Alternative Education

A few weeks ago a teacher came to me and told me that a student with whom I had developed a good relationship with was struggling. In fact the chances of them graduating was slim at that point and it frustrated me so much because this was not the first student who needed a second chance at learning. Over the last few years I have become the teacher you go to when it seems that you have hit a dead end because regardless of what you have done or where you are at I won't give up on any student. So in looking for solutions for these students I began to look at alternatives in education and learning environments.

I call them learning environments because they are not traditional settings. These "classrooms" can be anything and they seek to find a way for students and teachers to develop a much more personal relationship. These new environments focus on the relationships and building trust with the student so that the appreciate learning again. The fact that students are able to see that they are trusted, respected, and surrounded by people who care about their success goes a long way in the students believing in themselves and their success.

To track or not...

For many years there has been a heated debate over whether or not to track students. After reading several articles I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Tracking is beneficial to higher level students when they have a strong peer group to build relationships with through out their schooling.

2. Tracking has only negative affects if students are ability grouped and those ability groups cause students to be shuffled to low income and low achieving schools.

What I found interesting is that the trends are moving towards allowing high achieving students to be accelerated into high levels thus reducing the need for grouping. If students are allowed to accelerate into higher grade levels slowly by taking a few college classes at the high school level, a few high school classes at the middle school level, and then preschool before moving them up to kindergarten early there is greater success.

The biggest issue is making sure that students are moved as a peer group so that they can have a support group to work with until they become comfortable in their surroundings. This also cuts down on their undervaluing of their own self-worth.

For students of low-income and ability the issue is the fact that they are shuttled into schools and classes that receive less aid therefore they do not get the best materials or teaching. That is not to say that all low-income students are underachieving but it is harder to be recognized because there is a great number of students at this income level thus less time is spent testing or analyzing these scores. It has been shown however that lower ability tracked classrooms who have dedicated teachers can achieve high test scores if their teacher develops the curriculum for the class. Teachers that adjust the curriculum individually for lower ability students tend to show the most progress with those students.

I still agree with the concept of tracking and I know that I am in a minority these days but I feel that students who are given a chance to excel in homogeneous grouping will allow for better teaching and learning opportunities.

Battling Technology...

As a self proclaimed techno junkie I am the first to jump onto anything new I can bring into the classroom to engage the students in new ways. The biggest challenge is for me to bring other staff members into the techno world. Some of my fellow staff members are so set in their ways that they don't even want to hear about the new technology out there that might really engage their students. As technology and our students grow in technology we are becoming more stewards to the world for our students. We need for teachers to also let students run with the technology and help others to learn it in the classroom. Students can be our greatest assets in integrating our classrooms and finding new ways to learn with technology. I ask teachers on a daily basis what are you doing or have you used this new software? I go out and find new things for people to try in order to engage them more but even that is too much technology for them. Teachers are going to have to begin embrace technology or begin to fall behind.