San Jose, California, lost one of its best and most dedicated teachers when
Susan Fortino relocated to Medford, Oregon. Her husband was to be employed
by Harry and David, home of our favorites Moose Mix and chocolate covered
cherries! She brought with her an impeccable pedigree:
- She is on page 178 of The First Days of School and only
effective teachers are featured.
- She is a product of Holly Oak Elementary School, a National Blue Ribbon
School of Excellence.
- She is a protégé of Mercedes Boles, National Principal
of the Year. In 2000, she was one of only five selected nationwide.
- She is a colleague of Cindy Wong, of "Give Me Five" fame, as featured
in the video series, The Effective Teacher.
These experiences developed in her a true sense for professionalism, thus
she would be a great asset as a role model and mentor to all future teachers.
So, one would think that getting a job in the Medford School District would
be slam-dunk. Not so. To Susan's shock, the Medford School District had
no openings!
Is it possible that a school district would have no openings at a time of
worldwide teacher shortages? But more importantly, why were there
no openings in the Medford School District?
- The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) estimates that 15 million more teachers around the world must be
hired over the next decade. While the shortage is most severe in south Asia
and Africa, wealthy countries like the United States also face significant
shortfalls in key areas.
- On October 15, 2000, the Toronto Star reported that Canada's school
boards no longer can find enough qualified teachers for the country's 5
million schoolchildren and are bracing themselves for the shortage to get
worse. More than two-thirds of the 272 school boards surveyed said they
fear they will have trouble hiring the teachers they need next year.
- On January 31, 2002, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that at
least 30,000 of the students in the Philadelphia public schools have teachers
who are not fully certified. More than 900 apprentice teachers are in the
city's classrooms and nearly 400 more have yet to pass all or part of the
state certification exam. More than two-thirds of 26 new math teachers in
the Philadelphia schools failed their certification tests last year.
Increasing Effective Teaching
Medford is a community of 13,000 students served by 14 elementary schools
and 4 secondary schools. The reason why Medford may have few, if any, openings
is a universal fact of life. All people want to succeed.
The companies and institutions, such as schools, that succeed are the ones
who are able to keep happy and successful employees. To do so, they invest
time and money into a training program, or in schools, a staff development
program to ensure that both teachers and students succeed.
Early every year Fortune magazine lists its "100 Best Companies to
Work For." Heading this list is the Container Store of Dallas, Texas, which
sells water pails and laundry hampers for homes. They train their employees
162 hours per year! Even the last rated business on the Fortune
list trains its employees over 60 hours a year.
Whereas, it is not uncommon for a school district to have one or two days
devoted to what is erroneously called a staff development day, which is nothing
more than a speaker who may not talk about anything that is relevant to a
district's mission. It's understandable why teachers grade papers and read
newspapers at these pointless, missionless meetings.
Medford has a mission. Their unmistakable mission is to ensure professional
growth by maintaining and improving the
- knowledge,
- skills, and
- attitudes
of each individual within the organization, which will result in increasing
effective and efficient teaching and student learning. This may sound
like a platitude, as so many mission statements do, until you consider and see
their 100-page staff development handbook, listing over 75 different course
offerings available each year.
The superintendent, Steven R. Wisely, says,
"The standards we hold for ourselves are even greater than
those we hold for our students. In the educational and activity arenas, being
second is just not acceptable in the Medford School District. To do that,
we must believe that our only limits are those we place on ourselves. Through
learning we become masters of our tasks. With that in mind, the School
Board has made a strong commitment to providing a district-wide Staff Development
Program."
Lifelong Learning
Kathy McCollum is Medford's Director of Staff Development. At Medford,
a major role of the administrators and staff developers is to immerse their
new teachers in the district's culture and unite the new teachers with everyone
in the district in order to form a cohesive, supportive instructional team.
New teachers are quickly made a part of the district "family." When you
feel like you are part of a family, you don't leave a job.
You, also, don't wait until after school begins and the beginning teachers
are in trouble to start a professional development program; you create a culture
of professional development before beginning teachers even see their first
class. The new teachers who will advance in the profession will be the
ones who continue to invest in their lives by continuously learning and growing.
The best way to cultivate an attitude of lifelong learning in beginning
teachers is through a new teacher induction program. The Medford schools had
a three-year new teacher induction program. Each year had a specific focus.
- Year 1: Classroom management
- Year 2: Instructional strategies (Instruction can't begin until the class
is managed.)
- Year 3: Peer group coaching (By the third year, the new teachers are able
to help the brand new teachers.)
Now Medford has a two-year new teacher induction program. They may claim
that cost prevented the program from going three years, but we maintain that
a culture and a family had been developed so that peer coaching was no longer
needed. Newer teachers could go anywhere, ask, and receive help. This is the
culture that has been established in the district as a result of all of the
new teachers going through the induction program. Remember how in our January
2002 column http://teachers.net/wong/JAN02
we talked about Goldfarb Elementary School in Las Vegas and how ALL
the teachers helped to "mentor" the new teachers.
