"The only source of knowledge is experience"- Albert Einstein

Over the past two days I attended a conference called "Pyramid Response to Intervention" which was organized by solution tree and run by Mike Mattos, author of "Pyramid Response to Intervention: RTI, professional learning communities and how to respond when kids don't learn." I can honestly say that this workshop has single handedly changed my perspective, approach and motivation towards being an educator.

     It would be impossible for me to sum up everything I learned, nor would it be as effective as hearing it from Mike Mattos himself, but I wanted to take a bit of time to reflect on some of these groundbreaking practices which will hopefully reinvent the current education system.

According the the ideologies of Professional learning communities (PLC) and the Pyramid Response to Intervention, all educators must believe that all children are capable of being successful. WHY do we need to change? Unfortunately, the education system of the past does not work for the skills our children need for the future.

To put it into perspective. 100 years ago, the economy thrived on agriculture and manual labour. This means that a grade 8 or high school education was not what made you successful as an adult. Rather, hard work and physical strength defined someone who was successful. As long as you knew how to read, write and compute basic math, you would be fine in life. THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

TODAY our economy thrives on technology and communications. This means that you can no longer have the bare minimum. Currently, 9/10 jobs require higher levels of learning in order to get an entry level position. This means that simply graduating high school is NOT ENOUGH. Success in the school system is equipping students for tools for LIFE and without success in this system, they have NO CHANCE at surviving. This means that failure in school has never had the most devastating consequences. One quote that stuck with my over the course of the past two days is that the "high school diploma has become the ticket to nothing." Students need and deserve more than that from their teachers. If a student is not successful in the k-12 system, simply put, will have zero opportunities in life and will be extremely disadvantaged when competing in our global marketplace.

As an educator, our roles and perspectives need to change. For ALL students, failure can not be an option. This means, EVERY child needs to be successful in the k-12 system, it is simply not an option. Teachers need to change their practices and their perspectives. The stakes are way to high to let any child fail. All too often, students go through the system year after year and do not get the support they need. With every passing day they fall behind.

 Rather than waiting until the child fails the test, fails the unit, fails the year, it is the teachers job to create interventions for EVERY student so that failure is not an option. In order to get this message across, I am going to use the example that really hit the message home to me.

When someone is sick, they go to the doctors. When the doctor discovers that the sickness is an ear infection, they prescribe some antibiotics and the infection clears up. Doctors do not see an infection, watch it grow, and then tell you that theres no hope of clearing it up. Likewise, if someone is diagnosed with cancer, we do not wait until its terminal and then say "well, there is nothing we can do!" When someone needs help medically, there is an urgency to help them right away.

Why is this urgency not the same when it comes to education?  Teachers see students struggling with a concept every day. Rather than intervening and re-teaching this concept, teachers: lower expectations, and wait for them to fall so far behind that it is almost impossible for them to recover. These actions have serious implications for the students.

We can no longer work with a system that has made failure the norm for many students. Without a k-12 education, students will literally fail at life. Every student deserves the chance to be successful and it is OUR job to  provide them the best possible avenue to ensure that failure is never an option.

This is the very watered down version and a mere glimpse as some of the things i've learned over the past 48hrs. This rant is literally the introduction to the WHY we need to change. I have been equipped with the tools for HOW I can do this. I have seen examples of successful PLC groups and have been given the tools necessary to begin creating a successful RTI group our school.

I am honoured to have been given this training and I think that this is a pivotal point in my education career. As educators across North America continue to recognize the need for change in our current system, I am lucky to be a part of this cutting edge professional development.

I look forward to reporting about how we work as a team to implement this in our school.

"We embrace explicitly the proposition that effective practice and popular practice are very likely two different things"

- Douglas Reeves

UNPLUGGED!

Today in class we read an article about how addicted youth have become to media. This includes internet, phones and television. A study from the University of Maryland found that of 1000 students from 10 different countries many had difficulties going 24hrs without their social media. Several students could not even successfully complete the study.

I find it rather embarrassing to admit that I might be one of those people that would fail this challenge. I can not remember the last day I went without my phone. If it is not working for a mere few hours I feel "lost," I can not imagine going an entire day. Aside from my phone, my laptop and the internet are a huge connection for me. Between skype, facebook and using the web for lessons/school purposes, I can honestly say I could not survive without it.

My plan next month is to have an "unplugged" day in my classroom. I have put my students up to the challenge of joining me in our quest to live one full day without our phones and computers. I plan on opening up the gym and having fun activities available to the kids after school. Maybe we'll pull an all nighter in the gym, that would be fun. The possibilities are endless. 

As I did my daily round this morning collecting students cell phones, one child said to me, "you know what Ms. Whiting, I much prefer hand written sentiments......" 

Have I ever told you I have the best job in the world????

Que: Royal Wedding bells

So, heres my rant of the week. I'm just gonna say it, I could give a Royal Sh*t about the royal wedding. Its all over the TV, all over the internet and all over the mad marketing campaigns of pathetic companies that want to make a dollar. But when it comes down to it, let me ask the world: Is your life going to be any different because some rich dude gets married? 

I can hear the criticisms now (mainly my mother): "well he could be the heir to the next thrown," "He's going to have children that keep the royal family alive," "its going to be better than charles and diana's wedding"......and the list goes on..... my response to that is.....

BLAH BLAH BLAH


As an avid history buff, i'm the first to acknowledge the Canadian connection the England and the traditional significance of the royal family. I just think that Canadians have more on their plate to worry about (hint: an upcoming election) than what William did on his bachelor party, or who is (or isn't) being invited to the ceremony.

 I guess I can only speak for myself, so I am happy to say that I have better things in my life to worry about than what kind of dress Kate Middleton is going to wear or whether the quarter I use to pay for gas has the newlywed couples face on it. People are cashing in on this silly event all because society buys into it. Jokes on us.

While the rest of the world obsesses over the manufactured wedding day, i'll be patiently awaiting the first magazine that advertises their divorce! (stats tell us that its bound to happen)

Happy Hump Day everyone :)