This week we were discussing various lesson plan formats and how imperative it is to design one's lessons so that students start out with the basics and gradually make it to critical thinking and making connections to their lives. This is the best way for our students to learn and gain the necessary knowledge and skills they need in order to move on with their educations. In my Novice Teaching experience this week, I attended school-wide teacher's meeting and one of the core issues that they were discussing was how to improve student achievement and how to get the students to the appropriate benchmarks in order for them to be prepared for their ACTs and, ultimately, college. Pekin High School has this program in which the fourth hour teachers discuss with their students their grades across the board so at least they are aware of their current grades and can potentially raise them higher. They also have a huge problem with their students not completing their homework so they have designed a detention system so that the students are required to make up missed homework during their detentions in order to receive partial credit for the work they get done. If students do not attend their homework detentions they have to serve a disciplinary detention and then beyond that they are referred to the deans. My teacher has already referred four students to the dean in the four or so weeks that school has been in session for the year. Also in the meeting was a presentation on a online tool to track student progress that enables teachers to view their students' grades on their benchmark tests and determine where they are struggling and which ones are prepared for the ACT.
The one thing that I did not hear during the meeting was how teachers can improve student progress and achievement within the classroom. Understandably, the school could have discussed this issue at another point in time but in my opinion, it all starts in the classroom. My teacher and I did discuss how once these students reach their senior year, there is not much teachers can do to fix all of the problems of their educations up to that point. By that point, the students are pretty much stuck in their ways. Pekin administrators and teachers are trying to focus on freshman students so that by the time they become seniors, certain problems will not be as prevalent (hopefully). To return to my original point, I feel as though there is more that teachers can do in their own individual classrooms to raise student achievement such as better lesson plans! A solid lesson plan that includes a stair step type approach that engages students in the learning and approaches topics from different angles has the power to make a huge difference in these students' educations. I am not saying that every student can be an A student because one teacher steps up his/her game but if every single one of a student's teachers step up then something positive will result from that.
There are so many teachers that get stuck in their ways and forget their training. There is a teacher in the same department as my CT who lectures all hour and gives students worksheets. That is unacceptable! Even my teacher, who I love dearly and who is an amazing teacher, has a consistent routine that does not (in my opinion) effectively reach all learning styles and intelligences. This is one of the hardest things about teaching ... not getting stuck in a rut and repeating the same old thing year after year. I know teachers are busy and I know its so much easier to keep a lesson plan from the year before, but we need to find some way that teachers can devote more time to create solid lesson plans that get students interested in learning again. Most of the students that walk into the government classroom could care less about the subject and their grades show that apathy. It is our job as teachers to get them excited about walking into the classroom and learning about our subjects. My question then becomes: How can districts create more planning time for teachers and how can teachers be held accountable for their actions in the classroom on a daily basis?
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