Teachers--agents of change?

Teachers--agents of change? by http://runnerprof.blogspot.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Many years ago there was ferment within schools. The vital question for teachers who saw themselves as “agents of change” was “How can we help kids to learn?” Among these teachers was a strong sense that they could change the world—or at least their part of it—by being the best possible teachers.

OK, some of those teachers were sincere and hapless. They were idealists without means. Lacking insight or ability, these individuals faded into other jobs or they became mediocre teachers or worse.

Some of those teachers worked so hard they felt drained, and they left the profession permanently or for a time, despite their successes. (Sunny Decker, An Empty Spoon, 1969 is one example.)

And some of those teachers, perhaps a bit tempered by the waves of reform and other forces, still see themselves as “agents of change” seeking to bring others onto that path.

While reading an article in the Stockton Record this morning, I reflected on the importance of a reformer, Herb Kohl, on my teaching career. Kohl, I hasten to note, like so many others writing about reform during the late 1960s and early ‘70s were teachers and their writings came from their classroom experiences in addition to some research, albeit initially skimpy on the research. Kohl’s 36 Children (1967), despite being about elementary children while I was a high school teacher, moved me. He talked about the individual needs of each child and the ways to reach them. He discussed the open classroom, about which he would write more thoroughly later in The Open Classroom (1969). My copies of his books were well worn quickly.

This Stockton Record article is about a school established based on Kohl’s ideas. You might enjoy reading it and even looking at some of Kohl’s work. See the article at http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111210/A_OPINION08/112100313/-1/A_OPINION. The article caused me to look back at my efforts with the open classroom and how it influenced my thinking about teaching and learning. Perhaps the greatest “take away” for me was the conviction that I need to move students to accepting responsibility for their own learning while preparing like crazy behind the scenes for every class and every session.

I decided to try the open classroom at my school, a site with problems typical of lower to lower-middle SES schools with racial and ethnic tensions. I was teaching four sections of “American Minorities” and I presented the concept of the open classroom to the students, making sure they understood there was a very strong structure underpinning an open classroom and that they would be expected to work and succeed. Two classrooms voted to try the open classroom while two wanted to stay traditional.

(An aside about the course—There were two teachers in California who started such social science electives that year and I was one of them. Without the Web, we did not have contact with each other although the California Department of Education sent my syllabus to all districts in the state, so he may have seen my outline. I did not see his. Students had requested the course and my Honors English class and I developed a broad outline, based on research, of what the course might be. The course was set up as a single semester elective offering. It was accepted by the principal, curriculum committee, and then we had signups. Amazingly, four sections filled quickly and my classes had an average of 34-36 students in each. Students who were not universally known as good students did well even though there was a curriculum that expected reading, writing, and reporting. There were few discipline problems. It was an exciting time.)

Doing the open classroom with large classes is more work than teaching in a more traditional mode. From a range of opportunities and requirements, students set their goals, even to the grade they wanted to achieve. While rubrics were not popular at the time, I had a series of expectations for levels or quality that were shared with the students to help them understand the rigor required. I met with each student individually at least every two to three weeks. Students worked in groups and individually. Both the school and public libraries and librarians were part of my planning as the students needed resources. (Initially I had no text as there was no budget. Later I received one class set of an excellent book that was shared among the four sections.) I bought materials out of pocket too and received copy permission from several authors to make articles available for checkout. The infrastructure for any new course is complex. One with a great deal of freedom for students, at least on the surface, requires even more pre-planning and structure. Had the Web been available then, there still would have been a great deal of work, but the learning materials at our fingertips would have enriched the experience. Weekends, late nights, early mornings—all were dedicated at least partially to keeping the courses and students on track, but with the open classroom, it had to appear seamless and under the surface.

What about that freedom for students? There were requirements and expectations, yet the students were involved in determining how they would meet them. Students took responsibility for their own learning and, thus, their grades. Our frequent individual meetings began with the student giving me a progress report, asking question of me, sharing concerns, providing a sample of what he/she has accomplished. I could give feedback, of course, but the process was much more about how the student thought he or she was doing.

“Thanks for giving me the A.” I could honestly reply, “Carlos, you earned that A by your hard work. Congratulations.”

I still have student notes and some of my journals from those early years of teaching and learning.

Thanks to those students, and Herb Kohl, Sunny Decker, James Herndon, John Holt, and others who helped me internalize that teaching was much more about the learning journey and caring about students than preparing perfect lesson plans. As I try flipping part of a class or creating engaging, insightful learning objects, I think about how what I am doing assists students in being responsible for their own learning instead of seeing the classes I lead as just hoops to jump through en route to a salary increment, certification, grade, or completion of a degree.