BACK TO SCHOOL NONDEFINITIVE TIPS

By Horacio Lewis Ph.D. ThD

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BACK TO SCHOOL NONDEFINITIVE TIPS?

Because we are still experiencing a pandemic, behave as such—vaccine, mask, distancing, and washing as needed

1.???Remembering that the teacher is where the rubber hits the road in schooling, increase their salaries, including bonuses for incidentals of the classroom

2.???Acknowledge the leadership position of a teacher as the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage,” everyone learns in a classroom setting

3.???Remember that “students don’t generally care what you know until they know that you care”

4.???Remember that as with some carpenters, most schooling problems are not solved with a hammer and a nail, teach critical thinking and related non-academic skills

5.????Department, faculty meetings, and in-service workshops, if at all, should be limited to one hour; email is best and saves time

6.???Teacher observations should be restricted to forty-five minutes and should focus on what can be done to enhance the work of the teacher instead of “grading” the teacher and offering critical recommendations (when I taught high school, I spoke only in Spanish, particularly during an “observation,” rendering most administrators useless)

7.???Remembering that some students may not have the slightest interest in your course, try to educate rather than “school,” extrapolating your course to other areas of the real world; thereby applying your subject matter to applicable areas of student interests (I thought I wanted to be a Biostatistician but ended up doing a lot of other things that include a minimum of Statistics)

8.????District, School, and State Education administrators should be required to teach in a regular classroom for at least a year during every five to seven years of employment; this will reduce the number of useless mandates and State testing, indeed much of our, so-called, training programs have little to do with what matters to teachers and students

9.??Try to adjust classroom time to outdoor instruction as much as possible, it’s more fun and healthier too?

10.????????????????????Disruptive students, who would rather be elsewhere, will always be with us, some of them even become CEOs of technology companies; yet we must find more constructive ways to discover their interests early and educate them accordingly in the classroom or elsewhere

11.????????????????????Find more innovative ways to occasionally swap classroom teachers—an Art teacher in a Psychology class may be an awesome experience for a would-be Anatomical Visual Artist

12.????????????????????Find ways to reduce the number of administrators at all levels and increase the number of teachers or at least increase their salaries

13.????????????????????Schools should strive to develop a diverse and equitable environment at all constructs including in the pedagogical modality itself?

14.????????????????????Let’s use less technology (we had enough of that during the pandemic) and get back to traditional instruction such as cursive writing

15.????????????????????Be transparent and show the utmost respect for every single student, everyday single day

16.????????????????????Teach real-life information, the good, the bad, and the ugly

17.????????????????????School Boards and parents, et al., should focus on supporting the teacher and facilitating the instructional process

18. Teach more CIVICS, let's get back to understanding our Constitution and democratic ideals

For more tortuous education and diversity/equity information, refer to my articles/posts on this platform, and online books, articles, and guidelines…