Reflections after class...

One of the questions I have continued to have since getting my job 9 years ago is how can we get our faculty on the same page in terms of Middle Level Practices?  I think that some of my faculty members feel like what we said high school people think of middle schools: it is too gushy, gushy feel good fluff.  Of course, these are also the people that have not taken a class or go to conferences regularly.  I think people need to realize that things change over time and that middle level practices are important to the success of the adolescents we teach.  So, how do we get them on board? 

One of the reasons that I asked about when we would need a middle level endorsement or a middle level license is because I think that may help people get on the same page or realize they do not belong in middle school.  That may sound harsh, and I know it does but I am so frustrated with how old school practices are done at my school sometimes.  I believe that part of the reason we struggle with student morale and behavior is because not everyone feels the importance to build a team and a safe community.  I have heard teachers say that they are not here to get to know the students but to teach them.   When I hear this I get so upset and I wonder if we were forced (for lack of a better word) to take classes or go to conferences about middle level in order to get an endorsement/license that either those teachers would not be able to argue against middle level practices.  I also think the administration needs to make such practices a priority and without the administration on board nothing will change.

Thinking about best practices...

This week with the reading I did I realized that we do need more research on middle level best practices.  Last year at a faculty meeting our principal had us download Bright Futures and asked us to read it.  As what often happens at our faculty meetings, we ran out of time to truly discuss the document.  The feel was negative though for many of our faculty members.  Someone brought up that there was not enough research in there saying why we should implement these practices.  As I read Goal #5 in the Success in the Middle article, I immediately thought of that faculty meeting and the research comment.  Perhaps with a faculty that feel they already do what they need to we do need the research piece that looks more at all of the characteristics implemented together and not at one piece like research for advisory groups.  I wish I could say that more of my faculty understood the adolescent but I do not think that is true.  Research may help them see it is time to morph some of our practices. 

That being said, I think our faculty has been so focused on testing and how to get off of our AYP status that all of our professional development has to do with standards, differentiation, and data analysis and not looking at the adolescent as a whole.  Perhaps if we could realize that if we changed some of our practices to match those in Bright Futures we may actually meet all learners and be able to get off of CIPS.  We have one subcategory that missed and we are getting close to having too few of our socio-economic students meet the standard as well.  It is a lot to take in and I do think that our faculty want to do better.  I also think many want to change but can only handle so many initiatives at once.  I do not know how to bring about the change now because there is such a focus on that AYP status. 

Back to School 2010

Phew!  What a week with the heat, but we made it...
I am eager to start this year with the group - they seem to have a lot of enthusiasm and I cannot wait to see where we will go in the curriculum.  Differentiating as many lessons is possible is my professional goal this year.  I worked on creating an entire differentiated unit this summer and am working on more units as we get there.  I also want to allow more choice in the classroom and get back into more integrated studies so I have a lot of work ahead of me but I am excited to begin...