[robinsondlh]

Help...I am taking a leadership class and must answer the following question..." The complexity of today's schools no longer fits into the framework of: "I go in my classroom and shut the door" approach to learning. List reasons why this aproach is no longer effective"
I would love to read y'alls thoughts on this.

Thanks in advance

[Megteach]

With all the workshops that I have been to lately, the emphasis seems to be on global learning. Thus, there is the concerted effort to incorporate technology into the classroom and all the resources the internet has to offer. So, our door is not "closed" because we are open to global collaboration. Education is a shared undertaking and we all need to reach out across the "hall" for ideas.

Does that make sense?

[Dolphin Rich]

It's a great question. I used to follow that mantra. In fact, in one of my first MAT classes back in the day, I had a Prof. who encouraged us to do that. However, over the last couple of years, especially as team leader I have seen the need to change.
No longer can we afford to "shut the door" and worry only about the 20 students in front of us. We must work collaboratively to reach our total student body. The students on our grade level are our responsibility. The students that we had last year are our responsibility, and the students that will be ours in the years to come are our responsibility. The best way to reach all of these students, therefore, is to come together to have good professional discussions and to bring the best ideas of everyone together so that we can all become better at our trade. This creates a win-win relationship for all stakeholders.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to sound like a wind bag!!! ;-)

[petlover]

The push in my school corporation has been to identify and help ALL struggling students (not only the ones in my own classroom but those in other classrooms). I am sure this is coming from "No Child Left Behind" and the documentation required for that.

We have incorporated BENCHMARKING (we have finally standardized this so that all the schools use the same Programs for Benchmarking). We level students using these Benchmarks (a combination of DRA Running Records, DIBELS, and AIMS), to identify those students not making benchmark (those that are behind or likely to fall behind). We document scores and fill out spreadsheets, so that all students can be leveled together (to identify the lowest of the whole grade level). Then we use Standardized Based Interventions to give those students intense instruction to help them make improvements towards/or reach the expected benchmarks for their grade level. Have you heard the term Tier 1/Tier 2/Tier 3? Students are placed in a Tier depending on their benchmark scores and the amount of interventions that are put in place.

We spend many meetings discussing the students who are below grade level and what interventions we feel will work best for each child. We also spend more time discussing their "Progress Monitoring" Scores to decide if the intervention is working and what changes, if any, should be made. So, the whole Grade Level is discussing the lowest students for the grade level (not just their own students).

My school also takes the last 35 minutes of every day for "Intervention time". This is when the students move to different classrooms to get an extra 30 minutes of intense intervention instruction. I currently work with 4 students who need extra work on decoding and reading comprehension (at a mid-year 3rd grade level) - I teach 4th Grade. The rest of my classroom goes to other teachers - 5 of them get intervention instruction from other teachers because they haven't met Benchmark, and the other 20 are divided up among 3 of the other 4th grade teachers and do large group review (Math and Reading Comprehension Activities).

So, when you mention "close the door" this just doesn't work anymore....not if the school is going to reach all struggling students and leave no one behind. When teachers share the burden of the struggling students together, there is a feeling of community within the school - we are striving to help ALL the students, not just the few assigned to us for the year.

[robinsondlh]

Thank you guys for these responses. These will really help get me started.