Category Archives: Education

Use Community Resources

Use Community Resources to Improve Teaching and Learning

Use Community Resource

School administrators and teachers always seek ways to create and foster partnerships. However, school budgets are getting smaller and smaller, so searching for additional resources is the norm these days. Schools need more money and services to improve the lives of their students. Did you know you can use community resources to enhance teaching and learning? Here are a few ideas of where to search for additional resources.

Parents and Community Members

One way to enhance teaching and learning is to use parents and community members as resources. Parental engagement is vital to a successful school. Sometimes, it isn’t easy to get parents to participate due to work schedules, childcare, and other obligations. However, welcome those parents who can join with open arms. 

Also, contact community members to volunteer or donate resources to your school. The school is a big part of the community it is located in, so developing relationships with your neighbors can reap excellent rewards.

Social Service Agencies

Another community resource to use is social service agencies. These agencies offer many different services that can benefit your students, parents, and staff members. Often, the institutions provide housing, mental health counseling, medical, or legal services. Many of the agencies want working relationships with schools. They see this as an opportunity to increase their outreach to community members.

Colleges and Universities

Colleges and universities are an important community resource for schools. Like social service agencies, higher education institutions want to build external relationships with schools and community members. Many colleges require students to participate in community service projects, and some college departments require students to fulfill internships. 

Internships

For example, students who major in social work must complete a counseling internship. If your students need social work services, an intern may be a way to fulfill the need without breaking the bank. Marketing majors must complete portfolios if you’re looking to market your school. Perhaps the marketing student can be the senior project. Think about these two examples because they are accessible to you. Of course, you may have other ideas, but this is a start.

Community Resources
Using community resources to improve teaching and learning means success for your students. Photo by Gerald Altman on www.pexels.com.

Student Leaders and Community Service

Another helpful example is that in some states, high school students are required to do community service. Your school and students are a part of the community! Recruit some high school students to become tutors for after-school or extracurricular programs.

Contact the local high school to get more information about the community service requirements for students. Also, don’t forget about your student leaders. If you have a student council, give the kids a fundraising project.

Small Business

Small businesses can provide some additional resources, too. Many small business owners are willing to help your school. Sometimes, they’re eager to donate school or office supplies. They can provide raffle gifts for special events. They may also offer the staff or parents an appreciation breakfast or lunch. Many times, a small business will sponsor an event or sports team. Every act of kindness or donation helps.

Senior Citizens

Don’t forget about retired or senior members of the community. Senior Citizens are very giving of their time. They will volunteer in your school by helping teachers in the classroom, tutoring students, or helping in the main office. Most cities or states have a Department of Aging. This agency may be able to give you the contact information of retirement homes or groups you can speak with regarding volunteering.

Local Churches

Lastly, another resource is local churches. Congregations have a spirit of giving. There is an organization in Chicago called One Church One School. This group supports churches in developing relationships with local schools. Church members are willing to do coat drives, food drives, school supply giveaways, and more. Research the names of nearby churches. Then, call the church office or ministerial staff for more information.

Conclusion

Use community resources to support teaching and learning. It is a beautiful way to develop external partnerships and additional relationships. Think of your school as the hub of the community and connect to people, businesses, agencies, and organizations who believe in passing it forward. List possible partnerships or projects to recruit or solicit support from the various community resources. Many are willing to assist, but you have to ask. 

Additional Resources
The Handbook on Family and Community Engagement
http://www.schoolcommunitynetwork.org/downloads/FACEHandbook.pdf

One Church One School
http://www.onechurchoneschool.org/

Resources for Building Community Partnerships, Edutopia
https://www.edutopia.org/article/community-business-partnerships-resources

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Let’s Mind Our Business 

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Let’s Mind Our Business

Educators, it appears that everyone minds our business. Lately, we cannot tell who is watching our store. Our business is teaching and learning, but currently, many people with no education experience want to be the subject matter experts. Politicians, parents, organizations, and strangers on the street want to tell us how to teach,/ what to teach, when and where to do it. Can we do our jobs please without so much interference from the non-educators? We want to mind our business!

