What year are you getting your students ready for? Are you getting them ready for when they graduate from college, or when you<\/i> graduated? Was that the 80s when the soda (or pop) world tricked us with NEW Coke? Was that the 90s when grunge meant more than just a dirty man in the garage? Was that the turn of the millennium when Netscape and AOL changed the way we found information?<\/p>\n
What have you done to keep up with your changing students? Is the butterfly lesson you\u2019ve presented in your classroom for years still engaging the kids the way it did back in the day? Is the VCR still blinking 12:00 in your home? (You still have a VCR?!) <\/i>If you seriously reflect on your ministry, is it time for you to take a leap of faith and realize that your education needs \u201cto be continued\u201d?<\/i><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have the time! School doesn\u2019t have the money! I\u2019m only a few years from retirement! <\/i>The list of excuses can go on. And with each excuse, another class of students is denied the special opportunity to receive both high quality and<\/i> Christian education.<\/p>\n
Continuing education of teachers is a core feature of what makes successful students. The single biggest factor in student achievement is the person in the front of the classroom (Rice, 2003). If the teacher in the classroom possesses a 1986 teaching style for a student who will graduate from college in 2025, there is a problem. The need for teachers to be continually learning is evident. And the dividends far outweigh the perceived inconveniences.<\/p>\n
Collaboration: <\/strong>Every person in your school should be engaged in some sort of continuing education. That\u2019s right, every<\/i> person. While some school leaders may cringe at the cost this may incur, it need not be expensive. For some, continuing education may mean formal instruction toward an advanced degree. For others, it may be as basic as an educational book discussion among faculty. The key is this: the more teachers are engaged in continuing their own education, the more they engage with one another in meaningful change within their school (DuFour, DuFour & Eaker, 2006). The \u201cdo-your-own-thing\u201d mentality needs to be replaced by a spirit of collaboration and communication about our most precious commodities, our students and our Lord.<\/p>\n Time: <\/strong>This four-letter word can be friend or foe. We all have the same amount of time; what we do with that time is what determines whether we have enough of it. Formal programs of study, with travel to and from campuses, may pose challenges for some, but with online learning the travel is eliminated, and in most cases classes meet when you\u2019re free. Current models like those from Martin Luther College and Wisconsin Lutheran College offer asynchronous class environments where class is always in session and you\u2019re able to contribute whenever you\u2019re free.<\/p>\n Money:<\/strong> Formal education costs money, but it doesn\u2019t need to be a budget breaker, especially in our technological age. Recently Shoreland Lutheran High School faculty engaged in an MLC webinar series on differentiated instruction. This webinar allowed the faculty to watch a video presentation on their own time, convene with colleagues to discuss their reflections on the video, and finally reflect via a short, individual written assessment. All of this cost $20 per teacher, a small price to pay for incredible, synergized continuing education that will last for many years. For approximately $500, the entire Shoreland faculty engaged in a year\u2019s worth of dialogue that would have cost thousands of dollars if done separately at university or college campuses. Webinars exist in a number of varied settings and are offered by many colleges and educational entities for a minimal cost and, in some cases, no cost at all.<\/p>\n Just ten years ago, the educational world was different. Author Thomas Friedman (2011) humorously quips that in 2003, Google was a number, tweets were the sounds birds made, Facebook was the position our noses were in when we fell asleep in class, the cloud was a place in the sky, and Skype was a typo! Yet these tools are now readily available and inexpensive, allowing us to continue our education without excessive dents in our schedules or pocketbooks.<\/p>\n Is it time we as professionals catch up to meet the demands of our changing learners? Or is it okay to remain satisfied with our antiquated approach to education because \u201cit\u2019s easier for us?\u201d <\/i>The stakes are too high, the need is too great, and the future of our kids is too important for us to sit on the sidelines and wait for the next person to pick up our slack. Our role as leaders demands that we create a plan to continue our learning. And the best part is that it\u2019s never been easier and more affordable to do than right now.<\/p>\n Written by Jason H. Lowrey, PhD. Jason is the Dean of Academics at Shoreland Lutheran High School, Somers WI.<\/em><\/p>\n DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. <\/i>Bloomington, IN: Learning Tree Press.<\/p>\n Friedman, Thomas L. & Mandelbaum, Michael (2011). That used to be us: How America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back. <\/i>New York: D&M Publishers Inc.<\/p>\n Rice, Jennifer (2003). Understanding the Effectiveness of Teacher Attributes.\u00a0 Retrieved<\/p>\n On March 23, 2013 from<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.epinet.org\/printer.cfm?id=1500&content_type1&nice_name-books_teacher…<\/span><\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>