Hello all!
Since you last heard from me, I was placed at Highline Academy, a charter school in Denver, Colorado. Before walking into the school, I had high expectations. From what I had heard, Highline was a high performing, liberal arts elementary school with great teachers, dedicated staff, and supportive resources. The description reminded me a lot of the charter school I went to as a child, so I was extremely curious to see how this school was run.
Walking in on Monday morning, I found that the school fit the description to a tee and carried out every expectation I had! The front staff was very welcoming, and the whole building had a warm vibe that encouraged learning and wholesome education. Already impressed, I was then sent to a 5th grade classroom and and became even more fascinated.
Now just finishing up my second day as an intern, I have to say I'm very impressed with the way Highline Academy is structured. In my 5th grade classroom, students get a block of ELA (English Language Acquisition), a block of math, a block of literacy, and a block of D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read), all in one day! Also, my teacher's homeroom students switch off between a block of spanish, a block of REACH (a program dedicated to developing character), and a block of time in the library, depending on the day of the week. At Highline, kids are constantly learning! It's really amazing to watch.
What I think makes my class, in particular, so interesting to observe is the relationship between the teacher and the students. In "Reign of Error," (2013) Diane Ravitch breifly dances around the claim that smaller class sizes attribute to the reason for better relationships within the classroom because of the opportunity for individualization (p. 7). However, in Highline's case, this isn't necessarily true. All day, my teacher and I have about 25-27 students in each class/block. That's the typical size of a non-charter public school, and the bond between the teacher and students is still prominent and strong. More than class size, I think what impacts the relationship between this class and their teacher most is due to the fact that they have had this teacher consistently, for about 4 years. I believe this gives both the teacher and the students time to learn about one another, bond, and feel comfortable taking to each other, which is certainly conducive to learning. As I've observed, my teacher genuinely cares about these students; she asks about their home life and family, she asks about their opinions on systemic issues in the school and advocates for them, she involves them in the construction of their lessons, she cares for these kids... and to me, that makes all the difference. As Phillip Douglas, founder of C.H.E.S.S and Project VOYCE mentor, stated, "Relationship before rigor. Emphathy over education." Simple innovative changes like adding care, love, and compassion within the school system can produce rewarding results for everyone.
Though as a society, we typically focus on immediate results from tangible solutions. Regardless, the education system should take a look at the heartfelt practices going on in my 5th grade classroom. I can see that the warmth and encouragement from the relationship between my students and their teacher has really made a difference in academic performance. And if that's solely what the education system is looking for, improvements in academic performance, then they should consider this model; it's free, easy to do, and has a huge influence on students and their academic and personal well-being.
With that, my response to Ravitch would be that in order to produce an effective learning environment, sometimes it's not about cutting students out of high-performing classrooms to make sure everyone gets the attention they need. Why make the problem worse by pushing students out to other places where they still won't get adequate attention? We should try starting from the inside out. Sometimes all it takes is simply caring and putting forth effort into making the individuals already in the classroom feel like they matter... because they do.
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I look forward to seeing how the rest of my time at Highline Academy goes and will definitely be looking for more innovative practices implemented at this school! I will be sure to keep you all posted!
Best,
Acelynn
Citations:
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of error: The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America's public
schools (First edition.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Douglas, P. (2014) Presentation and Dialogue with Project VOYCE, Voices of Youth Changing Education.
Manual High School. Denver, Colorado.
Acelynn-
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you posted and what Phillip Douglas stated about bringing care into the classroom. I think this compassion and focus on a child’s personal well being is vital to academic success. You make a valid response to Ravitch’s points and I would like to add that the idea of starting from the inside out is tricky. I believe that in order to care, build relationships and enhance the well-being of students, we need good teachers. Through professional development and teacher training we need to educate teachers to empathize and build relationships with their students. Some teachers obtain this as a natural quality but for others it is not a strength. Overall, you make really good points in your post and I enjoyed reading it but I do think Ravitch has some valid points and I would just question how easy and successful it really is to start from the inside out.
Acelynn,
ReplyDeleteI too agree very strongly with what you have discussed about demonstrating care for students in order to increase their academic success. I definitely agree with Hannah, and much of this is discussed in Paul Tough's "How Children Succeed", but before teachers can effectively do this they need to be well trained. I wonder if by working from the inside out, if you mean establishing strong relationships with students before expecting all that we do out of them?
With that said, I really appreciate what you shared in this post and I encourage you to question your assumptions and look at Highline from a critical lens.
Best,
Amelia
Acelynn,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I love your positivity and agree with Amelia and Hannah's comments above when they said that demonstrating care in the classroom is incredibly important. Phillip stated that many of these kids are not receiving the attention they need outside of school, and so it makes the connection between the students and teachers all the more significant.
Also, your placement at Highline in the 5th grade class sounds so interesting. I'm curious to know if you think more schools should have a teacher that sticks with the students for multiple years, so as to develop that deep connection.
I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts in the future!
Acelynn,
ReplyDeleteI have greatly appreciated how your ideas and reflections are taking shape. In your second post you reflected upon how the relationships between your cooperating teacher and her students is a clear attribute. Your most recent post ruminates around the notion of performance grouping. Is performance grouping "innovative"? Is it equitable? Do all students gain from this model? I like your comparison to how the DPS school system measures like schools to each other on the School Performance Framework. This is a nice connection between school based practices and larger systemic practices. You leave us with lots of thoughtful ideas to wrestle with. Keep them coming!
Tina