Bennett: Benefitting Education?

As a result of class schedule conflicts, I didn’t get the opportunity to attend a board meeting this semester. For my alternative assignment, I kept myself up-to-date with current events on education, particularly focusing on Indiana education. While reading about current education news in Indiana, I focused on the question “Who are the people outside of my classroom who influence what happens inside my classroom?”

Tony Bennett, the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, certainly holds a spot as one of the people who greatly affects the classroom from outside of it. As the Superintendent, Bennett makes decisions that affect schools, teachers, and students. Bennett, along with Governor Mitch Daniels, has been pushing for merit pay since August of this year. On December 8th, the Education Roundtable of Indiana—a group of twenty-four Hoosier leaders—approved of the changes that Bennett wants to make for how teachers get paid.

According to Bennett’s new plan, teachers are going to be “graded” and paid based on their content knowledge, instructional skills, and—most controversially—students’ academic achievement. In an interview with the Tribune Star of Terre Haute, Bennett says that he doesn’t think it is fair to grade teachers based on how many of their students pass the ISTEP, but that he doesn’t see a problem with grading them based on their students’ level of improvement.

Personally, I don’t think this is a valid or valuable way to judge teachers’ impact on students. When I took the ISTEP tests, I always passed them. However, if I were to guess, I would say that my level of improvement probably didn’t increase all that much, simply because I didn’t have much space to better my previous score. It seems that under this new law, children with high mathematical or linguistical intelligences (or those who are good test takers), will be left behind. Teachers will be encouraged to focus on the students who can improve the most, because that will look best on their end-of-the-year assessments. It seems to me that this unbalanced focus will push teachers too much to teach to the test. Not only will students miss out on other types of learning (hands-on, science, history, social activities), but some students may miss out on learning altogether as teachers struggle to improve low ISTEP performers’ test scores and teach to the level of more advanced students.

Is this really, as Bennett said, ensuring “student learning as our highest priority?”

Beginning the Journey:

One of the most prominent memories I have of a teacher is my third grade teacher, Mr. Goertz. He was so excited about learning—I remember him pacing the front of the room as he taught new things—and as an elementary school teacher, provided the rare glimpse for young boys to see a positive male influence other than their father. I learned more than academic skills from him that year—I also learned to work in groups, help others learn, and motivate my own learning. Simply put, Mr. Goertz was an excellent teacher. According to Grant and Gillette at the 4th International Conference on Teacher Education and Social Justic (January 2007), there are nine actions that will put me on the path to becoming an “excellent teacher, one who is an activist and an advocate for students and colleagues now and in the future.” The nine key actions include: getting experience with all types of learners and their families, becoming critically active, taking your education seriously, becoming aware that you are a role model and act accordingly (and becoming active in your community, joining an organization comprised of a diverse group of people, developing ways to recharge your battery, practicing democratic principles, learning to identify allies, and studying effective teachers. Seen as a list those nine things feel slightly overwhelming, but looked at individually, they are quite achievable goals.

Taking my education seriously is very important for an excellent teacher. In high school, I took all the Honors/AP classes and was involved in academic extracurriculars like Spell Bowl. Taking AP Calculus my senior was by far the most difficult class I’ve ever taken—but the feeling of accomplishment when I understood a concept was worth the hours I put in working at it. Beyond the academic realm, I’ve already established myself as a lifelong learner: I ask questions, read every magazine I can get my hands on, and spend a lot of time with people more intelligent me (in whatever area that may be: mathematics, kinesthetics, spatial, etc). By recognizing that I will never be done learning things, I feel like I’ll be more open to ideas others share.

As a student, I have already developed a lot of ways to “recharge my battery” and re-excite myself about learning and school. I feel like these methods will be transferable to my life as a teacher. Currently, talking things out with trusted friends is the best way for me to recharge my battery. Talking to Jessie on late school nights when I’m overwhelmed with balancing school and friends and life helps process and calm down. It’s hard for me to think through things in my head, I really need that external processing in order to figure out how and why I’m feeling. Being a teacher is tough, and I’m probably going to need a lot of processing conversations. But as long as I keep myself connected with people who will help me, I’ll get through it a lot easier. Other ways I’ve found that help me recharge: sleeping enough, taking a break, going out in nature, acting silly, staying in contact with others who are going through the same things, and good conversations.

I’ve got some of the actions for becoming an excellent teacher learned, but others I have had relatively no experience. Because of my age, I did not realize that I am a role model in my community. Being the oldest child, I feel like I know I ought to act as though people are watching my actions, because my younger siblings are. It seems strange to make the transition though in the community from watching the role models to being the role models so soon. I need to remember to always carry myself in such a way that I wouldn’t be embarrassed for my colleagues, principal, or students to see me. Along with paying attention to how I generally act, I can become active in my community. I could volunteer at the Post, stay an active member of my home congregation, and take part in community betterment projects. In the summers, I could work with the program that teaches English to adults at the Goshen Public Library. Overall, I just need to find positive places to immerse myself. Being a positive role model is important to 21st-century teachers because of the lack of other positive role models in students’ lives. More and more students are living in broken homes where they’re not getting to see one of their parents in a positive role, the Hollywood stars and athletes are often being caught up in drugs or other scandals, and our political leaders are often branded as liars. Kids need to see real people doing something positive.

Being a good role model and becoming involved in my community is closely tied to another of the nine actions that I’ve had little experience with: joining an organization comprised of a diverse group of people. The school system I grew up in was very diverse, but because of my placement in the Gifted/Talented (G/T) program and Honors classes, my personal experience was pretty homogenous. The high school I was in is even more diverse now than it was two years ago when I was there, and that is a trend throughout the U.S. As a 21st-century teacher, it becomes very important that I understand the many cultures my students come from. By being a part of a group of people significantly different than myself, I’ll have the opportunity to learn about others’ cultures, lives, traditions and maybe even a bit of their language. Hopefully, this will help me in the classroom as I strive to make the curriculum multicultural.

The First Step:

I declared my major yesterday: English and Secondary Education. It was a good feeling, walking in and telling the secretary that I know what I want to do with my life. Without further ado, here we go. Welcome to my blog. My name is Lavonne Shetler, and I want to be a teacher when I grow up.