tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19293986.post4299102027857410897..comments2023-05-21T07:33:30.569-07:00Comments on Cal Educator Blog: Smaller is better?Kevin Bibohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13654579856917129113noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19293986.post-15126975106504887342007-04-23T19:04:00.000-07:002007-04-23T19:04:00.000-07:00I currently teach at a school that has just implem...I currently teach at a school that has just implemented Professional Learning Communities. This has been our first year. It has been a year of many challenges, and celebrations. We have really grown as a faculty and have worked toward aligning our curriculum and setting and monitoring smart goals. I like the idea of everyone working together for the best of the kids. I like being able to work with other staff outside of my grade level, and building. I agree that it all needs to be for and about the students. We also need to be willing to be more flexible. I recently attended a conference in which a teacher discussed "remedial lunches." <BR/>Once a week the classroom teacher would invite 4-5 underperfoming students to have lunch with them. They would spend their lunch break making bonds and connections with these students to find out what was going on in their lives, and what they were struggling with. They also worked on additional strategies that the students might need. I think that smaller class size is definitely beneficial, but we also need to really get to know our students and find out where they are coming from. The more people involved in these students lives the less chance they have of falling between the cracks.<BR/>AliAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19293986.post-12982015904229807592007-03-12T17:48:00.000-07:002007-03-12T17:48:00.000-07:00I am a survivor of one of the 1st attempts to crea...I am a survivor of one of the 1st attempts to create leraning communities. The ideology and intentions were absolutley right on, our execution of it was miserable at best.<BR/><BR/>The structures that are necessary to succeed include:<BR/>*A master Scheduling Wizard<BR/>*An agreement between all comunnities about schedule and curriculum<BR/>*Time for collaboraqtion<BR/>* An agreement between teachers and administrration about who works with who<BR/>* An agreement between Staff regarding who gets the "Motivated kids" and for how long. Will faculty rotate between communities.<BR/>* Standardized Core curriculum<BR/>* An agreement about how electives are accessed<BR/><BR/>We self impoded when 2 of our communities got the motivated kids, 2 got the un-motivated kids, and a small comprehensive HS of 800 was left with fewer choices and electives. Teachers in small communities felt they has "Squatter's rights" to their set of kids in perpetuity.<BR/><BR/>Self -interest was cloaked in altruistic language and we began to not have to care about our collegues and their difficulties.<BR/><BR/>The idea is a great one and I'd do it again provided the structural details were in place to mandate collaboration and mitigate against stakeholder self-interest.<BR/><BR/>Hope that helps,<BR/><BR/>Mike MilbrathAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19293986.post-55324347050491624112007-03-04T07:17:00.000-08:002007-03-04T07:17:00.000-08:00Teachers in these 20:1 classes express a greater s...<I>Teachers in these 20:1 classes express a greater satisfaction with the performance of their students.</I><BR/><BR/>I have two different freshmen classes, one with 27 students and one with 15 students. The differences in the productivity between the two is profound. Part of the reason for the success in the one class is that there are fewer distractions...fewer students, in my experience, means fewer distractions. The other reason is that it's easier to make certain 15 students are understanding the material. <BR/><BR/>My school also splits up the lower-tracked classes to help those students in that class, and it seems to be working as they get more individual attention.the anonymous teacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08060620724283677205noreply@blogger.com