What Started This

This was the e-mail I sent out to the faculty and administration following our Faculty Advisory Meeting with Ms. Thompson and Dr. Horn that gave rise to this Blog:
Some reflections on YTD's FAC meeting:

I thought that yesterday's Faculty Advisory Council meeting was positive and productive. We are operating under a new system and we owe it to our students to work together for their benefit within the system. I am only stating the obvious when I say that this year has been rather, well, unique. And as Honest Abe once said, "The quiet dogma's of the past are inadequate to our present siutation." Because our situation is new, we must think anew.


I began the portion of the meeting on school discipline by stating that we must avoid two extremes of classroom management if we are to make in progress towards moving from using all our energy in managing to using the majority of it in teaching. As teachers we must avoid the temptation to use referrals as our primary method of classroom management. This is an attempt to let someone else deal with problems we have and it strikes me as a less than responsible method of teaching. That word "responsible" at it's heart means, "able to respond" to our real situation.

The other extreme to be avoided is an administrator who sees any referral as a sign of teacher failure and that teachers have to deal with all problems in the classroom, well, "in the classroom". Teachers continually face students resist our best efforts to get involved in the education process. The damage these students do goes beyond damaging themselves. They wreck the education opportunites for all their fellow classmates. Research has shown that the number one predictor of classroom sucessful is the student's socio-economic environment. The number two predictor of classroom success is the enviroment of the student's school. Such schools have problems with negative peer pressure, disruptive class and school environment, and all the problems associated with poverty. In other words, poor students in schools in poor areas often have two strikes against them before they even begin.

So do we give up our hands and throw up, ere, make that throw up our hands and give up? I feel that is a denial of our "ability to respond" our responsibility. I've been reading over some of those "Master Teacher" tracks we have been given this semester. They are surprisingly good. The first one talks about the need for us to become "Advocates" for our students. Students need to feel that we are on their side. That's a vague, wooly concept, I know, but it teaches a real truth: we must communicate to our students that we are their allies. We are fighting on their side. That's why referrals must be seen, at best, as a "necessary evil". By that I mean, referrals must represent a student who has resisted all our best efforts to recognize our advocacy. Now, by calling them "necessary evils" that does not mean they are any less necessary. Referrals are not "failures" on the teachers part if the teacher has taken her/his advocacy responsibilities seriously.

This e-mail message has gone on long enough, but I would like to make a proposal. Let pledge to become advocates, and let us share our efforts with one another. How do we become advocates for our students? If you like, I could create a blog where we can share ideas, or we can simply us the school e-mail to share. Give me your thoughts on what I have said here. I truly appreciate all that you do in this school. I am priviledged to call you my colleague.


Yours in the fight,

Lynn Green