Going Beyond Standards

Excellence in Education: Going Beyond the Standards

As a teacher, I struggled trying to balance SOL standards with bringing history alive, instilling creativity, developing higher-order thinking skills, and building 21^st-century skills.

Recently, I’ve seen several teachers—and more importantly, students—go beyond the standards.

• Ms. Campbell’s students doing book projects. 
• Mr. Kuzma’s students creating mini-projects and posters that required creativity and personal touches
• Mr. Batt and Ms. Harper’s students allowing students to run with their own ideas.
• Of course, this is only a partial list but I wanted to focus on teachers who have End of Course Tests.

What do all these activities have in common?

• Teachers recognizing that standards are just a framework and are not limiting their teaching to standards-only
• Creativity
• Questions being asked that don’t have right-wrong answers
• Student enthusiasm
• Passion and pride

In addition to applauding your efforts, I want to encourage you to take risks. Step out of your comfort zones. Try something new. Diverge from the pacing guide. Challenge yourself and your students. Try a new lesson, one where the outcome is not always known.

We owe it to our students to encourage risk-taking behavior.

Please know that I have complete confidence in you. In this era of standards and accountability, risk-taking can be daunting, but I’ll come back to a simple question, “Why did you become a teacher?”

I’m willing to bet that none of you answer, “So my students can pass a multiple choice test?”

So as you enter the second term, take a risk. Step out of your comfort zone. Bring your subject alive. Create lessons that embody your spirit, your passion and show why you became a teacher.

As we go forward, lets make it a goal/expectation that each of us tries one brand new lesson this term. Please invite me into your classroom when you try this new lesson.  I look forward to seeing your passion come alive.

Administrative Notes

As we near the end of October and the first term, please take a couple of minutes to submit a positive referral http://goo.gl/cZIXm7 . Possibilities: biggest improvement from marking period 1 to 2, student who brought the most to your class, student who got the most of your class, etc.

We have a leadership meeting this afternoon. If you have any questions or concerns, please share them with your department chair.

Interested in attending an edcamp? Some upcoming edcamps near us:

• Nov 2: Harrisburg, PA
• Nov 9: Baltimore
• Nov 16: Hagerstown
• Nov 23: New Jersey 

I’ll probably be going to the Baltimore edcamp if anyone is interested in carpooling (know a great place for crab cakes on the way home)

Stat/Tweet/Article of the Week

From the Harvard Business Review, After a Failure, Shame is Harmful, Guilt is Productive http://goo.gl/XtuYYV