Samurai Teaching

Assignment: Book Reflection #1
Book: “The NEW Meaning of Educational Change”, by Michael Fullan
Chapters: One & Two – “A Brief History of Educational Change” & “The Meaning of Educational Change”

REACTION:
Within the first paragraph of the first page I hear one word, “victimization”. Everyone is blaming everyone else for education’s woes, while at the same time feeling their hands are tied to promote any real change because the “other guy” isn’t doing it right or won’t do what is needed to make it right. Policy makers blame school administrators, who blame teachers and parents, who blame students and policy makers. And all we have is a quagmire of the butcher, the baker and the candle stick maker, all trying to row the same boat in different directions, or not trying to row at all.

Certain things jumped out at me:

“Today…it is abundantly clear that one of the keys to successful change is the improvement in relationships.” (Fullan, p.4)

“…our schools need to teach learning processes that better fit the way work is evolving. ..this means teaching the skills and habit of mind that are essential to problem-solving, especially where many minds need to interact.” (Fullan, p.7)

The idea that change with no meaning has no meaning at all. (Fullan, p. 20)

“Reflectivity, purposefulness, and awareness characterized these teachers, but not in a linear way.” (Fullan, p.33)

“Changes in beliefs are even more difficult. They challenge the core values held by individuals regarding the purposes of education.” (Fullan, p. 36)

“Perhaps the most important conclusion of this chapter is the realization that finding moral and intellectual meaning is not just to make teachers feel better. It is fundamentally related to whether teachers are likely to find the considerable energy required to transform the status quo. Meaning fuels motivation; and know-how feeds on itself to produce ongoing problem solving. Their opposites – confusion, overload, and low sense of efficacy – deplete energy at the very time it is sorely needed.” (Fullan, p.39)

RELEVANCE:
This book holds promise of great relevance for me. As a teacher/parent for the last eight years, I have felt that the blame for a student failing should be distributed this way:

As a teacher, if one of my students can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a parent, if my child can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a student, if I can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a principal, if one of my teacher’s students can’t read, it’s my fault.

As a policy maker, if a student in a school in my state can’t read, it’s my fault.

With everyone taking the blame, instead of defending themselves from it, everyone can be a part of the solution, and real and necessary changes can be made. I’m hoping this book offers real insight as to how this “safe” environment can occur.

The importance of improved relationships between the teacher and student is of high priority to me. This to me is exactly how a teacher creates a “safe” environment. I have never felt that anyone outside of the classroom controls how that classroom is run. Only the people inside of it do. And a master teacher does not allow the students to control it with the excuse of “That’s just how they are, how they come to me. What can I do?” A master teacher acknowledges the reality of “what is” of his environment, but has a vision of what could be inside of him, and sees his students and the curriculum through this vision. And he holds onto that vision, until the dream becomes the reality. This cannot be done without the cooperation of the students. And the students will not cooperate without a strong relationship with the teacher.

Teaching problem-solving skills and habits of mind takes buying into by both the students and their parents. The master teacher needs to be able to persuade them to change what they have only known, what I call the Sit-Listen- Look- Learn approach, to the Stand-Speak-Think-Do activity that is required to produce skilled problem-solving students. And we have to convince them that this change is necessary.

To honestly do this, we must be convinced that change is necessary for that individual student. If the current approach is truly working for a student, then no change is needed for that student. And if change is needed for another student, then change must occur for that student. Comparing our jobs to doctors, our job is to treat each “patient’s” ailments in the method that best works for each patient. And to me that means analyzing each student’s data and developing lesson plans for each one.

“Reflectivity, purposefulness, and awareness characterized these teachers, but not in a linear way.” (Fullan, p.33) This offers me great relief. I have been beating myself up because I seem to be unable to operate in a Newtonian linear-law of operations; first you do this, then this, then this. I find myself operating in the quantum world of needing to observe a student work first before I can make a reasonable lesson plan for him or her. And I end up combining student’s data with my own intuition to move each child forward. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, as it’s produces real results for the “whole” child.

But all this does not come without a price. The energy it takes to create this world of happiness, harmony and high achievement for every student reminds me of the time I climbed the highest mountain I could find one summer in Estes Park, Colorado. I passed out three times before I found myself lying in the snow at the top, looking up at the bluest sky and purest white clouds I had ever seen. With each gasp of breath I felt as if I was breathing in truth and beauty, and I think that has become a part of me forever.

After a few hours I was able to climb back down and get to camp. My friend who had given up the climb was sure I had died and was getting ready to leave for help. He told me I was crazy…just as many fellow teachers do today. They may be right, because I climbed that mountain in nature just once. I seem to be climbing the one in education every day. And by Christmas of this year I was passed out, but now it’s time to climb again. Only the moral truth and intellectual beauty I truly see in each child will allow me to find the energy and motivation to increase my know-how and produce the ongoing problem solving solutions to unlocking this beauty inside of them.



RESPONSIBILITY:
We’ve seen how a safe environment in the classroom allows for greater student achievement. The classroom is a microcosm of the entire world of education. And it is my job to continue to create these safe environments in my classroom, and through my writings communicate the possibilities of this expansion out into the world. Perhaps I should also find a way to create time to be involved in this opportunity I’ve been given to help develop a new charter school. The more I learn from others equates to the more I can offer others. Absorbing as much insight and new thinking as I can from the chapters of this book and everyone around me will allow me to do this.

The idea of how improved relationships literally create worlds of high harmony and academic achievement must be spread. In a post yesterday, I wrote, “Although my writings have decreased as my energy has dwindled, when I see the looks on our faces I have to share this....this......THIS is what IS possible. Can you imagine our tiny world being duplicated out over the planet? Our classrooms, work environments, and homes would all be incredible places to come to…And it all can be, once the world inside of us changes…It can happen. There's nothing stopping us but ourselves. We're all here to help inspire others and evolve our species. Just be yourself...play your part....and PLAY IT BIG! We literally change the world around us when we do.”(Stuart, The Past and The Present)

I must continue to improve my use of inquiry-based learning that meets the needs of each student. I must do a much better job of documenting my teaching processes in order that they can become duplicated and therefore scientifically validated. And I must definitely work on making the “rebelliousness” of my teaching less threatening and “different” to the parents. I email my parents daily, communicating the best I can the homework I have assigned and the purpose for it. I know I am going against their core values as to how education should be done, and at least one student is removed from my classroom in the beginning of each year by confused and anxious parents.

I will continue to develop individual lesson plans for each student, based on each of their individual needs. My biggest supporter, the teacher of the gifted class at my school, hopes I burn out and fail, before my successful methods become the new job requirement for all teachers. Therefore, my biggest responsibility is to not burnout, which I am dangerously close to due to a lack of knowledge as to how to teach smarter, and not just harder.

So, how do I teach smarter?



Stuart, A. Samurai Teaching, "The Past and The Present". http://samuraiteaching.blogspot.com/2008/01/past-and-present.html