leadership in high schools

When I was in school,  my teachers taught using the philosophy that School was preparation for Life.  This was in the 70s and 80s.  I do not believe that this is so anymore.  School is Life.  It replicates everything that occurs in society – discipline, management of people, harnessing of resources, team work, collaboration, etc.  School for our students today is Life, hence we have to teach them how to harness technology and use it to problem solve, create, plan and produce.  Technology use should be seamless in that students should comfortable knowing what to do with it when faced with a classroom problem or when called upon to come up with a solution.  Technology is a learning resource.  Schools should teach using a holistic approach. 
Project based learning forces collaboration, team work, and group problem solving.  This method of thinking is reflected in the workplace.  Therefore, whereas the ideology of “School is Preparation for Life” which means preparation for a job, today’s “Schools are Life” where we have to teach skills that are replicated in society – these are the 21st century skills that our students need to survive in this new world.  Collaboration, cooperation with people and technology integration into problem solving to produce results that are beneficial to mankind rather than just the individual. 

It is predicted that in 2080, there will be a threatening global shortage of fresh water.  How will your students attend to this issue?  How will their discussions begin?  What skills/tools will they use to address this problem?  How will the book knowledge you are teaching them now help them solve this issue for themselves?  What will they do?  What will they say if told this statement?  What will the results of their group think result in – an essay, a project, referral to other authorities, more questions with no solution, fighting, criticizing, blaming others?  What will their learning look like and how will your teaching today affect their academic outcomes when faced with this problem.  Students should be taught information but problem solving should be a key feature of all learning.  Do your students know about social collaboration with other students in other countries? 

Go to http://lunchboxproject.wiki.spaces.com /Slide Share to see how one teacher in Australia is having students collaborate with schools in other countries to answer a basic question.  Have you as the teacher harnessed this technology in order to meet the needs of your students for the world they are living in now? 

On Dec. 1, 2008 from 2:35- 3:15 the Faculty Meeting at the Hewes Center will involve three programs – CTE, Special and Alternative Education celebrating the insights, skills and knowledge gained by participants of High Schools New Face Conferences held in Elicottville, NY in 2006, 2007 and 2008.  Our agenda will be to show and discuss how 21st century skills and planning are impacting instructional delivery, student interaction, public outreach and building configuration at the Hewes Center.  The BOCES Public Relations Officer, Jared Lindall will be on hand document our trails and growth so as to share these experiences with other schools and communities.  (See descriptions of High Schools New Face in other blog posts and in Education-Reimagined a page on this blog)

Phil Stock, Jeff Angeletti, Kelly Joslyn, Russ La Tour, Connie Rice are CTE representatives. 

Phyllis Caloren, Rose Dorey and Thea Kester – are representatives of Alteranative Education.

Jim Hedlund, Amy Stormer, Sarah Parmarter, Una Raimondo – are representatives of Special Edcuation. 

All the above, attended High Schools New Face and work at the Hewes Center.  Others who attended are now working throughout our Erie 2 CC BOCES Sites and Centers.  The impact of High Schools New Face will be fascinating to reveal in terms of each body of work – teaching, CTE planning, building design and administration of programs.  I am very excited by the possibilities of this joint Faculty meeting and look forward the dialogue and creativity that will come out of this session. 

Focus Questions for the HSNF Groups:

1. What co-hort did you attend at High Schools New Face and what year did you attend?
2. What did you take away from the HSNF conference?
3. How have you implemented what you learned at HSNF?
4. How have the social collaborations/personal networks that you established at HSNF continued to impact your professional delivery? 

What a priviledge it was to spend Wednesday evening with @ 41 undergraduate and graduate students of Education at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, NY.  Ann Aversa, former BOCES special education supervisor/teacher, Brad Nunn – Jamestown Public Schools, Rochester City Schools and BOCES teacher/ administrator together with myself, Professors Paula Kenneson, Ann Claire Fisher and  >>>>>>>>>>>>> were delighted in the company of future educators in whose faces we re-discovered ourselves.  The passion, questions and thoughtful repose of the students in the class reflected our own journey of questioning and discovery so many years ago, when we ourselves were students just round the corner from entering a profession we could not wait to impact and change. 

I think that it is imperative that schools and universities collaborate in the educational training of future teachers and educational leaders.  We all recognize that professional growth goes both ways ( with students and bringing practitioners into colleges) and that informing students of current trends and the daily pulse of schools is critical to preparing them for the work they will be engaged in – work that is grounded in theory but is so much dictated by the human service needs of students, families and school employees.  When I was in college I thought that the lesson plans and curriculum were my foundations of instructional/professional success.  Today I know this to be a crucial piece but I do not discount the importance of my contacts with every manner of personal interaction I have with every member of the educational team.  I focus on this everyday when I enter the school building and immediately greet the maintenance and grounds staff, the secretaries, my peer superivisor, the teachers, the professional staff, the aides and the list goes on until 8:30 am when the students arrrive, and the parent calls come in, probation officers, mental health counselors, come into the building.  All these contacts and facets of a school make for the professional success of each and every school day.  These contacts spell passion and energy.      

