Crumpled and lost assignments—the bane of teachers’, parents’, and students’ existence. If you are using smart devices in your school, though, that circus could be leaving town!
Student-Centered Scheduling
Does your schedule accomplish what you want it to? In the 21st century, your schedule is an important strategic document. It will determine whether some or all of your students will succeed or not; it will either cost or save you money; it will make your teachers better at what they do or get in their way; it says whether you are an adult or a student-centered school.
The Faculty Culture Profile II
In the 2010–11 school year, ISM conducted a one-year partial replication—using a stronger research design and a more exacting statistic—of its original six-year International Model Schools Project, a research project that focused on student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. The results of the 2010–11 project, titled the ISM Student Experience Study (SES), have been published by ISM in its complete form as a white paper in January 2012, and summarized in Ideas & Perspectives in Vol. 37,
No. 4.
The following article, featuring one of the instruments derived from the SES findings, is designed to be read in the context of either of those two summary documents. Readers are asked to take note of the fact that the Faculty Culture Profile II, shown in this article, supersedes ISM’s original Faculty Culture Profile.
The Division Head’s Role as Liaison Between the School Head and the Faculty
As Division Head, your primary objective is to improve the already excellent faculty at your school through carefully focused professional development and evaluation—which supports the school mission, the strategic direction of the school, and excellence in student achievement. Further, if you don’t actively engage with teachers in “managing” performance, faculty capacity will only increase at random, thus severely limiting the likelihood of maintaining and enhancing student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm over the long term. Coaching and mentoring is “the thing itself”—without it, an administrator’s role is reduced to merely bureaucratic functions.
Scheduling and the 21st Century
In the 20th century, the prime concern in scheduling was to fit everything in that adults thought was important, i.e., the classes and lunch. School was, indeed, a place where students and teachers rarely ran from one place to the other, and the schedule was just another organizational tool that helped keep everything in order. As the 20th century drew to its close and the 21st century dawned, the pace and activity of school dramatically increased. Expectations, mandates, requirements, parent demands, college competitiveness, and entrance, even economics, made traditional scheduling obsolete. The old concept of scheduling was no longer adequate to the task.
How Cool Is This? Anacapa School Launches Near Space Probe
Students at Anacapa School in California have proven that conquering the final frontier is not reserved for the big space agencies like NASA or multimillionaire Richard Branson. On May 5, members of the Anacapa Near Space Exploration Club launched two payload capsules tethered to a weather balloon—and the on-board camera broadcast its path into near space.
Scheduling Theory: The Rate of Collapse and ‘Loose’ Periods
In lower schools, there is rarely free time or, in scheduling language, unstructured time. Such free time usually occurs during homeroom, where the teacher recognizes the need to ease off and provide some relaxation for students who are starting to become overwhelmed, just need time to play, or are having trouble concentrating. This does not need scheduling attention because it is a result of teacher acuity and responsiveness to student need.
Your Department Chairs as Coaches and Mentors
As Division Head, you have Department Heads reporting to you—and their duties could range from selecting text books and doing paperwork to hiring, coaching, and mentoring faculty members. Indeed, the potential responsibilities of a Department Head can range far and wide, and vary by school.
Bully and Stand 4 Change
Bullying is nothing new to kids, but it has come into sharp focus, with stories of cyberbullying, text threats, and what seems to be the growing number of victim suicides. Schools and school districts are beginning to deal seriously with bullying, and are putting anti-bullying policies into place.
Child Abuse Law and Mandatory Reporting Procedures
The Department of Health and Human Services reported that, in 2009, Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies investigated allegations of maltreatment of 3.6 million children. Of the cases determined:
78.3% were victims of substantiated neglect;
717.8%, victims of physical abuse;
79.5%, victims of sexual abuse; and
77.6%, victims of psychological maltreatment.
There were an estimated 1,770 known deaths as a result of abuse or neglect in 2009.1