Temporary Hiatus

Due to a recent health issue I am temporarily ceasing this Blog. I will be concentrating on my newest blog entitled Suffering an Unexpected Guest: Cancer

Feel free to continue sending comments and suggestions.

I do ask that you keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I am hopeful that I will be back to writing for Educational Cuisine in the very near future.

Stirring in the Second Ingredient and making sure that it STICKS!

Well, it has been a long while since my last post. You may notice that I mentioned that "Recognizing that there is a problem is the first "ingredient" in the journey to raise student achievement." Now the second ingredient includes both "equal parts curriculum AND discipline".

I don't want to belabor the fact that teaching to behavioral expectations will take time. But without taking the time to truly walk through HOW our students are to behave, then we simply open ourselves up to disruptions and further issues. The disruptions and issues will only slow down the teaching of your curriculum and frustrate the students who come to you to learn.

At this point, you may be wondering where I got this crazy idea of teaching our students how to behave. Well actually, I first heard about this in the eighties when I was a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati. We read several books by Dr. Madeline Hunter, professor at UCLA. I recall her book Mastery Teaching: Increasing Instructional Effectiveness in Elementary and Secondary Schools. She believed that teachers need to use direct instruction. Direct instruction calls for modeling and examples. Dr. Hunter also pointed out additional steps but to keep it brief, I'll stop here with the mention of direct instruction and move to some examples.

Let's take an example of a possible classroom rule of "sitting quietly at the desk". What does this mean? What does this look like? Do teachers fully explain what this means or do they simply expect the students to know? Is it a case of "they "otta" know by know?"

I'll argue that if you have 25 students in your class, you may get 25 different ideas of what "sitting quietly at their desk" looks like. I'll also encourage the teacher to take the time to "model" this to all of her/his students. Make sure that all of the students are watching and reflecting what the teacher is modeling. Then, the teacher should show the complete opposite of what the student should NOT be doing. The students should never copy this behavior but the teacher should ask the students what the teacher did wrong and what the correct behavior should be.

Finally, the teacher should model the "almost but not quite" way to "sit quietly in the desk". Again, the students should never copy this behavior but the teacher should ask again what the teacher did wrong and what the teacher should be doing to make it correct.

Think about this...teachers spend a large part of their time dealing with discipline issues when they would rather be teaching the curricular material. Taking the time to teach correct behavior may take 4 to 6 weeks at the beginning of each school year, but it could garner great returns in student achievement when discipline concerns become a little or "non-issue".

So make sure that you take the time to "stir in a good amount of discipline with the curriculum" and make it "stick" in the minds of the students. They will learn more and everyone will experience less stress throughout the year.

You may be the best teacher in the world but if students are dealing with discipline issues and the classroom is not conducive for effective learning, what good is the curriculum?

Second Ingredient: Curriculum or Discipline?

Which comes first....curriculum or discipline

Actually, it's both. I have observed some excellent curriculum developed by talented educators. However, excellent curriculum cannot be taught to our students without discipline. Curriculum without discipline looks like the proverbial "wa, wa, wa" in the cartoon world.

Let's look at what I mean by discipline. If you "Google" the word "discipline" you may find the following definitions: (Merriam-Webster) "control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed and punishing bad behavior; a way of behaving that shows a willingness to obey rules or orders; behavior that is judged by how well it follows a set of rules or orders." You might also find this using Google:  "the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience."

I like Google's definition a bit better than Merriam-Webster's. I appreciate the idea that "training people to obey rules" is mentioned. Without training people to what the expectations are, then rules or orders become a list of do's and don't's.

Training to Expectations

What would it look like if educators not only taught the skills of their subject area(s) but also taught students how to behave? We're very good at posting rules on the board but with the number of students who come to school with improper behaviors it is becoming more and more important to take on this added dimension to teaching.

So I guess the second ingredient to this recipe are equal parts curriculum AND discipline.

The First Ingredient

So what are we to do if we truly want to see an increase in student achievement? If you look at some schools, it seems that the teachers and principals continue to keep "kicking the dead horse" in the hopes that somehow, the horse comes back to life, and trots off into the sunset with the teachers and administrators slapping themselves on the back congratulating themselves for a job well done. Unfortunately, there are those in education that believe that their "kicking" will get the horse up and running again. They are the educators who fight change at every opportunity, and they refuse to see the opportunities for the students.

In District Leadership that Works (2009), Marzano and Waters argue that the first step is establishing nonnegotiable goals for achievement. They also argue for nonnegotiable goals for instruction. Setting goals is a noble action but that is only part of the recipe. The foundation that supports the goals is made up of Collaborative goal setting, Board alignment, and Allocation of Resources.

I have argued for several years that the only way to start the journey to increasing student achievement is, to first of all, agree that the "status quo" is not acceptable. Recognizing that there is a problem is the first "ingredient" in the journey to raise student achievement. Kicking the "dead horse" is simply a refusal to accept the truth. Let's accept the fact that we have a problem. Then let's get down to work establishing our nonnegotiable goals.

Recipe for Making US Education Great

What makes a restaurant great? Is it the food? Is it the wonderful service or is it the unique atmosphere? Actually it's all of these and more. I've been to some great restaurants where the food was excellent but the service was poor and the atmosphere was simply ugly. The food may have tasted great, but other issues kept the experience from being memorable.

A great restaurant is a cut above. It's not simply the food or the service or the atmosphere. A great restaurant exudes the best of the best. A great restaurant welcomes their guest as if you were coming into their home as an honored guest. A great restaurant serves a meal that is memorable because of the skills of the chefs. A great chef is not just a cook. A great chef is an artist in their own right.

I believe education can be great. I also believe that we have the tools to make education great. We just need to get the right combination of teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders together to create this "cut above".

Back in 1987, Dr. William Bennett, described school administrators as "the blob". He accused administrators of soaking up educational resources and setting up barriers to reform. Dr. Bennett's description may jolt your memory and you may recall a classic sci-fi movie from the late 50's entitled "The Blob".  This movie was about a gelatinous creature from space that grew to gigantic size by consuming everything in it's path.

I can tell you that a lot has happened in education since that scathing attack on education by Dr. Bennett. I was just getting into administration in the late 1980's and the push to raise student achievement levels was beginning. Was the name calling justified? Maybe a little. But I believe those days are gone.

Today, principals work with our dedicated teachers and parents to create unique learning environments for the students. Community leaders serve on advisory boards making suggestions and helping with needed services such as classroom materials and volunteering in classrooms. The ingredients are there. It's now a matter of getting our educational leaders to become great chefs. It's now a matter of moving away from a factory model of education to creating global communities of students capable of solving real world problems. We can do this.

I hope that this blog may provide some thought provoking dialogue and share some recipes for educational success.