Well, well, well. I really like
this topic for week #23. The reason I rejoice in this topic is because I
frequently ask my teachers to be student-driven. Now, based on Amber’s
assignment, I can accept the challenge to also consider myself student-driven. It
is definitely a mindset, so why wouldn't it be natural for a principal to ALSO
be student-driven?
Florida has moved to the teacher
evaluation model that uses the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching as
our evaluation instrument. The highest levels of this rubric push the teacher
to move from the instructor in the classroom to facilitator for learning. This
is very different than the classroom of the past 100 years. Traditional
classrooms are set up in rows with the teacher’s desk at the front of the room,
and all knowledge and learning is imparted from the very wise teacher who
spends hours preparing to deliver this information to his/her pupils. Well,
today’s classroom looks very different. Often set up in pods, students work as
teams under models like Kagan to solve problems and dig deep into the concepts
using strategies for effective learning such as the Singapore Math methods.
Much of the work is now becoming individualized and personalized.
In the student-driven classroom,
students establish their own learning goals, they manage their own
progress-monitoring data, and they contribute to the goals of the classroom
with student choice.
Florida’s system has a built-in
incentive for this type of educational model because teachers’ salaries and hiring
capacities are now directly tied to their student growth data and to their
ratings on the Danielson Instructional Framework. Student-driven is quickly
becoming the goal of all high-performing faculty.
So, how does an administrator
demonstrate that they are student-driven? I think our first critically
important step toward this model was our decision to build our master schedule
this year on data and not on teacher preference. Just this past month, I had a
faculty member come to me who was struggling with classroom management. She was
frustrated about the mix of students in her class and asked why our leadership
team had not listened to the teacher recommendations about the mixture of
students for the class. Remarkably, I was surprised that she was unaware of how
our master schedule was devised. I pulled it out to show her how it was a
purely data-driven schedule. What I showed her was how each student in our
schedule was matched to teacher credentials as well as classes were grouped
together based on the needs of students and the best teacher match for those
students’ academic needs. It is a color-coded thing of beauty. Certainly, we do
listen to parent non-requests about placements, but that doesn't always work
out. For instance, we had one parent who made a non-request this summer, and
she asked for her student not to be put in a class with this student, and that
student, and this other student. It turns out that those students were all
spread across the classes, and that left no pristine class for her child. He
would have to be placed with one of the teachers – and we carefully weighed
where that placement should be.
In a massive and covert way, we
have begun the journey to become a student-driven leadership team.
Coming up in the next few
months, I will be having Pizza with
the Principal meetings with our student council to get feedback from
these student leaders in our school.
Most recently, I worked with a
small group of students who were solid writers for our school. I worked with
them to fine tune and add some special elements to their writing. We called our
group Rine's Writers Academy .
It was an exceptional experience for me in the “keeping it real” category. My
short time with these students allowed me to live vicariously through our
teachers and see the difficulties they face in growing our students, and at the
same time I was able to see how much our students want to be the best they can
be. Both the students and myself were overjoyed when they caught on to the use
of the semi-colon—a piece of punctuation they had not used before. It was a
deep experience for me, and I appreciate the teacher who allowed me to assist
her students in this manner.
Here is what Amber asked us, the Lead Learners, through her provocative questioning.
"At what point in a teacher’s career does the focus shift from
doing what is best for students to, “let’s do what’s best for me.”
Our systems are built around the convenience of the adults and not
necessarily for the benefit of the students...
1). Master
schedule is based on adult’s preference.
2). Teachers threaten to quit
or transfer if they do not get the classroom or conference that they want.
3.) Knowing that some
teachers lessons aren't up to par, but not wanting to rock the status quo.
4.) Looking the other way
at worksheet driven classrooms because “the test scores are fine.”
Educators need to be
redirected back to the purpose of our profession – doing what’s best for
students’ success."
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