New teachers stay where there is a learning community and a family culture
of helping new teachers to succeed.
Skills of Independence
Kathy McCollum says that teacher induction programs go a long way toward
filling the gaps needed by new teachers to succeed. She noticed that the
new teachers were teaching these beautiful lessons, but in many cases, the
students were not on task. The behavior, the interaction wasn't there. So,
the administrative team decided to pursue the area of classroom management.
"Once classroom management was tightened up," Kathy McCollum said, "then we
could transfer over and begin concentrating on instructional strategies."
Medford teaches classroom management based on procedures: how to
sharpen your pencil without poking people, how to line up productively, how
to hand in your papers, how to come into class and get ready to learn. Kathy
McCollum explains, "All these things are procedures, or 'skills of independence.'"
A skill of independence is a skill that students need to develop in order
to be independent as well as interdependent learners.
The technique of procedures learned by the new teachers helps to prevent
approximately 90 percent of the problems teachers encounter in the classroom.
Intervention techniques are also taught to teachers to use after a problem
has occurred in the classroom. Kathy McCollum says, "The principals are telling
us they are so impressed. They think the classroom management is better than
it's ever been. They feel the prevention is there and teachers aren't just
intervening all the time."
Kathy McCollum says, "The most important thing is that, when a district
is considering making a change, that it makes the change systematically. It
must become an integral part of the culture of the organization. We really
expect teachers to use effective classroom management and instructional skills.
We train them, and we have the expectation that they will use the training
in the classroom."
Classroom Management Procedures
Each year Kathy McCollum shares with us the procedures developed by the
new teachers during their workshops held before the first day of school. This
year we received a collection of 33 of what they call "Procedure Lesson Plans."
The workshop where the following procedures are generated are taught by
Kathy McCollum and Dr. Carolyn Ruck, Education Professor at Southern Oregon
University. Like all good new teacher induction programs, the Medford program
is a structured, organized program. They don't just give a new teacher a mentor
with a directive to go and reflect on what you are doing.
Included in this collection were such procedures as
- Lining Up and Walking in Line
- Active Participation/Listening
- Being Called Upon
- How to Enter the Classroom When Tardy
- Transition From One Group to Another
- Proper Audience Etiquette
- Turning Monitors Off to Start Class
- I'm Done, Now What?
You will be impressed with what you are about to read. Remember, these are
beginning teachers or teachers new to the district, who have had the benefit
of a structured, induction program. These procedures do not necessarily work
perfectly as they were developed before the first day of school. But it's
a start and the effective teacher constantly makes changes and adjustments
to any procedure or lesson that is not working.
Each teacher must develop procedures for his or her own classroom. To illustrate,
we share two different versions of the same procedure from two different teachers.
To learn more about how to develop and teach procedures, read our past columns
and Unit C in The First Days of School.
Lining Up and Walking in Line
Cathy Morrison
Oak Grove Elementary School
INTRODUCTION
- How would you feel if you were late to recess because the class didn't
line up quietly?
- Today we are going to learn the correct way to get in a class line and
walk in that line.
- We can get to where we need to be on time if we line up and walk in our
line in an appropriate manner.
INPUT
Looks Like Walk quietly to place in line
Hands to self
Feet to self
Stand quietly facing forward
Small space between students
Walk quietly at slow, even place
Sounds Like
No talking
Quiet feet
Chairs being pushed in MODEL
- Teacher models and verbally explains.
- The teacher calls my table and I walk quietly to my place in line.
- I'm going to keep my hands and feet to myself and not talk.
- If someone talks to me, I will ignore it or give him or her the "shhh"
signal.
- I will stand quietly until the teacher starts the line moving. I will
stay in my place and continue walking quietly to our destination.
GUIDED PRACTICE
- Teacher will call one table at a time and students will line up correctly.
- Have the rest of the class tell what they did correctly.
CLOSURE
- We will use this procedure every time we need to leave the classroom together
as a class, or when we leave another common area and return to class.
- After each table has lined up correctly, walk class out to recess.
"Make Way for Ducklings"
Jenet Sipress
Wilson Elementary School
INTRODUCTION
- Have you ever seen a mother duck leading her ducklings? How did they look?
Why is it important for the ducklings to follow their mother?
- You need to learn how to line up quickly and quietly. Students line up
for recess, lunch, field trips, fire drills, going home.
- Learning to line up is important because you don't want to be late and
miss the fun.
INPUT Looks Like Students in a line
Standing straight
Facing front
Hands at sides
Mouths closed
Sounds Like
Quiet movement -- walking feet
Chairs being pushed in
Dismissal signal MODEL
- Teacher sits in seat. Think aloud.
