Prompt 1: Key Understandings

Prompt 1: Key Understandings

            As a teacher leader, what are three understandings you learned from the Payne text that you would deem appropriate for sharing with a colleague, administrator, and/or parent? Describe why these understandings were selected.

            One key understanding that I would share with all of my colleagues is the fact that there are "Hidden Rules" for every economic class. As teachers we should be open to talk about these rules with our students and among ourselves. One part of this understanding that stuck out to me is that if we always keep in mind that the values differ from poverty to middle class then our anger and frustration will lessen when a student and/or their parent shows how little they value the education you are trying to provide. I am in my fourth year of teaching and started off in second grade. My first year as a second grade teacher, I knew I was teaching in a low-income school district, but students at that age really like school and wanted to do the things you asked of them. Now I teach fifth grade and for the past three years I have built up frustration and anger for mainly the parents for not wanting to participate in their child's education. After reading this, it helped to open my eyes again and that I need to work harder myself to show my students how important education is.

            That leads to another key understanding that I would share, providing support systems. The text described seven general categories of support. As educators we need to provide these support systems to our students and parents. At our school district we have numerous of ways of providing support to our students. I see a need for providing more support for our parents. My only concern is getting the parents to come to the building after school hours or in the early evening. Right now we have a quarterly "Bright Night" where students and parents can come in and participate in educational activities. I'm thinking we could start there. Have areas set up for the students and a separate area set up for the parents.  Students can still participate in educational activities and the parents can attend sessions of "how-to's" and be given a safe place to ask questions or just talk about what is going on at school. I feel we need to have a stronger community to gain the goals we have for our students and to that we need to create more school pride in our families that live in our district.

            Last, but not least, the other key understanding I would share is the chapter about discipline. Having discipline for everything we do in our lives will create success. Our district has gotten away from a school-wide plan when it comes to this and in doing that students have become more disrespectful in the upper grades. The text describes six questions of a behavior analysis that teachers could use to help their students become successful. We need to take into account that our student's lives are not always filled with structure. If we can teach them how to create structure for their feelings and actions then they will ultimately make the right choice.