Anyone who is in education or anyone that has children in school today understands that there is a wide range of changes occurring right now. If you look back over the last five months alone it is mind-boggling to think about all of the changes that we in education have had and are still in the midst of implementing: new standards, a new evaluation system for teachers and principals, the development and implementation of a balanced assessment system, RtI Plans, and the list goes on and on. The good news is that most of this change is fraught with good intentions: to maximize student achievement and learning and continue to get better; to improve educating our children. Let’s start thinking of the word ‘change’ as being synonymous with ‘improvement’. Any change we look to make should be with improvement as the goal.
What is exciting about being in education today is that more than ever, if you really look at what is happening, it is clear that more of our dots are connecting as things improve. What happens is one content area is impacting another and vice versa. People are no longer alone on their own islands doing their own thing. Collaboration is at an all-time high. I see that collaboration every day in action at WGMS and it is very inspiring. We are improving as we go.
Yet, we continue to reflect on our practices to see what else we can do to evolve. At the middle school level we have started to discuss building in an ‘interaction time’ into our day similar to the high school. Interaction time would allow our teachers more time to connect with students who need that time. Many of our students have very full schedules and struggle at finding time to make up science labs, get extra help, take advantage of intervention services, etc. Interaction time would also allow time for teachers to collaborate with one another in an effort to effectively do some of the things I mentioned above. The potential benefits of interaction time on student achievement and learning are tremendous.
So why wouldn’t we just do it and make interaction time happen? Well, as I mentioned, there is a lot of change, or improvement, in the air. How much change is too much? The upside of interaction time is obvious, but it would also bring with it a slight change in our start time and the need to have some of our West Genesee Middle School students ride to school with high school students. Most districts already have shared busing between different building levels, but for us that would be new and one more change. We are also on the verge of redistricting which is another change, or improvement, going on. Like other recent changes (improvements) in education, interaction time is an idea with the best interests of our students in mind. I think that if we can make it happen it will have a tremendous impact on maximizing student achievement and learning. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for continued involvement and support of our students and staff.
Continued Success,
sdunham@westgenesee.org
