leadership in high schools

http://www.slideshare.net/nashworld/protecting-ocean-resources-from-missouri-

Our teacher Mr. Kim Minnier teaches classes on Marine Biology to grades 9-12 students as an elective.  He developed this class after receiving a grant worth U.S $5,000 in 2006, from the National Education Association in Washington, D.C.   The above slide is one I accessed from slideshare a wonderful resource for teachers and presenters which focusses on a variey of topics.  This slide explores all the interesting facts about fish from hatching, fish on our tables and the implications for this industry in the future.  I like the tie in this slide shows,  between what happens in Missouri, USA.,  how this impacts food choices in Japan and the cost of fish world wide.  

Mr. Minnier’s class began working on a wall mural last year which showed the progression of ocean life from bottom feeders to the big blue whale.  We hope to have this class grow with an incoming group of freshmen this year.  Thank you Kim for taking a love that you have for fish and aquariums and parlaying this into an area of study and interest for students. 

Can you begin to think of all the leisure time fun our students have when they learn how to cultivate an interest and learn skills associated with maintaining aquariums?   

Formal training of teachers is I believe, sorely lacking.  Universities that produce teachers for schools in Western New York - the catchment area being Western New York and Eastern Pennsylvania,  need to focus on the understanding and development of every aspect within the Individual Educational Plan (IEP).  This emphasis should include as examples, the difference between modifications and accommodations.  the difference between programs like 1:12:1 which is and educational service and a Need which would be a   a 1:1 aide, a braille machine, a lap top computer for word processing etc. 

 Good PLEP statements -Present Levels of Educational Performance, require refined thinking and written expression.  Practice does help but more importantly student teachers and teachers in the field need to understand that the student needs to be described in his or her own entirety in relationship to his/her peers and the general education curriculum.

Special Education teachers are managers of staff within their classroom.  In 1:8:1/1:12:1  classrooms, teachers are sometimes presented with 8 students and 8 individual aides not including the teacher and classroom aide.  How does the teacher manage all the adults in the room who have ideas and in-put that are valuable but not always cohesive?  Sometimes the lesson plan for the students may take second fiddle to the personal needs of aides.  How will the special education teacher manage complex human resource issues without being a supervisor?  This training piece should be tied to lesson planning and methodology, use of technology and IEP development. 

Another area of concern is Educational Technology.  Departments of Educational Technology and Communications within Schools of Education 20 or more years ago would focus on Student Teaching, Lesson Planning, Methodology, the use of and the development of instructional media.  Why are Universities not training teachers to embrace Web 2.0 technology?  Why are teachers not being trained to not invent the wheel but collaborate with others and use lesson plans that are freely published;  modify these plans to meet the needs of their current students?  See the post on the Lunch Box Project.  

Just like employers in the world of Business that we read about who have to train new employees to focus on different skill developments, schools have to work harder to train new teachers who are graduating from college still unprepared for the huge learning curves and divides that exist between theoretical knowledge taught and practical applications in schools.  Teachers whatever their background - general or special education must understand to varying degrees the impact of the cross over of knowledge required by the new demands of the digital learner. 

The focus of teacher interview panels is changing and Universties and Colleges preparing student teachers should pay attention! Prepare yout student teachers for a global, competitive school environment that has no borders. 

Yesterday we at the Hewes Center interviewed 5 Special Education teacher candidates.  On the interview panel were two administrators, two teachers and a school psychologist/administrative intern.  All five candidates were exceptional in that they spoke to the needs of students in the classroom - 6 traits of writing, project based learning, community learning, positive feedback, pod casting, video streaming, smart boards, clickers, blogging and other technological media.  I was interested to hear one candidate say she was warned not to explore Face book for fear that someone or something might discover her!

We at the Center need 4 teachers - we may have found 3! One  is more driven to serving in a consultant teacher capacity with sights on a doctorate in Educational Psychology.  To place this person in a classroom would be to cage a beautiful bird that needs to fly freely.  This was a good day for teacher recruitment.  We shall definitely be a very different place in the Fall when school starts because these teachers are coming on board excited to reach out to generations “Y” - 1975-1990 and Generation ”E” - 1991+ , who are wired to a new economic reality.  At present this economic reality is rooted in schools because knowledge is still being cultivated here.   We must understand that if schools cannot produce new thinkers, new managers of information who can quickly understand and maneuver through vast reams of information using technology , team players who can coordinate across cultural and political lines, then schools as we know them will become obsolete.   

