Suckers!!

This is the first year I have taught seniors, and they are a nutty, if hysterical bunch of loons. My last block class on Friday decided to play a "prank" on me by simultaneously popping suckers into their mouths. I have an anti-sucker policy in my classroom. I call them "germsicles" and in a season of scary, uber viruses, I think licking suckers is akin to licking someone's used kleenex. My seniors started trading suckers with each other in this afternoon of prankery. I just sat and laughed. They were slightly disappointed that I didn't run screaming from the room, but it takes a little more to get that response. In truth, it was a highlight of my week. The bottom line is that my students listen to me, and they HEAR me. Their joke is proof-positive that they are engaged in my classroom environment.

After reading the New York Times magazine article about building better teachers, and today's Denver Post article on a similar topic, I see education reforms on the horizon, and I am freakin terrified. In the last 20 years, too many education reforms have come and gone without lasting change. In a sense, we look at education reforms in the same way we look at widget-producing. The students become the measures of education's success, but the standards for success are not clearly defined.

In my mind, there are three simple things that could happen tomorrow that would change the face of education reform. Ready??

1. Administration walk-throughs and more interaction with teachers, classrooms and students. If administrators walked through the building, stopped in classrooms informally, and got to know at least 50 students by name who didn't have prior arrest records, then that visibility would become a powerful tool.
2. Becoming "proactive" instead of "reactive". If you govern a school by constantly REacting to problems, then the burn-out occurs more swiftly. Disseminate information liberally. There is no power in hoarding information that impacts the school as a whole. Keep the faculty and staff informed and fewer problems will occur. Tell people what they are doing right before you launch into what they are doing wrong. And delegate, often. As I like to say, if your hair is constantly on fire, build a fireproof helmet.
3. Making your classroom an engaging, creative, (dare I say it) FUN place to be. Whoever said that you shouldn't smile until Thanksgiving was joking. I set clear boundaries in my classroom, and I demand high standards. But I am a benevolent dictator. I listen when students aren't clicking with a particular assignment, reading or task. If I change the lesson or due date or expectations based on valid student input, then the students know I HEAR them. And hearing what your students have to say gives them ownership, which immediately changes the classroom environment. Also, you should joke with them. Never laugh AT them, but laugh with them. If they can laugh in class and if you don't take yourself too seriously, then your classroom is not only a place where THEY want to be, it is a place where YOU want to be. And students are happier and more engaged if YOU want to be in your own classroom. Period.

Education reform should be simple and doable in any classroom from here to Hawaii. It should meet the needs of students, teachers, admins, coaches, secretaries and custodians. I wonder if we, as a nation, could handle that kind of simplicity.