The “Four-Day” School

Posted on October 13, 2020 Written by

Changing the school week to four days instead of five is a trend that’s quickly spreading across the country.

On the positive side: Many teachers and administrators love having continuous three-day weekends. Stay at home parents like having a free weekday for doctor visits and running errands. And it does seem to save some money (although surprisingly little).

On the negative side: The change is often tough on lower-income parents, who have trouble paying childcare for the days their kids don’t attend school. Also, low-income students rely on public schools for almost half their meals — breakfast and lunch during the week — so there are health and nutrition issues involved. And some studies show that a truncated week has a negative impact on learning for low-income students.

To date, there is little peer-reviewed research on this topic. However, this article contains abstracts and links to the most notable studies so far.

One caution: As with many topics these days, confirmation bias is a very real danger. Many will read this article and only extract the portions that support their pre-existing views (or simply doing what they want, regardless of the consequences to students). But serious educators who truly care about what is best for their students should challenge themselves to explore this topic with an open mind.

Just sayin’ … : )

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Stress!

Posted on September 29, 2020 Written by

Due to the continuing COVID 19 pandemic and various ongoing societal crises, many teachers and administrators are experiencing much higher levels of stress than ever before!

This article offers some scientific-based tips that can not only help you better manage your own stress, but is also worth sharing with your teachers to help them better cope with these challenging times, too!

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Reward Your Teachers!

Posted on September 15, 2020 Written by

In The Principal as Curriculum Leader (reference below), the authors remind us that “The principal should establish the importance of working together in a cooperative manner; establish conditions that support collaboration, and reward teachers who cooperate” (p. 169).

But how do principals “reward teachers who cooperate” without showing favoritism? 

This can be a very tricky balancing act … especially because teachers who don’t like to collaborate are often overly sensitive about “rewards” and where they go, and teachers who aren’t as motivated as others tend to be even more sensitive! 

I remember my first construction job where I worked hard to impress the boss. Within a week, two older employees cornered me and asked, “What are you trying to do, make us look bad?” At first I thought they were teasing, but one look at their faces ended that idea quickly! I was only 16 at the time, so I backed off on my efforts … but ended up quitting the job a few weeks later because I couldn’t deal with the stress of my personal work ethic colliding with theirs. Obviously I’ve never forgotten that experience.

I’ve run into similar situations in my educational career. But as an adult, I simply did what I thought was right regardless. However, as I stated above, this can be tricky once you’re the LEADER and you have some who are constantly watching monitoring for even a hint of favoritism!

The best I can offer is this list of great suggestions for rewarding your teachers. If you’re in a situation where you need to be cautious, some of these can be done quietly on the side so no one but the teacher knows. However, if you’re fortunate enough to have inherited (or built) a collaborative team, public rewards are great, too! Just be sure you spread them around so that no one feels left out.

Reference: Glatthorn, A. A., Jailall, J. M. S., & Jailall, J. K. (2017). The principal as curriculum leader: shaping what is taught and tested. Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin, a SAGE Publishing Company.

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The “Virtual” Bandwagon

Posted on September 1, 2020 Written by

Due to the COVID 19 crisis, virtual classrooms and online learning attempts seemed to be everywhere. Even as some schools return to a new “normal,” there are indications that this approach to instructional delivery may become a permanent fixture. Some are even claiming this is the wave of the future, with legislators in a few states even suggesting that millions of dollars could be saved by converting most schools to virtual schools.

As with any new trend, people tend to jump on the bandwagon without significantly studying the long-term impact of such a change. As researchers continue to study the effectiveness of virtual classes, the consensus is that “Students tend to learn less efficiently than usual in online courses.” This article is an overview of the current thinking on this topic.

It’s also important to note that many studies suggest the lower the grade level, the less effective virtual instruction tends to be. In general, properly designed online learning works well at the graduate level, but positive results tend to be significantly lower with college freshmen. And while studies on high school and elementary school are just beginning (again, due to the pandemic), it’s only logical that the same progression would apply there as well.

Science-fiction writer, Issac Asimov, wrote a short story about this very topic back in 1951. Perhaps the underlying message is still relevant today.

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