticians who deal only in numbers and graphs would say, “Whatever the quantitative data tells us.” Me?  In this case, I prefer qualitative knowledge, and that means what I learn from people. The following lists show the results from people closely tied with education, in their own words.

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School Faculty (Administrators, Teachers, Support Staff):

  1. Students should come to school ready and excited to learn.
  2. I would be a happy camper if students completed their homework on time. I assign it so they can increase their knowledge and so I can see what I need to do to help them to understand what we are studying.
  3. Oh, to never again hear, “Oh, that’s right. We’re having a test today. Well, I forgot to study.”
  4. When I ask for their thoughts and analysis, I don’t want students to answer what they think I want to hear. I want them to think and to share their thoughts.
  5. What is the most aggravating for me is that it’s usually the kids who don’t get their work in on time who complain when I don’t hand their papers back the very next class. How is this respectful?
  6. Can they please, please get to class on time? It’s not fair to the others when I have to repeat what I have already covered.
  7. Although my colleagues and I work together to follow the criteria set by the Program of Studies and how to weight our grades, we have different class rules. I don’t care if Ms So and So allows her students to chew gum. I don’t and they should respect my rules. 
  8. Students need to understand that school rules are in place for their safety and well-being and to create a positive and courteous learning environment. Running in the halls, texting and listening to music on their IPods or whatever, foul language and dressing inappropriately for school are detrimental to this goal.
  9. Parents need to support the school goals. If they have issues with them, they need to request a conference so we can talk with each other instead of getting upset with me when I have to call them about an infraction.
  10. I understand that taking a vacation off-season can be more economical. Do parents realize, though, that taking their children out of school for an extended period negatively impacts their children’s success? Oh, the students can, and usually do, make up the work, but they have missed vital learning time with their teachers.
  11. Most parents understand that showing a positive and respectful attitude benefits their children’s success. We are greatly appreciative of their support. But when a staff member tells me that a young person said, “My father said that I didn’t have to listen to you because you’re just a teacher,” I worry how that attitude will impact the student’s education.
  12. All we ask is that students just try in all aspects of school life, be they academic, social, discipline or extra-curricular areas.
     

Children (Students):

  1. Return graded work on time and with comments. We didn’t do all of this work for nothing.
  2. I want to be able to understand why teachers do things-like why we have certain weights on grades and why we get marked down a few points if we were absent on the day homework was due.
  3. Teachers must have an unfaltering sense of humor.
  4. Don’t tell me to learn a chapter at home. Ask me to read it, but it’s your job to teach it.
  5. Don’t assign groups to learn something and then to teach/present different sections to the class as Student Experts. This is a terrible way to teach.
  6. Make me cupcakes!
  7. If I don’t understand what’s going on, I expect my teacher to explain it in a different way than by using only the examples in the book. They didn’t make sense to me when I read them; that’s why I asked.
  8. I won’t ask you to notice the invisible kids…but at least act like you see us.
  9. Realize that, no, this isn’t my only AP class, even though you think yours is the most important, and that I’m not fond of suffocating under stacks of papers.  Is this the only class that you teach?
  10. Stop calling on the same people over and over. There are 30 people in a class…not just 3.
  11.  Please let me eat!
  12. Be patient when we ask questions; if the teacher gets frustrated, we won’t ask for help again.

Parents:

  1. I expect my children’s schools to offer the highest quality education. This includes an in-depth curriculum as well as faculty and staffs that know what to teach and how to do it well.
  2. Schools should inspire their students to love to learn, not just to take standardized tests.
  3. Teachers need to be trained to recognize the various learning and skill levels of their students.
  4. I want anyone involved with my children: Teachers, counselors, administrators, etc, to inform me right away of any issues that may negatively affect my children’s education and well-being. Along with this, I want them to offer suggestions of how my family can help or what we can do to alleviate this problem.
  5. Administrators must inform parents immediately if any dangerous situations, in the school or outside of it, exist and state how they are handling them.
  6. Schools should welcome diversity. Kids need to be exposed to various ethnicities, socio-economic groups and religions.
  7. Teachers and administrators need to really care about children. I hear my kids and their friends discuss why some of their teachers and principals just don’t seem to even like kids. Why are they even there if they don’t like kids?
  8. Teachers and administrators should not show favoritism or bias toward ethnicities, genders or kids involved in certain activities like sports, drama and social groups.
  9. Administrators and teachers should never put their personal agendas above the needs and education of the kids.
  10.  I don’t want school personnel to be judgmental about my family’s decisions, such as when we choose to take a vacation or how we handle our children’s lives, like with their illnesses, jobs or other extra-curricular activities.
  11. Instead of being confrontational or negative when my child acts out or doesn’t have his work done, talk with him, not at him and listen to what he has to say. Show that you care and want to help. And never chastise him in front of other kids, teachers or administrators.
  12. Schools (administrators, teachers, and the support staff) should foster a welcoming and safe environment that kids want to come to and where they can learn.

 

All partnerships are like two way streets. Drivers need to be aware of everyone on the road with them, not just their decisions. Quantitative findings about speed limits, the safest vehicles, etc are important to a successful journey, but it’s the action and reaction of people that give this data meaning.  People have the passion to build a successful learning environment. Statistics show no zeal. People can be excited, frustrated or reveal any emotion between these points when it comes to school. Statistics don’t put any credence on emotions. People comprise school systems. Without them, statistics wouldn’t exist. May your PACT be a positive partnership.

Until next week,

Connie

www.teachitwrite.com

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