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Tsjaz in Minneapolis (consumer of popular culture) tries to be of service to others, posting with reasonable regularity, although to be honest, he'd prefer laying on the couch and sleeping to describing the excruciating minutiae of his life to you.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Why an extended school year/day is the wrong way to go
The school I used to work at has changed their school day to "provide XXX minutes of instructional time" for students. Basically, they've extended their day as a result of the state DOE finding out how short the school day was. I believe this is directly opposite of what schools should be doing to better educate kids.
What could be wrong with giving kids more school? Well, besides the not-at-all moderate reforms needed for public schools as an institution, giving kids more of something that's not working isn't going to help. If I get cancer and start taking enemas to treat it, it doesn't matter how many enemas I take. I won't get cured.
The real answer as to what's wrong with this approach is that it's missing a critical component. Extending the school day or school year adds instructional time without necessarily adding time for teacher preparation and professional development. The best thing for most schools right now would be to trade time spent with students and give teachers the time, training, and support to plan awesome lessons.
There's nothing inherently wrong with extending the school year, but there needs to be a more than proportional increase in teacher prep time, and it has to be there throughout the school year. You can't give teachers an extra week at the beginning or end of the school year and have that substitute for planning time during the school year. A good teacher will monitor and adjust, and needs time for the adjustments.
The really good and dedicated teachers will work that much harder on their own time if there's more student time. Other teachers will find ways to kill that time. Some would get burnt out more quickly.
My understanding of teaching in Japan, often used as a model of excellence in teaching, is that there's much more time (and a structure) for lesson preparation and refining lessons.
And then stupid politics gets involved where legislators don't respect teaching as a profession and it's easy to call for more instruction when teachers already get the summer off. And then if you have half days of instruction here and there, what do parents do with young children?
I have to meet this week to discuss our school's math goal which will involve test results. They used the euphemism "problem solving" for test results last year, but it sounds like they'll just call it "math" this year. Fulfilling.
What could be wrong with giving kids more school? Well, besides the not-at-all moderate reforms needed for public schools as an institution, giving kids more of something that's not working isn't going to help. If I get cancer and start taking enemas to treat it, it doesn't matter how many enemas I take. I won't get cured.
The real answer as to what's wrong with this approach is that it's missing a critical component. Extending the school day or school year adds instructional time without necessarily adding time for teacher preparation and professional development. The best thing for most schools right now would be to trade time spent with students and give teachers the time, training, and support to plan awesome lessons.
There's nothing inherently wrong with extending the school year, but there needs to be a more than proportional increase in teacher prep time, and it has to be there throughout the school year. You can't give teachers an extra week at the beginning or end of the school year and have that substitute for planning time during the school year. A good teacher will monitor and adjust, and needs time for the adjustments.
The really good and dedicated teachers will work that much harder on their own time if there's more student time. Other teachers will find ways to kill that time. Some would get burnt out more quickly.
My understanding of teaching in Japan, often used as a model of excellence in teaching, is that there's much more time (and a structure) for lesson preparation and refining lessons.
And then stupid politics gets involved where legislators don't respect teaching as a profession and it's easy to call for more instruction when teachers already get the summer off. And then if you have half days of instruction here and there, what do parents do with young children?
I have to meet this week to discuss our school's math goal which will involve test results. They used the euphemism "problem solving" for test results last year, but it sounds like they'll just call it "math" this year. Fulfilling.
Labels: teaching
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