Here's the main issue: If you see an area where a school can improve, how powerful are you as a parent? It's you vs. them. Now--how can we turn this situation around? 1. You are the client. 2. You have numbers on your side. There are more parents than administrators and teachers combined. 3. You've read this website. You have found more information than most teachers know about. Most people have never heard of Dan Pink, Dennis Littky, ebooks, or alternative assessment by exhibition or portfolio. If a teacher or principal has heard about alternatives to "the final exam," then the conclusion is often: "It would be too unwieldy or impossible to do at this school" or "We've been a successful A-rated school for years -- why mess with something that works?" or "We've been teaching studnets longer than you've been a parent. Don't you think we know something about how to teach teenagers / tweens / children?" ===================== Here is the flyer that we distribute to Parent-Teacher Associations and we mail the flyer to parents who contact us asking for advice. a) You can show this information to your principal and your child's teachers. b) You can show the information to other parents c) You can start organizing. Power can be shared between teachers, parents and students Where do the rules come from? Is it TOP DOWN, rules imposed by the school on the students? In Littky's schools, part of the process of education is learning to work in a group to come to a consensus and learning how to be a maverick in the process. Students with guidance from the teachers and principal can create the rules of the school. Ideally, that would be the way the dining room is reshaped (many schools have open seating, so there are many cliques). How can the benefits of assigned seating be implemented and gained -- what could be changed and how often should the school have assigned seating while keeping the great food? HOW TO FIX YOUR SCHOOL Here is the program, step by step: IF THE PRINCIPAL IS OPEN-MINDED a) Show the list of Readings to your school's principal. Ask if s/he has heard of Littky, alternative assessments, the Bill Gates speech in February 2005 at the National Summit about High Schools, the New Three Rs (Rigor, Relevance and Relationships). If the principal has heard of these topics, you are perhaps the first parent to mention them to him/her. You could become an ally to his/her push for improvement in the school. If the principal has not heard of these changes but is open-minded, then you have found a potential ally for change. b) Plot with the principal about the next step. Perhaps s/he will take the information on this website to his staff and then get back to you. Perhaps you will volunteer to talk to parents. (Step c). c) Talk to a few parents. Form a committee. Plan on step e. d) Check with the principal. Is it okay for you to approach your child's teacher? e) Visit the PTA. Make a presentation about the "Fix Your School" process. f) Meet with your child's teacher. If the teacher is boring your kid, ask the teacher to review the "Visual and Active Methods" workshop section of this website. If your teacher is visual and active, suggest that s/he could get a certificate to enhance his/her teaching methods. g) Meet again with the principal. "What is the next step?" h) Contact Visual and Active Consultants: (954) 646 8246. Tell us where your obstacles are and what you have accomplished. Perhaps we can make a short presentation by phone or post a video on Youtube addressed to teachers, staff, the principal and PTA of your school. We are agents of change and we want to support you in your effort as a change agent. i) Organize workshops about edu-tainment to improve methods. You can show videos and pass out readings from the authors that we mention as our Mentors. Just the mere occasion of a workshop is a victory. j) Follow up on the workshops. Are teachers implementing the recommendations of this website and the results of the workshop that you organized? k) Wow, so many steps! Check the progress of your child. Is your child still bored in class? If so, return to step (f) and plan a new strategy. How can Edu-Tainment be immersed in classroom procedures? l) Review the Vornle Method and start your child on the road toward the Great University that you dream s/he will attend. m) Update this plan. Check that there is progress. Re-read the Readings and become inspired to do more. Constant improvement. n) The Small School Option: You can make a great school better by breaking it into smaller pieces, perhaps 200 or 300 students per school, per pinrcipal. See Bill Gates' speech about the New Three Rs (a adaptation of Dennis Littky's formula). Bill Gates gave $800 million to 1,000 schools to break them into 4,000 smaller schools. Hmmmm, maybe it's an idea worth