The next step in this process is to submit the names and applications of our teacher candidates to the office of our Director.   In 3 weeks the Hewes Center will be a very different place. 

I cannot wait for the start of the new school year - there is so much to be done. 

Summer school this year, 6 weeks at the Hewes Center for High School students involves a collaborative model between Erie 2 CC BOCES and Chautauqua Works, a clearing house for all county wide jobs and a state funded initiative to promote employment and employment skills amidst the workforce in Chautauqua County. 

In the morning all students grades 9-12 are engaged in academic subject instruction tying in school learning to skills and information needed in the workplace.  Relevance is portrayed for students between what is taught in school and how it relates to the workplace.  In the afternoon,  all students are engaged in a work model.  Students aged 16+ are working for Chautauqua Works both on and off-campus in jobs ranging from housekeeping-maintenance-pool aides-cafeteria aides-information technology assistant. If the student is deemed eligible in terms of family income guidelines then he/she is paid for this work$7.15 an hour by their employer Chautauqua Works.  If the student does not meet eligibility requirements he/she is considered an employee in training (EIT) and does not get paid by Chautauqua Works. 

Points of Interest:

• All students have received training on work place etiquette, sexual harassment and fidelity to the employer. Additional training has been provided about filling out tax forms, time cards etc.  This work place orientation lasted approx. 2 hours. 
• All student have been assigned a work place counselor from Chautauqua Works who checks up on the students and answers their questions about work place difficulties/problems on the job.   In addition, daily work place support is provided by the teachers of BOCES who monitor the students. 

In order for this program to have been initiated at the Hewes Center of Erie 2 CC BOCES, our district Superintendent Robert Giuffreda had to sign of an the agreement between the school and Chautauqua Works.  In addition, the program required a sign off from the United Staff Association (USA)/ a Union within the BOCES that student employees would not take away work from members and that there would be no decrease in the number of persons employed by the USA over the summer period. 

 

This is the case of a female 13 year old student in 7th grade.  She is volatile, emotionally unstable, self-injurious, depressed, manic and classified as a special needs student because of her disability - ED. 
She has been in a BOCES 1:6:1 program for about 6 months.  At the CSE meeting held in May 08, the community resource mental health advocate is able to sway the family into demanding that the the girl return to her home school because -”all the other students at that school behave in this same way.”  Unfortunately, no other members of the Committee on Special Education can dissuade the momentum that the meeting takes on and despite all teacher and counselor views to the contrary, a decision is reached to return the student to her own school district.  I could not attend this CSE meeting and I am shattered by the recommendation brought back to me by the classroom teacher and school counselor.

After the CSE meeting, the student continues to deteriorate in her behavior.  It has not been enough time for her to internalize the self controls being taught her in a 1:6:1 program at the BOCES.  In the month of June alone the student receives 6 disciplinary referrals with 3 time outs and 1 restraint.  Between April and May O8, she is deemed a danger to herself and others and hospitalization is sought in a mental health facility.  Another CSE meeting is called within 2 months, July 08, to review the recommentdation of the first CSE meeting.  This time the school district and the BOCES representatives are able to make stronger points to make the case for a reversal of the initial decision and based on frequency of visits to the time out room and number of discipline referrals that the student has received since Jan. 08 which shows a pattern of escalating behavior in the month of June, 08. 

Result:  No definitive action/result.  Parent/guardian are now not sure as to what is the best course of action - return to BOCES or seek another out of district placement.  At least we won on the first issue - there is universal  agreement on the part of BOCES, the parent and school district that the student is unable to return to her home school at the present time.  At this time there is no knowing whether the student will be returning to BOCES or not.   I would personally like to see the female student return to our BOCES program for another year and then transiton to her local high school.  I know that our BOCES teachers at the Hewes Center have the experience and training to understand negative, self-destructive behavior and its impact on education, more importantly they have the professional tools to attend to the issues presented by the student.  By this time she leaves a behavior based, will have internalized some self-control and self-discipline and learnt how to manage her behaviors with  counselling and medication.