To fail or not to fail.....that is the question

When I designed my education system, I tried to think about pragmatics as much as possible, and I really believe that everything we do should have a purpose. (a la Tyler) The more I think about it, the more I realize that assigning failures serves no purpose. I do not believe for one second that failing a child is in the best interest of that child, the school, or society.

Theory vs Practice

I talked to the other two members of my admin team about their definitions of curriculum. I was not surprised that they had very different ideas about the definition. That helped me think about the fact that every single one of my classmates also had a different definition of the word. In the end, it is just a word and how we define it may not be as important as the motivations behind its design. Curriculum is everything that happend in the classroom and it is important that educators have a clear purpose in mind during implementation.

Accountability

I have a whole new take on educational purpose and direction after reading Tyler. His message is simple, know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how you will know when you have succeeded. I think the field of education needs some of this accountability. The problem occurs when context is not taken into account. By context, I mean socioeconomics.

Kudos to Peter

Watching Peter's presentation last week absolutely blew me away. I owe him a debt of gratitude for the inspiration it provided and the ideas it gave me. It was of professional quality and the message contained within was powerful. The next time I present I am going to push myself to learn to try new things and come up with something much more innovative.

Paper Writing

I actually enjoyed writing my paper. It has been awhile since I have really enjoyed academic writing. This was different for me because I was able to discuss topics about which I am genuinely interested. I love talking about the purpose of education and, I guess, philosophy. I have to say that my philosophy as explained in my paper was very different than I thought it would be at the outset. I am sure that it will continue to change over time and I would like to undertake a similar task periodically throughout my carreer. I think it would be a useful excercise in professional development for all teachers to go through so that they have a more clearly defined personal mission statement.

Purpose of Assessment

I found Darryl's statement that, "the best way to affect substantive change in a school is to hire 20 first-year teachers" to be quite interesting. I went back to my school and watched with that in mind and I have come to disagree. I see many veteran teachers who are far more able to affect change than their younger colleagues. The reason is simple, first-year teachers are too busy trying to survive to make a substantive change. It may be true that they can be manipulated to do the bidding of the administration more easily, which could amount to change, but would that change be substantive and sustainable? In my experience, teachers with some understanding and experience with students, the education system, and the individual school are better equipped to affect a change of a substantive nature.

A New, Better Definition of Curriculum

My new role as an administrator has afforded me opportunities to observe other teachers in action. In watching two different teachers teach the same class on consecutive days, it became obvious that my definition of curriculum should have focused on the teacher. It is within the teacher's power to dictate pace, mood, and atmosphere. The teacher's actions decide whether a crisis is made worse, or de-escalated. The teacher has the opportunity to correct behavior through subtle influence or by dictum. The teacher has tremendous flexibility in how they choose to deliver material, and, frankly, little accountability in the event they decide to deviate significantly. If, as Steve suggested, curriculum was "everything that occurred in the classroom", the importance of the role of the teacher can't be over-stated.