looking at... www.FindaSmallSchool.com ========================= IF THE PRINCIPAL SAYS, "We've been teaching kids for decades and we know what works," then you might need to change the order of the approach: Start with other parents and the PTA. Start with your child's teachers. Urge them to put more "edu-taining" procedures in the classroom. Start by writing to us and let's brainstorm alternative approaches. Visualandactive@gmail.com ========================= The steps are many and the way is arduous and it's not clear that the process that we have described here will work. You might need to change the order of the events. Fix Your Child's School! -------------------------------------- How can you attract more parents to your side? How can you persuade teachers and staff of your school to embrace change? Let's start with this flyer / brochure: (go ahead, print it) Parents: Do you sometimes feel that you are alone? Do schools tell you, “It’s our way or the highway”? Do teachers who have been teaching for 20 or 30 years tell you, “I’ve been doing this a long time and I think I know what’s best for your child”? “Your child is going to have to step up and deliver.” “Your child is falling behind.” In 2006 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned a study to find out why students drop out of school. Was it economic pressure? Did students want to pursue a career? Yes, some kids dropped out to get a job and support their families. But most students? No… Most of the students who dropped out were bored with school. The subjects were taught in a way that made them irrelevant to the lives of the students. There are plenty of excuses for boring courses…and you don’t have to accept any of them. You’re a parent. You are not alone. There are more of you than them. Teachers could be listening to you instead of telling you what your child needs. If you want to hear about a dynamic method of teaching, visit VisualandActive.com, a website by teachers for teachers and parents who want to make education “edu-taining.” By mixing elements of entertainment in the course, we can make the learning stick. Find out what Bill Gates heard: n Until we find the child’s passion, it’s just school. When the child finds his passion, we teach to that passion. We can find internships for high school students: Kids say, “I love this internship!” and teachers can teach to that interest. – Dennis Littky, The Big Picture n To learn more, get a free workshop at youtube.com/visualandactive >> OFFER: perhaps you would like to win a free workshop. Send your email to us and we will draw the name of the winner every month. If you enter once, you are entered for all future drawings. Winners so far: 1 August: Embassy Language Center, Fort Lauderdale 1 September: Bok School of the Arts, West Palm Beach 1 October: Will it be your school? Questions: Visualandactive@gmail.com (954) 646 8246 These students are in a school that uses Visual and Active Teaching methods:     Some people look at these photos and say, "These are adult students. Most of them are in their 20s. They don't bring any of the problems that teachers face with teenagers." Other people look at these photos and ask, "Why are these students so happy? What can we learn about teaching from the teachers in this school?" Part 2 of the "Power Video" | These quotations inspire us. "Movies, soap operas, TV shows and radio shows are competing for the minds of our young people. If we are going to have a chance at educating them, we need to use the same methods -- audio and visual." Paul A. Wagner in Collier's Magazine, 1949 “Given the widening array of possibilities, there’s no reason that every child must master the sciences, algebra, geometry, biology, or any of the rest of the standard high school curriculum that has barely changed in half a century.” Robert Reich, former Sec. of Labor
Multiple
Intelligences: If individuals indeed
have different kinds of minds, with varied strengths, interests and strategies,
then it is worth considering whether pivotal curricular materials like biology
could be taught AND ASSESSED in a variety of ways.
Let's
start with assumptions that most people born before 1950 have about school and
learning: What
would happen if a teacher introduced Dan Pink's "six elements" into
the classroom? (From A Whole
New Mind: design,
story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning) The "back to basics" movement and the focus on standardized tests ("drill-and-kill") have brutalized schools. The students aren't having fun, the teachers aren't having fun. There is another way. -- Dennis Yuzenas To find out how “That’s Edu-Tainment” (the Visual and Active workshop for teachers) can come to your school, call (954) 646-8246 visualandactive@gmail.com VisualandActive.com youtube.com/visualandactive |