Feb

20

The Glass May Be Half Empty After All- But So What!

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Special Education, The Way I See It | 2 Comments

glass.jpgWhen I came across the following article, I just had to read it. After all I’m on the Student Success Team at our school, and I teach and support at-risk kids all day long.

Halfway to Destination 2010, kids struggling

Given special support since third grade, program’s students show the obstacles confronting schools

As third-graders at some of the Twin Cities’ poorest schools, they were singled out for special academic help, connected to community programs, given free computers and told they would receive up to $10,000 if they stayed in school to graduate.

I though great- special academic help, connected to community programs, given free computers and $10 000 when they graduate. Those are all the things that I would like to be able to give to the at-risk students I teach. With all that support they’d to succeed. What are they talking about “struggling”. Then I continued to read

But five years down the road, halfway through their journey, students in the Minneapolis Foundation’s Destination 2010 initiative were struggling with attendance and discipline problems and not doing appreciably better on standardized tests than a comparison group of their peers, recently released data show.

Oh no. Don’t tell me that. I work with these at-risk kids everyday. I can’ t be told that what I do doesn’t make a difference. My students do tell me that I make a difference. Appreciable difference-what the heck does that mean? I’m discouraged but continue to read

Foundation officials caution against reading too much into the test results, given that several scores were missing and the sample size was small.

OK, that’s encouraging. Maybe the test results aren’t valid. Maybe the same couldn’t be said for my school. After all that’s there, I’m here. Conditions aren’t necessarily the same. Maybe…. Why did I have to come across this article, especially after the tough week I’ve had. I do believe that our greatest challenges teach us a lesson. What’s my lesson here? I though about it for a while as I poked around on the net. Suddenly this quotation by Tom Krause appeared

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”

I thought for a minute. Courage. That’s it. That’s my lesson. I needed to be courageous. I need to have courage and not dis-courage. I need to continue to support and advocate for my students all the while knowing there’s a good chance some may not stay in school and graduate. Every year some of my students graduate, and every year some of my students drop out. I need to change the way I look at that half-full glass and say, “This glass may be half empty after all, but so what!”

Feb

17

Ouch!!! That Really Hurts.

Filed Under "At-risk" students | Leave a Comment

lost-money.jpg

At our school, we spend a lot of time and energy trying to keep at-risk kids in school so they’ll graduate. As I always tell students, a high school diploma doesn’t guarantee a good job, but if you don’t have a diploma you could be closing doors of opportunity. I hadn’t really thought about how much money we’d lose, if students didn’t graduate. That was, until I read this

 

Each Texas high school dropout costs the state $3,168 a year in lost revenue and higher spending on Medicaid and prisons, according to a study … partly conducted by the Indianapolis-based Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation.

 

$3,168 a year in lost revenue and higher spending on health care and prisons! That’s for one year, year after year. I remember reading that about 30% of students drop out of school before they graduate. So if I extrapolate from those statistics, it could mean that at my school about 90 grade nine students might not graduate and that could cost us $285 120 a year , just in lost revenue. (That’s $US, not $CAN) That’s a lot of money, and that’s just at my school. There are over 30 high schools in my district so that means we could be losing $8 553 600 a year. Ooh, my goodness!

Maybe I should show that figure, $8 553 600, to the people who are always saying we should kick those kids out of school if they don’t want to toe the line? Maybe that’s why our provincial government is putting money back into education to fund new programs geared to the at-risk kids who feel there’s nothing for them at school. Maybe, just maybe.

Feb

16

Leadership Experiences

Filed Under Teacher Support, The Way I See It | 6 Comments

question-mark.jpgI’ve talked about leadership qualities here, and now I think it would be interesting to examine leadership experiences. I’d like to invite people to consider the questions Doug asks us to reflect upon

Relative to your leadership role…

- What’s working well?

- What brings you great pride and joy?

- How have you made a difference for good in the lives of those you serve?

- What brings you quiet satisfaction?

- What have you learned over the last few months?

- How can you use this information (above) to move your organization forward

I’m a special education specialist in behaviour and give support to special education and at-risk students and their teachers. My reflections here will be a function of that role.

1. What’s working well ? -Asking teachers what they want to do and how I can help them when they are have problems with kids in the classroom.

2. What brings me great pride and joy? - When teachers of at-risks students try the approaches and strategies I suggest and come back to tell me they worked.

3. How have I made a difference for the good in the lives of others?- I’ve mentored other teachers, and they’ve been able to become more effective teachers so it’s a win-win situation for the teacher and the students.

4. What brings me satisfaction?- I’ve been able to share my insight and experience with others to effect change.

5. What have I learned?- I’ve learned that my blog has been a good way to mentor teachers because teachers have told me it has been.

6. How can I use this information to move my organization forward?- I intend to speak at meetings and conferences about the potential of blogs and the Internet as a source of professional development and support.


Now, I’d like to extend the invitation to the following people who I believe would have really interesting reflections to share relative to their leadership roles, and perhaps they could invite seven others that they know to share their reflections as well. (I’ve learned about memes)

Todd- Thoughts On Teaching
Doug- Positive Psychology News Daily
Senia-Positive Psycholog Blog
Sherri- Flourishing Schools
Dan- dy/dan
Doug- teaching.mrbelshaw.co
 Kelly- Educational Discourse

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