We want to mind our business of teaching and learning. Our role is to make informed and intelligent decisions about instructional strategies and practices to achieve various outcomes with and for students in our classrooms. A teacher’s role is to decide how best to support their students’ learning in the environments in which they teach. Teachers do so competently, thoughtfully, and with appropriate caution when considering their values and those of their students and others within the school community.

The Pandemic and Disrupters

Two years of a global pandemic is hopefully on its way out. However, the pandemic changes inflicted on our school systems raised more questions than answers. Lately, a slew of roadblocks is negatively harming many educators. The pandemic also gave people a bird’s eye view of inequities of funding, resources, and more. The restrictions of COVID also gave too many disrupters time to think about crazy reform ideas, laws, and political initiatives that are sending educators for the door. The disrupters want to mind our business instead of letting us do our jobs confidently.

The disrupters are creating laws like the Education Matters bill, SB 167, that was introduced in Indiana State. “The bill proposed schools would have to post curriculum online, hold meetings for community members to decide school curriculum and give parents the option to opt-in or out of certain educational lessons they may feel uncomfortable with their kids learning.”  The bill did not pass and teachers were avidly opposed to it.

Banning Books

School librarians are fighting against the effort of banning books. In the New York Times article, Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S., the authors state that “ Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.”

In the same article, Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, says, “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. Educators, everyone is minding our business and threatening arrest or loss of one’s career. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.” 

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Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory is another giant political bomb thrown at educators. The topic has caused significant discussions, arguments, and upheavals lately. What is Critical Race Theory? The many politicians and parents fighting so hard against CRT probably cannot define it. Even though Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary or high schools, the disrupters are convinced otherwise. Educators have to teach more critical thinking and problem-solving skills moving forward! According to Edweek,  “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”  People should research reputable sources, reflect, and critically think before going nuclear over an issue. 

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Blurring the Lines

According to the article, The Politics of Post Pandemic Education, “the pandemic is blurring the partisan and racial cleavages around public education and creating new coalitions that could remain powerful players in local education politics. These coalitions are making it more difficult for teaching and learning to take place. Next, they are helping to create a mass exodus of teachers and making it difficult to attract people to the profession. We want to teach! That is our business! At stake is the fate of our public education system itself.”

We all know that education is prone to political influence and interference. Education is a necessity in our society. Educating our students should be a social experience, not a political one. Politics are activities that promote specific interests or authority. We see the federal, state, and local politicians jumping on the particular bandwagon and pushing their agenda. We’re seeing school board members recalled over mask mandates and Covid and safety protocols. Unfortunately, schools and classrooms do not operate in separate silos. 

Politics Influences Education

When politicians, agencies, and organizations use their platforms to make decisions that affect teaching and learning, we, the educators, must respond. We must mind our business so that others don’t tell us how to do our jobs. Politics already influence these areas: financing, curriculum design, development, and evaluation and assessments. Don’t forget about teacher unions because they are political organizations, too. 

Teachers and school administrators, our say matters when decisions affect us daily. As subject matter experts, someone should ask us what we think is best for schools, students, and the field of education! We are in the trenches every day and keep our hands and minds on the pulse of what goes on in classrooms. We should be the influencers, not politics.

Control Our Narrative

When we recognize our power and are a political force, things will change. Education and teachers have a public relations problem! We want respect as professionals. Everyone knows our role and wants to dictate what we can and cannot do. Some special interests groups want to instill fear in us by threatening our livelihoods or careers. Do not be afraid to do what’s suitable for our schools and children. Let’s control our narrative! It’s time to mind our business of educating our children.

RESOURCES

The Politics of the Pandemic

The Politics of Post-Pandemic Education

Black Voices: Does education matter or is this just politics?