It is my hope that the visit and experiences that we as collective educators shared with the students of St. Bonaventure University, will inspire you to be the change leaders in schools.  In addition to talking about IEPs, IDEA, FERPA, student PLEP statements, student accomodations, classroom sizes, least restrictive environments,  IEP direct etc.  it is our hope that you will enter this endeared teaching profession prepared to passionately save students one at a time and make this nation once again a leader in education, creativity, discovery and excitement.    

Student References:

Thomas Friedman, AUTHOR OF The World Is Flat and The World is Crowded    

SOCIAL NETWORKS: NING, TAPPED IN, CLASSROOM 2.0, TWITTER  

We look forward to hearing from all of you at St. Bona’s via this blog.  Please share with us, your insights, thoughts and ideas as to how we can better prepare you for the world of work you have chosen.  Our thanks to your professors, especially Dr. Kenneson for inviting us to your classroom and introducing us to Bona hospitality, Cafe La Verna and Plassman Hall. 

My night was gloriously blessed when I ran into one of my former students, C. Lombardo ( Bona’s 2011) - one day I hope he will be a businessman who will generate work for others and help pay the public taxes which we hope will continue to fund our programs. 

PS:  K. Blake, I met Ms. Tina Currie, CSE chair today at the Jamestown Ad. building.  She told me that you are a gifted teacher just waiting to be picked up by some lucky school! 

Our work has expanded at the Hewes Center in that this year we are a Kindergarten to grade 12+ school.  Is the time right for us to consider a name change?   We are located in E  and A buildings at the Hewes Center which also houses our BOCES CTE (Career and Technical Education) programs and the adult education service offices for the GED and Nursing programs.  This week our Center also became a sub-station for the Sheriffs Office.  A nice sign sits atop of our HEWES CENTER Sign at the front of our school property and it was proudly installed on Thursday morning, Nov. 13th, 2008

Please take the survey below to add your thoughts to our debate. 

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A priority for all organizations, non-profit and profit is employee mentorship and investment in time and training.  Money spent up front on these endeavors pays off hugely.  Examine Barack Obama and his meteoric rise.  The Democaratic Party is to be credited for its grafting, nurturing and eco-friendly growth of this candidate in the political arena.  By “eco-friendly’”  I mean more compatible and more widely accepted.  I believe that Andrew Honeychurch has hit the mark using a horticultural example, applying it to education and students in the classroom.  The Japanese would applaud this, they use this widely in their gardening techniques.  Do we in schools invest enough time in employee growth, nurturing and teaching?.  This is an issue that is germaine to the hiring and retention of our paraprofessionals in particular.  We have to do a lot more than the little that we are not doing. 

The age of workers and their entering behavior has changed markedly.  They are nuch younger than the work force that is still bolstering our schools (20s as oppossed to the vast numbers of folks in their 40s and 50+, and their understanding of employer expectations is different.  In my most recent hires, I have found that the Y generation, those who could do no wrong when they were in school and have been fed a diet of “no failure” and everything is an “A” grade, cannot understand simple employer expectations – be on time and no you cannot offer repeated apologies and expect to keep your job.   ”No, you cannot leave your work site without informing your supervisor.”  “No, you cannot tack on extra time to your lunch break or combine both breaks and lunch and be away from your work site without permission for an hour.”  “No you cannot fall asleep in the classroom you are assigned and  especially when the students are learning in class.”  “No, you cannot come to work looking like you are hung over.”  ” No, you do not splash water on your hair and face saying you need to wake up”, without expecting folks to assume you are ill-suited for the job at hand. 

In deference to  the late Bernie Mac, “America(Schools) your graduates are now “terrorizing” you in your own work place.  Its hit home baby.” 

Our graduates are ill prepared to be successful in the very work place they were nurtured in and now the employer, the school, is faced with a base level of misunderstanding and ignorance that affects work climate, safety and all future training and investment.  Bottom line it’s all very costly.  However, I see hope now that the graduates are coming home to roost as it were, applying to schools for work, and we in schools are seeing the effects of an ill prepared work force, I do believe that our world wide ranking – (America is rated 13th in the world in terms of school success) is poised to improve.  We love a good challenge and now we have it.  We as educators have no choice!  Talk about an infectious sore that never heals – school graduates who cannot even get jobs in schools!  What did we graduate?  Why are these students not more like the successes we can identify in the work place?  They better be………………

Andrew thank you for your quiet, gently response that reflects the time we should all take in nurturing new employees irrespective of our offices.  I believe that the failure of an employee is reflective of our collective failure exemplified in the simple statement broadcast daily on our news -”we never saw this coming, why did this happen?.  He/She was such a nice person, church going, a family person, made cookies for children, brought in stuff …………….

A tragedy none the less.