An Assistant Superintendent Writes... What Do You Really Think - Part 3

In response to the 3/19/13 post, “What Do You Really Think,” a LYS Assistant Superintendent writes:

SC.

As usual you are right on target. Good teaching is good teaching. If our students are assessed on the standards then we must make sure we teach the standards. How many of us plan our summer vacation down to the last detail and how many of us just get in the car and start driving? My experience has been the planners use the data as the science of teaching. The really great teachers use the data to hone the art of teaching to make it meaningful. 

SC Response

Here is what wears me out and sadly I witness this over and over again.

Teachers who believe that they have done something enough that they can just “wing-it.”  The problem with this mindset is that you actually can wing it and cover your content.  But you will cover that concept with your default practices.  Which means the lowest common denominator of a person’s skill set.  “Winging it” does make your job easier in the short-run, but in the long run all you are doing is leaving potential and performance on the table.

Now the retort to this observation is, “I don’t have time to plan for multiple preps, everyday.”

And I agree. If the teacher has to plan for what to teach, when to teach it and how to teach it (even for a single prep) this is an overwhelming, if not impossible task.  Which is why the use of a common scope and sequence is a complete no-brainer.  Take “The What” and “The When” off a teacher’s plate.  This represents a significant and daily gift of time.  Time that can be used to plan for a better, more enriching, more engaging “How.”  EVERYBODY wins.  Teachers, students and the community.   

Or we can just keep ignoring the tools and winging it. If we do we can bemoan the results, finger pointing and sanctions all we want; but those things are just the predictable results of purposeful inaction.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

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