*This is a sponsored post. I received compensation for writing it; however, all opinions are strictly my own.
As many of you know based upon previous posts, Magoo is starting preschool soon. In fact, it’s just over a month now – eek! Anyway, as someone who is prone to overthinking things, I have really been overthinking this.
As terrified as I am of her starting school, one thing I am excited about is her entering the academic world. I spent 19.5 years in school, and I’m planning on returning in a few years. It has always been an exciting place for me, and I’m excited for her to start.
We are lucky though. We live in an area with good public schools, and we have many parochial and private schools at our disposal. We have chosen parochial school.
We are very aware, however, that not all people have such options, and I have encountered two different accounts of public schooling in the past few weeks that have reminded me of this.
A couple of weeks ago, TJ and I watched Waiting for Superman, and sadly, we saw just how few options there are for kids in disadvantaged areas and how luck is the sole determining factor as to whether a child from a failing school can get into a charter school. And then the publishers of Mission Possible: How the Secrets of the Success Academies Can Work in Any School sent me a copy of their book to read.
These two pieces changed my view of our education system.
I’m a parent. While I’ve spent ten years teaching college courses, I have never stepped foot into a K-12 classroom as anything other than a student, but Mission Possible made me think about how we treat the teaching profession differently than we treat other professions in this country.
This has been something that has bothered me for a long time. On the one hand, we demand accountability and excellence of teachers, but then we don’t offer them much on the job training to improve their craft or much support or even appreciation. My guess is that this pressure without corresponding assistance can greatly lead to a teacher’s feelings of stagnation.
Mission Possible devotes a lot of space to discussing how they handle teacher training and preparation at the Success Academies, and I was quite impressed. Instead of having teacher evaluations on an annual or semiannual basis, they offer continual guidance to their teachers. They offer, in a sense, on the job training which is something you will find in nearly any profession but you don’t find much in the world of education.
Because of all of this, teachers are able to achieve higher levels of student success, and I would presume higher levels of job satisfaction than if they wouldn’t have had this training.
As I said, I’m not a K-12 educator, but I would be quite interested to hear what any of you have to say should you read this book. Quite simply, it lays out the philosophy of the Success Academies and their insistence on continual teacher improvement and intense rigor, and then it describes, in detail, how they achieve it. It also comes with a cd that shows real teaching in progress, illustrating the points described in the book. The advances and successes they have achieved are really remarkable.
The publishers have given me an additional copy to give away to one reader, so if you would like the chance to win a copy, please leave a comment below stating you would like a chance to win the book. Make sure to leave your email address so I can contact you should you win. I will pick a winner at random on August 10th.
You can learn more about the book here.
I would like to win the book.
We actually watched Waiting for Superman at my work and I was really moved and saddened. I can’t believe in the US we are letting this happen to our kids. And when someone tries to correct this they are met basically with a wall. When they can’t fire a teacher but they send them to a facility to play cards all day while they get paid is just awful.