Lesson #8:
Exchange excuses for answers.
by Wendy Crick
Another glitch that I think educators face is that when the teacher or school district is working very hard to reach those grade level expectations and the results from testing are not reflecting significant growth, some educators look for what I would call excuses instead of examining their methods. Believe me I have been just as guilty of this as any other teacher. It’s an easy trap to fall into, especially if we believe that our training has been the most accurate and up to date. For years I believed, along with many others, that if a child couldn’t learn how to read there must be something wrong with the child. After all, I had tried many different techniques, spent hours after school working with students, gone to trainings, and continued my education with more degrees. But I was wrong. There were many areas of learning that were left unknown to me until my children guided me down other paths. This idea of excuses instead of answers became very clear to me one day as I engaged in a conversation with a local administrator. We were discussing the reading data from our MEAP testing and how I interpreted our middle school data as showing that EBLI has worked well and that it needed to be incorporated state and nation wide at the elementary level. This administrator made the statement that “we are right where we should be with our scores compared to our peer groups”; which meant that based on the socioeconomic grouping of our students we compared equally with other schools with the same demographics. As he continued to state how socioeconomics impacts our students and their abilities I immediately thought, since when did we strive and accept mediocrity? I realized that we each had much different expectations for our students. Because he knew how hard all of our teachers were working to increase reading comprehension and fluency within our district he was under the impression that we were doing everything possible to enhance student’s reading. Although my experiences had shown me that there was much more to do and learn and with this added knowledge came the ability to teach so that every child could reach their highest potential. He expected many of our kids to struggle and not be high achievers because of their family income, which for me was and is not a factor in a child’s ability to read at high levels. Our conversation also made me realized that we are right where everyone else is because everyone else is doing exactly what we are doing. Since then I have decided I don’t want to be where everyone else is anymore and I would bet our kids don’t want to be there either. Our students want and expect us to give them the knowledge that will enable them to achieve all goals they set for themselves.
More Lessons -
Lesson #1: Turn your anger into a passion.
Lesson #2: The lack of reading skills is a symptom not a condition.
Lesson #3: Think big and look for answers in new places.
Lesson #4: The need for engagement versus compliance.
Lesson #5: The need for quality remediation rather than accommodation.
Lesson #6: Empowering students
Lesson #7: Shift from grade level expectations to reaching ones highest potential.
Lesson #8: Exchange excuses for answers.
Lesson #9: Separate self from the system.
Lesson #10: Change is the only constant in our universe.
