We’re now a few weeks into the school year. If you have a school-aged child, you’ve already met your child’s teachers, perhaps several times; you’ve settled into a routine of transporting your children to school and managing after-school activities and homework. All around you the buzz of everyday life is happening. It’s happening for us teachers, too. Too often we are satisfied to let this buzz whirl around us, never asking whether the daily routine is truly serving our students. Every day at Greenbriar Elementary, I have to remind myself that today is a different challenge; every child comes with his or her own outside pressures and influences. My job is to look for unique ways to help that child learn. Each new day is an opportunity for success. For example, I teach reading to fourth- and fifth-graders. We’ve all heard that some children are visual learners — they learn better when they see things physically. When what you’re teaching is words, these types of learners can present a challenge. I’ve adopted a method called Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), originated by Abigail Housen, which incorporates artwork as a tool to improve reading skills. This strategy, which I learned about through the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s professional development program for Indianapolis public school teachers, has changed my approach to teaching. VTS allows the students themselves to drive instruction by urging them to ask questions and analyze. Students are taught to think first, then to connect their thoughts to what they’re reading on the page. I believe this strategy can help students learn to read and comprehend more no matter their race, socioeconomic status, or current academic level. Outside of addressing how individual students learn, one of the biggest challenges I see facing teachers today is the increased mobility of both teachers and students. In a globalized world our students are not only competing with their peers in other countries, but they might even be moving to those countries — and back — before high school. This lifestyle makes it hard to keep track of students and their progress. Keeping good teachers — whether in the school district, or in the profession — is also an issue. I’m working with an organization called Teach Plus that is researching and drafting proposals to overcome this challenge. It’s through Teach Plus that I learned about NBC’s Education Nation project. This first-of-its-kind event will be held in New York this week. After a rigorous application process, I recently learned I would travel to New York to discuss the challenges facing our nation’s education system. NBC is bringing policymakers, business and community leaders, school administrators, parents and teachers together to discuss how to best to improve our education system. I’ll take part in a teachers-only town hall meeting at noon today, moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams and broadcast live on MSNBC. I hope to bring a sense of urgency to the summit and to lend my thoughts on VTS and increased mobility to my colleagues and leaders there. I also hope I’ll learn new strategies from my colleagues in school districts and states across America that will help me better serve the students of Washington Township. We must recharge the education debate in our country. We need to raise expectations for students, teachers, the media and policymakers. With effective instruction, assessments, and progress monitoring, all students can achieve. And with results like that no day will ever be the same again.