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2022/01/black-voices-does-education-matter-or-is-this-just-politics

What is Critical Race Theory and Why is it Under Attack

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05 
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The Task of the Educators

Task of the Educators

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.” by C.S. Lewis.

Samuel Durr writes this guest post. He was given the quote by C.S. Lewis to interpret and give his perspective. Durr is a special education teacher who has been teaching in Chicago for 15 years. He has authored one published book, a few novels, and a barrage of short stories.

The phrase, irrigate deserts, is interesting in this famous C.S Lewis quote. The author probably means educators should encourage enthusiasm and curiosity, which is a good rule. Still, for me, the desert imagery has a different, probably unintended, possible tangential, effect. Since I carry my own associations and personal experience like an over-stuffed backpack, I will write about what questions it raises for me. Is education, are classrooms, are students, deserts? A desert is a resourceless, brutal environment where nothing flourishes, and everything has protective spines and spikes.   

Education is a Desert

The quote by C.S. Lewis offers an interesting perspective about the task of the modern educator.

In short. Yes. Education has become a desert. The need for a sea change is obvious to just about everyone. Recently, five large schools in Baltimore, Maryland, four of which were high schools, were found not to have a single student reading at grade level. Is Baltimore a city of fools? No, and so it’s clear that something is wrong, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe general education has become too available. 

The hard truth is that when anything is generalized, in fact mandatory, it becomes worthless and sometimes even loathed. Ask any teacher tasked to hand out free breakfast. Proportionally, far more of it ends up in the trash than in the mouths of those it intended to help. Students even complain about free breakfast as they drop it into the can. In other words, I’m not so sure we have a problem with how we educate.

Force to Educate

 Maybe, we have an issue with who we force to educate? If a family honestly doesn’t want to send their kid to school, why should they, and why do some schools have to take every student? This is a little ridiculous under a microscope. It has turned many public schools, unfortunately, into minimum security prisons.

Luckily, I have a solution. Picture, for a moment, if public schools could be more selective about which students they take? Just slightly. I’ve worked at four different schools over my fifteen-year career, and I can say without flinching each would have benefitted profoundly from booting ten kids, almost all for severe behavioral reasons. It’s easy to get all squirmy about the idea of leaving children behind. 

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Good Intentions

Still, perhaps it should be considered that despite good intentions and hard work, no teacher, counselor, priest, or coach can right the worst of the worst. Isn’t that nature? Some of the brood doesn’t make it for reasons beyond the control. With enough concentration, or maybe delusion, it’s possible to imagine an unnatural world in which every child becomes successful, but in such a world, the bar for success would be significantly raised. And if it were, we would still have students who didn’t “make it.” 

The point is that prioritizing students based on their sociability or intelligence is not evil, it’s realistic. It’s time to fully consider that organizing institutions around rotten principals leave us with rotten schools. Ten students, out of five hundred, give or take, isn’t very many but would change the overall tone. Similarly, imagine if a school had the ability to boot a kid because of parent harassment? Only in the most extreme cases, of course, but if schools simply had the authority, however weak, imagine the change. 

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Education as a Status Symbol

Consider also, if the government didn’t take money out of taxes to pay for public education but instead invited parents to pay out of pocket? If education became a status symbol, as it is to many parents already, they would be willing to spend money to send their children to better schools, and they wouldn’t trash their neighborhood schools and teachers. Competition can be healthy if it’s refereed. 

Problematic Institution

There are shining lights in every classroom, even in the worst public schools: brilliant students, self-sacrificing teachers, thought-provoking lessons, and dedicated staff. I don’t want to degrade education. There are many positives, and some of the best humans we have are teachers. Still, this institution has far too many problems, and the positives of change are worthy of the risks. It’s sad to say, anyone who’s been in a public school lately can attest to the lack of resources, brutal environment, ineffective teaching, poor social behavior, disorganized, stupid factories they have become. The point is, we can do much, much better. C.S. Lewis uses the term desert, and it works, it’s effective, but I wish it weren’t. 

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