4 Comments

1. Wendy Hallmark on August 15, 2018 at 6:32 pm

   I thought the book was good, and I’m super excited to see that Education in general look likes it’s getting a much needed major overall soon. I’m going to try to do more interactive activities with my students this year and substitute tests with student choice projects. RCISD is way ahead of the game in regards to changing the way we do things. I’m not sure I can keep up with them! But I have the utmost confidence in the leaders.

2. Melissa Haynes on August 8, 2018 at 1:29 pm

   Overall, what are your thoughts on this book and what it has to say? What actions will you take as a result? What will you do differently in class? What do you hope RCISD does going forward?

   Throughout this book, Ted Dintersmith offers examples of tactics that don’t work in education and examples of innovators who are changing things for the better. I like that most of his examples happened in classrooms or at the district level, not from a national or state level. Those examples make me feel empowered to make my own changes. On page 127-128, he mentions Shellie Burrow who made time for a “Think Tank”. During this time, students who may not do well on multiple choice tests, but who are in-depth thinkers, are given the chance to explore and discuss student generated questions and topics. This is a small thing with a potentially huge impact. The book asks us to think about these small things, while also pointing to policies that promote social inequality in our country. The changes to these policies and bringing equality to all or our students is daunting, but when he frames the response to this situation on page 136-139 with the story about Dr. Darryl Adams idea to help kids in his district access to technology and the WiFi to use it by putting devices in their hands and parking mobile hotspots (i.e. school busses with routers) in neighborhoods overnight, it seems like a problem that can be addressed more directly and quickly than exclusively through policy changes and voting.

   I hope to allow more choice in my classroom and give students more ownership in their learning activities this year. I hope to be more encouraging and less stressed about the daily routines and requirements of our work. I would like to get more feedback from students and provide more feedback to students. I have that beginning of the year optimism after reading this book!

   I enjoyed this book so much I read it twice. It reminded me that we work in a district that is innovative and trusts its teachers. It reminded me that change is good and necessary. It reminded me that kids deserve people who trust them and are ready to help change things for the better.

   • jill on August 10, 2018 at 11:22 am

     I am so glad you enjoyed and appreciated it! As mentioned in the last section, I love how you focus on the things you CAN do, not the things you can’t. Can we do everything Dintersmith advocates for? Not yet. But can we do A LOT if we choose to try some different strategies? Absolutely. Please let me know how some of this goes!

3. Paul Michie on July 24, 2018 at 2:31 pm

   Overall I feel the book makes some valid points about the nature of learning and assessment in the classroom. I wish some of our law makers would read this book because I feel that in order for changes in the public school system to occur, the parents and students and administration and community all have to be on the same page about such a drastic change in the status quo. However, that said teachers (myself included) can incorporate more student choice in what is covered in a course to up student engagement. I will be using technology to poll my students on both their interests and how well they feel they have mastered the learning occurring in the classroom. I hope that RCISD moves away from “let’s look at the scores on this heat map for this sub group of students” and gives teachers more power to decide how their subjects are being taught, how much learning is occurring and how assessment of learning takes place.