- Stand up, push chair in and move by going the shortage distance to the
door.
- Stand facing front, hands at sides, not speaking.
GUIDED PRACTICE
- Use small groups/table, one at a time. Other groups critique.
- Each group has a chance to critique and practice.
- Then use the whole class and practice lining up 3 times.
- Use timer to see how long it takes.
CLOSURE
- When will we be lining up?
- We will have many opportunities to use this skill every day.
More Procedures
What to Do When You Finish Your Work
Scott Townsend
North Medford High School
INTRODUCTION
- I don't teach a class the last block of the day on Red Days. What do you
think I do during that time? Students answer.
- Teacher responds, "I'm reviewing the classes I taught and preparing for
future classes. No employer would allow me to just goof off because I had
finished teaching for the day."
- I have the same expectations for you and it will help you develop habits
that contribute towards your current and future success.
INPUT
When finished with work:
- Review your work.
- Work on incomplete past assignments
- Silently read from a book of your choice.
- If you didn't bring a book, find an interesting topic in the text.
- The teacher must approve any other activity.
Reading is not free time. It is part of the school's plan to improve your
language arts skills.
MODEL
- Teacher conducts a think aloud, mini-skit modeling of the procedure.
GUIDED PRACTICE
- Have each student follow the above steps in relation to the seatwork they
have just finished.
- Have various students share which step they are doing.
- Ask questions to check for understanding.
CLOSURE
- We will be using this procedure each time you have completed your work
and there is still time in the classroom.
- Teacher gives students 10 minutes of time during which they are to pretend
that they are finished with classwork. They demonstrate that they are able
to find something productive to do in this 10 minutes
Heading Your Paper
Susan Fortino
Jefferson Elementary School
INTRODUCTION
- Teacher tells personal story about the best paper he/she wrote that was
thrown away because it didn't have a name on it.
- Today we are going to learn how to properly head our paper so that you
will be able to earn the grade you deserve.
INPUT
- Ask, "What should we do first after we have our paper?"
- Make a list of their responses.
- Name (first and last) in upper right hand corner
- Student number
- Date in numbers (3/15/02)
- Title centered on top line
MODEL
- Teacher puts on overhead a wide-ruled, lined piece of paper.
- Teacher names each step of the procedure as she performs it.
- Teacher checks for understanding by:
- Putting up another overhead of lined paper.
- Teacher purposefully places steps incorrectly.
- Teacher asks students for a thumbs up or down for correctness.
GUIDED PRACTICE
- Teacher gives each student a piece of wide-ruled, lined paper and asks
them to head their paper for the certain title at hand.
- Teacher may remind them as she watches them perform the task.
- Teacher checks for understanding by choosing a volunteer's paper and asking
yes or no questions as to whether the steps of the procedure were done correctly.
CLOSURE
- Teacher tells students that they will be doing this on their assigned
papers the rest of the year.
- Ask them "why" again.
She's Hired and Successful
Yes, Susan Fortino got a job at the last minute in the Medford School
District and is very happy and successful. She says,
My success
has largely been made possible by the tremendous guidance, knowledge, and support
I have received from my principal and colleagues at Jefferson Elementary School
and the several outstanding Staff Development Workshops the district has offered
this year.
Medford School District takes great measures to ensure the success of
its employees. Through their incredible support I am able to truly focus on
the joy of teaching and ultimately the success of my students. Success as
a teacher is when the most challenging student in your class, both academically
and behaviorally, tells you that you are the best teacher they ever had! That
is the joy of teaching.
It's Spring
For most school districts, March is the usual time for the renewal of teacher
contracts and declarations of intent. If you are not succeeding because
your district does not have an induction program to help you become an
effective teacher, consider moving on to another school district as we said
in our March 2001 column http://teachers.net/wong/MAR01.
We sincerely hope that you are succeeding and your contract is renewed because
the district recognizes your value. And that your intent is to stay with the
district because they are helping you become the teacher you were meant to
be.
As the district goes through its ritual rite of Spring, take some time for
your own personal renewal and declaration of purpose.
- Take a long walk or hike and reflect on the past year. What are the triumphs
and the battles still to conquer? Let the freshness of the season fill your
mind with new ways of doing things.
- Look at a budding blossom and visualize the beauty that is yearning to
spring forth. Find the faces of your students in every bursting bloom.
- Commit to finding the right nutrients to make every child flourish and
be the best they can be. Even the weakest of seedlings has the potential
to develop into a form of lasting wonder and beauty.
Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Everyone needs poking and prodding
and staking until the roots are firmly in place. Stand back and marvel at
the creation. Then and only then will you experience the true joy of teaching
-- when you make a difference.
