Jon Morgan's List: Nancy Flanagan

• The Seventies: Got my first full-time, regular-paycheck teaching job in 1975--something of a miracle, as there was a teacher glut in Michigan. Was hired because the principal needed someone right away and we were on the same humor wavelength in the interview. Soon learned that there was no district curriculum for music or any other subjects. Chose my own teaching materials from catalogs--wasn't that a curriculum? Taught whatever and however I wanted--no content or instructional oversight and nothing resembling "professional development."

      

  Heard "don't smile until Christmas" about 50 times from other teachers, sum total of any "mentoring" I got.  Saw teachers smack kids (still permitted by law)--and heard lots of lounge talk about chaos that would happen if the right to paddle was taken away. Was pink-slipped in Years Two, Three, Four and Six, and always called back--once because of a lawsuit, after registering for unemployment--all tied to precarious, locally voted school funding.

      

  Gave statewide tests--the MEAPs, then a basic-skills check--but nobody considered them a big deal. Was happy that Jimmy Carter instituted a cabinet position for education--about time! Had a few friends who taught in Detroit--envied their superior facilities, resources and paychecks. Teaching seemed like a fulfilling, creative, autonomous profession. Most days, it was lots of fun.

• And yet — the questions from both groups, now in their first  years of teaching or in field placements (student teaching) are the same: How do  I get these kids motivated? How do I break a complex model in chemistry into  understandable chunks — and then design engaging lessons to teach those  concepts? How can I measure learning besides multiple choice quizzes, which only  tell me which students have memorized the text? Why don’t they bring their books  and pencils to class? Why don’t I get help from my principal with my  instructional struggles? Half of my honors class gets it, but the other half  doesn’t — I taught them, but they didn’t learn!
• Professional teachers must be able to  diagnose learning difficulties, prescribe effective strategies to address them,  monitor up to 150 students’ progress through credible data collection, design  and deliver upwards of 300 lessons each year, select engaging and appropriate  materials and work effectively with colleagues, parents and the community.
• As  Lee Shulman, formerly of Michigan State University and now president of the  Carnegie Foundation, is fond of saying: Teaching is impossible.
• Many of our  best, brightest and most idealistic college graduates with disciplinary majors,  looking to contribute to high-needs communities through programs like Teach for  America, find the daily work of teaching far more challenging and complex than  anticipated.
• There may well be universities where  education coursework does not lead to understanding of the critical competencies  of teaching — fix those programs or close them down, but do not eliminate  serious study of effective practice for those who wish to teach.

3 more annotations...

• This was before "21^st century learning"
• Training teachers to become fluent users of Web 2.0 and other technology tools will have an impact only if those teachers also experience a radical shift in their beliefs about the purposes of education, and a new focus on students as responsible for their own learning.
• While foundational skills are important, the cultivation of imagination, curiosity, collaboration and judgment will open our students to their full capacity as citizens in this new world- citizens who are capable of generating original ideas, making flexible connections, building international teams.
• We must prepare our students to take advantage of their individual strengths and unique talents, so they can work anywhere in the world. This may mean that studying cultural understanding and effective communication are vastly more important curricular goals in developing our national economy than trying to raise math scores by five points.
• I think schools should prepare students to manage and evaluate information.
• The best students of tomorrow will be those who can efficiently access ideas, judge their worth, and use them to study topics of deep personal and professional interest.
• Students of tomorrow will also be capable of heavy mental lifting-inventive creators of innovative ideas that can address issues of local, national and international importanc
• students of tomorrow must see themselves as contributing members of a global community.
• grounded in social and cultural realities, focused on achieving clearly defined objectives...[and supported by] resources adequate to achieve those objectives as well as cope with unanticipated conditions."

7 more annotations...

• Her talk, “Standards: Can One Size Ever Fit All?” will discuss how teachers can build a curriculum and instruction methods that are informed by academic standards.

• I sit on a statewide committee established to create a new, three-tiered licensure system for Michigan teachers. Initially, the committee was supposed to make our Race to the Top application stronger—if we could say we were in the process of raising standards for teacher quality, and formally rewarding our best practitioners, we'd get RTTT points. Since Michigan has crapped out—twice—in the Race to the Top competition, the committee has lost some of its steam. But we're still meeting, discussing how to improve teacher quality and professionalism.

• • We could look at what successful nations do, across the gamut: staffing, instruction, curriculum, class size, facilities, ongoing professional development. I'd be willing to bet that we outspend every other country on athletic programming and facilities. I'd be willing to bet we spend more on administrative costs, too.

    

  • We could put cost-benefit analyses of the advantages of a fully educated society front and center in policy creation. Pay now for high-quality preschool and rich early childhood services—or pay later, for incarceration, remedial schooling and crime.

    

  • We could start believing that investment in teaching, schools and innovation is the only way we will ever have a fully educated populace. Investment is not synonymous with throwing money at problems. But over the long haul, the only way we'll fix the system is through carefully putting money into quality.

• Thanks for sharing why you teach. I wish I had you as my music teacher when I was growing up. As I look back I am not sure what I learned in my music classes. I participated in chorus, however I was never nurtured, never inspired. I needed a patient teacher with a passion for their craft. Who can give a random act of culture to their students. My post is a little different than the rest on SFS AZ. It was difficult to put into words why I teach. When you have a chance I invite you to read my post.